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Crushed Sills On R32 Gtr

Scooby

By Scooby,
in General Maintenance

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Scooby Veteran

Scooby

Posted
Posted (edited)

Guys;

most of us are aware of the crushed sill (not chassis rail) syndrome afflicting R32 GTRs - and maybe other models. I'm talking about the flattening of the spot welded vertical seam forward of the front jacking point, behind the front wheel arch. hope that makes sense.

usually happens when the thing gets jacked, or lifted on a 2 post hoist, and just about every 32 GTR I've seen has had this happen.

has anyone come up with a surefire way to fix it? i'm sick of having to tell people not to lift it on the sills - either they do it anyway or I spend the day wondering if they've taken notice.

there's got to be a way of making a permanent professional repair. a search has revealed that others have had the same problem but not if a good repair was carried out.

i haven't seen that section cut open to know if it's even really fixable - seems to have the robustness of an eggshell so maybe a couple of 'no jack' stickers is the best defence - for those that even look before they jack.

any ideas?

regards

Edited by Scooby
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djr81 Grand Master

djr81

Posted
Posted
i just use a shifter to streighten them out

i think they bend in when the car is to low and scrape on the gutter or something???????

To answer these in the wrong order...

Don't use a shifter - if you want to do it this way get yourself a set of wide nosed multigrips. They lock in place making it much less likely you will damage your car or yourself.

The blokes at the pits don't really care about the rocker panels (Technical term), but can get a little worried about bent up chassis rails. They also get a bit concerned with signs of rust in the rails & particlarly if they have been bent & refilled with any sort of body filler.

PHATR32 Grand Master

PHATR32

Posted
Posted

one of my rails is comletly crushed, so i bought a new one from nissan for about $200 and willbe getting it replaced. the rest of the rails are also bent in through the center but nothing major.

when i get them fixed the guy wont cover them in anything so the guys at the pits can see he's done a good job. then ill get them coated.

im real worried they wont let the car pass though :P

cowie165 Veteran

cowie165

Posted
Posted

The outer sill panel is welded to the car at both ends. The panel shop cuts the existing sill out an welds a new one in. I'm pretty sure we're on the same page because you couldn't pull out a chassis rail with multi-grip but could give it a good go on a sill.

When mine was welded in the panel shop was going to cut out a section of the rear panel but ended up fitting a new one. You'd need to paint afterwards to tidy up. If you are just pulling it out rather than replacing, then sure, no paint. My car seems to have had rust cut out of the sill on the driver side. A really dodgy job with a terrible weld job. I'm really pleased we found it and replaced the sill, it looked shocking, I'll see if I can drag out the pics.

I still have the rear quarter glass, it's just taking up space in the garage :P If you're interested Scooby, please shoot over a pm

  • 6 years later...
Waxhead Community Regular

Waxhead

Posted
Posted

Resurrecting an old thread here. I am also suffering from the typical crushed sills from my car being lifted on the sills when on a hoist. I want to get my sills repaired/replaced, but want to stop them from getting damaged again once fixed.

Any ideas?? My mechanic generally only uses the sills on the front of the car, as he lifts the rear of the car using part of the rear suspension (the rear lower arms I think).

Has any one here done anything to strengthen the sills, or do you lift on different points ( other than the sills) when on the hoist??

I see in the R32 GTR manual, they use some sort of rubber block with a cut out for the sill to lift the car from the sills. Has anyone used something similar??

Any assistance/ideas appreciated.

Waxhead Community Regular

Waxhead

Posted
Posted

Anyone??

Resurrecting an old thread here. I am also suffering from the typical crushed sills from my car being lifted on the sills when on a hoist. I want to get my sills repaired/replaced, but want to stop them from getting damaged again once fixed.

Any ideas?? My mechanic generally only uses the sills on the front of the car, as he lifts the rear of the car using part of the rear suspension (the rear lower arms I think).

Has any one here done anything to strengthen the sills, or do you lift on different points ( other than the sills) when on the hoist??

I see in the R32 GTR manual, they use some sort of rubber block with a cut out for the sill to lift the car from the sills. Has anyone used something similar??

Any assistance/ideas appreciated.

Anyone??

Sinista32 Grand Master

Sinista32

Posted
Posted

For me Im thinking to straighten the sill as best i can with the multi grips.

And then cut and remove sufficient space for the Pads on the car hoist.

Obvioulsy cleaning up, rust proofing and painting the area.

To get it back to how it rolled out of the factory then yes will have to buy new sills and replace.

Then tell every shop you go to not to use the sill area to hoist the car up when working on it.

Perhaps you could make the rubber blocks to take with you to the shop?>

Waxhead Community Regular

Waxhead

Posted
Posted

For me Im thinking to straighten the sill as best i can with the multi grips.

And then cut and remove sufficient space for the Pads on the car hoist.

Obvioulsy cleaning up, rust proofing and painting the area.

To get it back to how it rolled out of the factory then yes will have to buy new sills and replace.

Then tell every shop you go to not to use the sill area to hoist the car up when working on it.

Perhaps you could make the rubber blocks to take with you to the shop?>

Thanks Richard. I was also thinking of straightening the sills out, then cutting some out for the hoist pads. Will also rust proof, then paint etc. Just hate the look of my crushed sills and the thought of rust creeping in there. Yes, paranoid I know!! :yes:

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