[lukemc]

Hi Guys

Can anyone recommend a place that sells the sill panel covers in either checker plate or powder coated checker plate?

Ive scoured ebay, can't find any, ive found a few places in the states that sell them for around $90 but im guessing due to weight they will be costly to post out here.

Cheers

[Rhino]

I went to a scrap metal yard and bought a large peice of checker plate for $10
Marked out the size i wanted then took it too a metal fab place and they cut it with a guillotine for me.
Cheap and relitively easy.

[SierraDan]

You just get some checkerplate and cut it out.
But there is a guy who sells them on ebay every now and then.

[neofitou]

Not that there's anything wrong with that..

[Rhino]

There's always one......

[alien]

make that two...

checkplate sills make baby jesus cry.

[lukemc]

hahahahaha loving that picture!

yeah look i agree, they arent my first choice, and where the sills not a bit dented/rusted etc i wouldn't bother, but i have taken the sill guards off, got rid of the mounting bits for the old covers and have rust converted the surface rust for what its worth and i just want to cover it up without paying a panel beater to cut the damage out and weld in new metal, paint it etc.

I dont have the skill to do it myself, and at present id rather just cover it till i can afford to pay for it to be done!

Thanks for the advice, ill find a scrap metal yard and do that

[alien]

just use flat plate rather than checker... even get aluminium and paint that - just dont get checkerplate!

[lukemc]

yeah i may just do that! thanks for the advice guys

[worldo]

defenatly go the flat bar over checker plate. but if you do go checkerplate get the black one it looks heaps better

[joel]

i love checker plate.
im not on this anti checker plate bandwagon i see here.
it looks good in moderation, if done wrong it looks cheap and tacky.

[alien]

...but why would you want a part of your car that needs to slide over things to have any sort of grip on it? lol

[joel]

alien wrote:

...but why would you want a part of your car that needs to slide over things to have any sort of grip on it? lol

well lets put our common sense hats on,
who would use a piece of cheap 3mm checker plate and hope it will hold up sliding over anything?
and if he is just chucking it over his old rust collectors, he will have to be on a pretty funny angle for the checker plate to be "gripping" to the rock,log etc
not to mention the seam of the sill will still be hanging out and exposed.

[Rhino]

alien wrote:

...but why would you want a part of your car that needs to slide over things to have any sort of grip on it? lol

How often do you slide over things on the side of your sills?

I run checker plate on one of my sills because its rusted out and dented.
I wasnt a big fan of the look of it but it does the job and is cheap and easy to work with.

[alien]

i've actually rubbed on the factory plastic bits on the sills a few times driving between boulders etc... i rarely hit the bottom of my sills.

[joel]

alien wrote:

i've actually rubbed on the factory plastic bits on the sills a few times driving between boulders etc... i rarely hit the bottom of my sills.

checker plate wont 'grip' that much to effect that scenario, if it was that grippy, i would bend some around my wheels.








































































CHECKER PLATE FOR THE WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[shandy92]

alien wrote:

i've actually rubbed on the factory plastic bits on the sills a few times driving between boulders etc... i rarely hit the bottom of my sills.

x2, im always sliding into rocks, only when i really feel like it will i land on it. i guess it depends on how im feeling on the day

[Gwagensteve]

I can speak from experience that checkerplate DOES grab rocks rather than slide, quite apart from looking stupid.

Checkerplate is designed as a non-slip surface for stairs, decks etc. It's retarded to use it unless it's being used as a floor or on a guard (like a defender) where the guard is stood on for roof access.

Its correct name is "tread plate"

As for material, aluminium is a bad choice because it galls or gouges when you land on it adding to the "grip" it's exerting on the rock.

Plain, flat steel around 3mm is all that's required. The strength comes from the massive surface area is exerts on the body and the return bend under the body seam.

If it's just a cosmetic cover up for some rust, I still don't know why you'd use tread plate. it draws attention to the "repair"

Steve.

[monley]

The only time 'tread plate' should come any where near your sills is on top of a slider IMO. Like so!!!

[Gwagensteve]

Exactly, that's an appropriate use of tread plate, and appropriate use of aluminium.

Steve.

[joel]

im going to wrap every panel with it.

[monley]

joel wrote:

im going to wrap every panel with it.

[barney7779]

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/suzuki-sierr ... 35b48ea3ec

[steve125]

3mm piece of flat steel bent to 90 degrees (100mm angle is 6mm and too heavy).

[Gwagensteve]

steve125 wrote:

3mm piece of flat steel bent to 90 degrees (100mm angle is 6mm and too heavy).

^^^this FTW

Steve

[Highway-Star]

Yeah pass on the checkerplate for this application....

My solution is a bit more drastic, but it works. Hack out the sill and replace it with RHS . It's a slider, its a rust repair, and its a slight gain in sill clearance. Can be made to look close to standard too if you want it to.

[lukemc]

Thanks Barney miser it by 10 minutes!

Highway stay I'd like to, but don't have the skills!

[SSSIERA]

marsking tape, bog, black or sliver spray paint and an angle grinder. cheep easy. removes the cancer. low profile. super non grippy. looks good. and no friging around wish bloody aluminium.

[Gwagensteve]

Whilst this thread has clearly moved away from a cosmetic fix up and into the realm of sill strengthening, I'll throw this in here:





This car had rusty sills, so we cut them out, welded some 3mm flat bar into the bottom of the opening, and built sliders that sit where the old sill sat.

The end result is more clearance than a stock sill and more protection than a reinforced stock sill.

If I did it again, I'd use square tube on the down bars so it was easier to plate them for the boatside look.

This disadvantage is the car looks like it's running more than 2" of BL because you get to see a lot more of the chassis/transfer etc - in effect the car looks taller.

I actually did the same mod to my Gwagen many years ago due to rust and damage to the sills. I gained over 100mm of sill clearance when I did it to the G

Steve.