Rusty sills - worth buying?

[janil21800]

Hello everyone.

I've got a used car I'm looking into buying, but there's is some rust on the sills. Now, I'm not that much of a car guy, so I don't know how bad this rust is, or rather what kind of repairs would be needed. Can someone look at the pictures and give me some advice on what we're looking at there; could some sanding + repainting fix this, or would I need to get new steel welded on?

I asked the seller to give me some photos so I can ask around how serious this is.

Here are the photos:

https://imgur.com/a/M3817Q2

Like I said, I'm not really a car buy, so the more information you can give me the better. Should I avoid this car or is this a relatively easy/cheap fix?

 

[Burnerman]

Just looking at your last pic, that sill is hiding some real horrors.......I’d avoid, personally.
All repairs in this area have to be seam welded, which is quite a project!
John

 

[Avocet]

All depends on price. You don't say what make and model it is, or what the asking price is. Certainly from the pics, it looks like it needs at least one outer sill, possibly both. Go to a few bodyshops and ask for a rough price for outer sills on a (whatever it is). Then see if the price the seller is asking, is more or less than the cost of a similar model in better condition, by the amount that the sills would cost to replace.

Personally, as Burnerman says, rust tends to be worse than it first looks, once you start trying to find it. Unless that's an absolute bargain, I'd walk away.

 

[Belle427]

It would be a no from me, looks like it sees a lot of salt where you are.

 

[carmanmemoranda]

Walk away.

Unless you know a bit about welding and cars don't even consider it.

 

[janil21800]

Thanks every for your replies!

 

[Mottie]

If that was on a programme called buy, weld, avoid, you'd avoid it!

 

[cdbe]

Young people these days don't know how lucky they are - probably couldn't identify a sill on a car if you paid them. It's amazing when you think about it, at the time we were sending men to the moon we couldn't produce a bit of metal box section that would last longer than 5 or 10 years.

I think I'm with the conspiracy nuts a bit here - the car industry fixed the corrosion issue, but only when it had thought up plenty of other ways to ensure cars would continue to be disposable. At least we just have expensive faults these days rather than cars literally snapping in half. I still vividly remember as a child the back of our ford cortina estate (with a valid MOT) collapsing while mum drove us home from school, the leaf springs had parted company with the rest of the car. Still, we should have kept it, it'd have been worth £50 grand today.

 

[norseman]

Young people these days don't know how lucky they are - probably couldn't identify a sill on a car if you paid them.

A bit like the guy at the motor factors who answered the 'phone when my local garage called to order an ignition coil for my 36 yo classic.
The response was (quote) 'what's a coil?'

 

[carmanmemoranda]

A bit like the guy at the motor factors who answered the 'phone when my local garage called to order an ignition coil for my 36 yo classic.
The response was (quote) 'what's a coil?'

Try asking for a sealed beam unit .

 

[ReganAndCarter]

Who sells a car that looks like it's just taken part in the Paris Dakar rally??