Aluminium Door Sills repair

[DanielC]

I had five pair of these aluminium door sills for my 521 trucks, and all of then had some bends and kinks in them.   In this picture, I had already straightened some of them, figuring out how to straighten them.

On each of the flat areas on the ends of the sills, there are countersink dimples.  You do not want to flatten the dimples.  I drilled holes in this board to match the dimples.

 

I also cut this notch to reform this corner detail.

 

I used this piece of plastic between the door sill, and the board as a pad to gently hit with a wide face body hammer.  Notice the hole in the plastic to avoid flattening the dimple.

 

This is another piece of plastic that I sanded the edge round to work the "U" channel in the door sill.

 

After flattening the flat areas on the door sill, I put the door sill on the rounded plastic edge to straighten the "U" channel of the door sill.  You can push down on the door sill, holding the "U" channel on the rounded plastic, to remove a bend that goes up on the door sill.

 

This door sill had this kink in it.

 

I used these duckbill pliers to straighten the kink.

 

I clamped the duckbill pliers on the kinked area, at the bottom of the "U", and then clamped the kink again closer to the top on the groove a few times to work the kink out.

 

This is after the kink was removed with the duckbill pliers.

 

Here I am trying to fit a bent door sill into a groove in a 2x6 tongue and groove board.

 

In this picture, I am just sighting down the door sill to see where the gentle bends in the sill are.  The bends I just removed by holding the door sill in both hands, one hand on each side of the bend, and just gently bending the sill in the opposite direction .  You cannot concentrate too much force in one area, spread the bending you are doing over the whole bend.  If the bending puts a kink in the "U" channel again, remove the kink, and then try to bend the channel some more.

 

When the door sill is close to straight, it can be worked some more by putting the "U" channel in the groove of a 2x6 tongue and groove board.  You can also position the "U" channel on the end of the 2x6 to remove a bend that goes down, on the door sill, by holding the door sill in the groove, similar to removing the bend on the rounded edge of plastic above.

 

I also used this narrow cross peen hammer to gently work the bottom of the "U" channel.  If you do not have a cross peen hammer, sanding a round on the edge of a narrow piece of wood would also work.

 

This is a wider cross peen hammer, this hammer works the edges of the "U" channel a little better.  Again, a piece of wood can be cut and sanded to work for this.

 

This picture is after working the "U" channel.

 

The door sills above the rubber sanding block have been straightened, the one just above the block is the one I was working the "U" channel in the above pioctures.

 

This is that same door sill piece on edge, leaning against the rubber sanding block.

 

I used the same techniques to straighten the rest of the door sills.

 

This is one of the door sills back on the door weather strip on one of my 521 trucks.

Edited August 30, 2018 by DanielC

[DanielC]

This is just a post to make this door sill repair pop up again now that I have added explanation.

[Draker]

the door sills on my 1200 are HAMMERED. I thought about trying to straightened them a bit.. but I dunno. They are pretty bad. Like 300k miles of in and out type wear. I guess I have nothing to lose except time.

 

Nice work!

[DanielC]

Go ahead and work on them.  Just remember the aluminium is really soft and moves easily.  The aluminium also has a lot less spring back than steel.  Try not to over work them, aluminium work hardens, and then cracks.  Hammer gently, and use a block of wood, or plastic to protect the aluminium.