VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Door Sill Plate Installation

I'm wanting to put in the door sill plates ( Door sill plates) but need a little information about how they trim out around the body pillars. Do they get coped out to fit around the pillar or just stop at the point where the pillar starts to curve up? Does the flat part that is on the inside of the car get nailed or screwed in? I have a memory that there were little tacks on the inside of the rocker sill but they could be from anything. If anyone has photos, that would help a lot.

Brian

If you have a 38,I'd be interested in this information also.I was going to use RTV Silcone.

I have the same project comming up but have been unable to find sills for 37/38. Everyone seams to be out of stock. My old ones were held down with small screws. I think they were just square cut on the ends but will take a look next time I'm in the shop.

My nails could have been screws that were rusted to the shape of nails. Some of the supply places sell screws for installing the sill plates, which is what prompted that question, but the holes had a depression that would indicate force was used to drive the point through the floor metal. Not that the depression precludes screws.

I think there does have to be something under the sill plate, as it covers the sill bead, but I think that it needs to be a more ridged material than silicone. If you put silicone under the bead and step on the bead it won’t resist the movement enough to prevent bending the sill plate. I was thinking about some of the tar paper insulation material, but that may be too thick up near the areas where the bead thickens at the body pillars.

I’ll cut a 5 inch piece off the end of a sill plate and use that as a gauge to determine how much space is between the rocker bead and the sill bead. If it is thin enough the silicone may be all you need to fill in the gap.

Did you try at American Antiques, the link above?

Regards,
Brian

I am very interested in the door sills also. If you can please post pictures

Thanks

Here are my sample fitup picks.





From this it looks like the plates are formed at a greater radius than the sill of the car. This would imply that there is supposed to be something under the sill plate to fill in the gap. In the photo with the edge resting on the waffle pattern material in the car, I think that is too thick and raises the sill plate up too high. On the one with the plate resting direcly on the inside metal of the car the plate is too low and the outside edge and underside of plate hits the rocker panel. It would appear that a 1/8 inch thick material would make this thing fit well. All right, lets hear what you think. We need to come up with a solution.

Brian

The floor mat would make a difference? I have a NOS mat that is shaped like the sill plate at the edges when looking at it from the side profile. The repop mat I have is pretty much just flat rubber, though it is just shy of 1/8" thickness at the edges so might fill up that gap in your photos.

Can anyone post any pictures of some OEM ones actually installed?

That would imply that the sill plate would go on top of the floor mat with the floor mat running over the sill. If the sill plate is screwed/nailed down, you couldn't lift the mat.

Your point about repops is interesting, this thing could just be badly formed. It is aluminum and does bend but I don't have any equipment to tighten the radius to match the sill. If I did it by hand it would end up looking like some sort of Frankenstein sill plate.

I'll cut some of the tar paper stuff and see how it fits.

Brian

Note that the 1937-1940 Master did not have a sill plate.
All sill plates were retained by screws.

With your email address I can send you a picture.

Here is Gene's picture. Doesn't show how it is mounted but does show that the sill plate is radiused to match the pillars. I enlarged the pillar shoot and placed as inset.



Brian

Thanks for the details guys.

My floor has very nice and clean mounting holes but they are very small. I took a close look and they don't look like a screw has ever been in them. On the Master that came without sill plates, was the sill area just painted the exterior color?

I'd still like to see an actual photo of some of these installed in a car.

Tim, on my coupe the sill is/was body color.

The welting and door cover on the door are secured with tiny nails that have and twisted fluted surface on the shank. They are difficult to remove. I wonder if this is how the plate was secured?

The screws tht retain the sill plate are "in-board" and are covered by the floor mat and carpet.

I agree with Gene about mounting the plates, screws and directly to the metal, however my originals don't look anything like the photos he sent, I think they are artist drawings or something. Mine fit much better than your repos but are junk so I will probably have to figure out how to fit them also when I find some. Mine are slightly longer on the inside maybe a 20 deg. cut on the ends. Also yours look much thicker than original, could be just the photo.

I found time today to take a peek at the sill plates on my 1939 2 door. They do not flare up at the ends but are cut off square at the point where the sill curves up.
The parts books lists the sill plates for 1937 only. The 1938 and the 1939 have the same part number....may be just due to the painted design.
Page 38 of the 1938 Engineering shows the new metal battery cover. There you again can see the flared-up ends of the sill plate like shown in my picture...note the flared ends are not painted, ?????

What is the part number for the sill plate, I've looked all over and can't find it. Yes, they are definitely curved in the Engineering photos and those look like photos. The sill plate looks almost square, but that could be lighting. The painting on the plate stops near the ends in the other photo also. I may have to abandon putting any sort of arch, which would require making a form which could be a little time consuming.

Brian

The 1938-1939 4 door fronts were 4082061 and 062. The reas were 4082067 and 4085580.

Here is a shot of the plate on a well worn 37 that was at Carlisle last week. sill plate You can see a couple of screws in the plate.

From what I can see that is a 1938 seat............

Well I did a lot of shopping in three days so being that busy I probably remembered the year wrong!