THE ROVER SD1 FORUM

Chris P · Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 1:19 am Post subject: Sill colour

(moved from another topic)

JayDeeVDP wrote:

Mmmmm, some delicious looking cars there.... Very Happy

Another thing has struck me however is sill colour, some are body colour, some are black (mine is black which I thought was original)

I'm speculating, but were the sills ever factory painted in body colour, every SD1 I've owned ranging from a 2600S, a 3500SE, two Vitesses and two Vanden Plas, all were matt black.

I must say the body coloured sills on the Vitesse cars again give them an even lower appearance, and look very nice indeed, I may do the same, and perhaps fit Vitesse suspension, my SD1 is a bit Range Rover-ish in ride height....

Only later Vitesses had body-colour sills. I think the change came in
UK market model-year 1985, when the large deep-chin front spoiler
replaced the usual series 2 spoiler. It's not just twin-throttle plenum
Vitesses with this set-up.

The deep-chin front spoiler is much deeper, e-hem, than the original,
and if used with black sills looks totally wrong (I know, my bodyshop
sprayed the sills black at one point). The lower sills painted body colour
matches the line of the front deep-chin spoiler, and at the same time
makes the Vitesse look even lower than it really is Twisted Evil

ramon alban · Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 2:11 am Post subject: Re: Sill colour

Chris P wrote:

(The deep-chin front spoiler is much deeper, e-hem, than the original,
and if used with black sills looks totally wrong (I know, my bodyshop
sprayed the sills black at one point).

Hello Chris, same here. In '94 my body shop had the black paint already in the gun when he called me to check. A panic consultation of the 1985 brochure revealed the truth.

As you say, all cars had black sills from the factory except the later Vitesses fitted with deep chin. In reality so many cars have been variously resprayed in the last 20-30 years it is not possible to draw any conclusion from observing repainted examples.

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Ramon

Lehto · Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 10:44 am Post subject:

My car has black sills... Confused

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Owner of 3 Rovers and 1 MG.

chris_derby · Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 7:42 pm Post subject:

I've painted the sills on my Vitesse in black underseal, mainly to protext them from salt & stonechips as it will be my main car, also planning to fit wheelarch spats.
If it looks wrong after the deep chin spoiler is fitted, I maybe overpaint the sills with body colour, watch this space!!

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Auto Vitesse, gonna be a beast!

v8driver · Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 12:56 pm Post subject:

Mine had black sills when I got her,I haven't had time to repaint them yet.Maybe in the new year when it gets a bit warmer(and drier)

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Half Poly bushed 3.5 Twin plenum VITESSE(Waiting patiently for better weather)
Baby Blue D889 MOJ Daily driver

chris_derby · Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 7:42 pm Post subject:

Was maybe not the best picture of my car! Am still thinking about painting over the underseal, is another job to the ever shrinking list though....

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Auto Vitesse, gonna be a beast!

ramon alban · Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 11:01 pm Post subject:

chris_derby wrote:

Was maybe not the best picture of my car! Am still thinking about painting over the underseal, is another job to the ever shrinking list though....

Hi Chris, on both my Vitesse restorations the painter applied a generous layer of stone chip to the sills and the equivalent area behind the rear wheels. When dry it was rubbed down to knock off most of the nibs and body color was added on top.

The end result is not a smooth finish, more like a coarse orange peel, but the sills are pretty well protected.

The first of these applications was in 1994, and when the car was stripped and prepped again in 2004 there was no sign of sill corrosion. Unlike the arches, which had suffered quite a lot.

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Ramon

chris_derby · Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 12:18 am Post subject:

To be honest, I'm not that bothered whether the paint finish on the sills is perfect, as I was going to brush paint over the underseal if I do paint over it at all....

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Auto Vitesse, gonna be a beast!

Chris P · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 1:02 am Post subject:

ramon alban wrote:

The end result is not a smooth finish, more like a coarse orange peel, but the sills are pretty well protected.

Hi Ramon. I have exactly the same finish on my Vitesse. I suspect it's
the finish the cars originally had on the sills.

Lehto · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 9:41 am Post subject:

Ouch... mine are just gloss black (like the rest of it). Does this mean that the sills will be fucked in a short ammount of time? Or do I have to make a set of sideskirts to protect them?

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Owner of 3 Rovers and 1 MG.

JayDeeVDP · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 12:19 pm Post subject: sills

To me I think protection is just as if not more important as appearance, so perhaps I will find a Smoothrite-type paint in as similar colour to my Oporto Red as I can, an whilst I'm down there I will do the wheelarches too...

Or should the wheelarches remain matt black Confused

Then the boot floor.... Rolling Eyes

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Lifelong SD1 fan - 1983 Rover 3500 Vanden Plas

Chris P · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 9:23 pm Post subject: Re: sills

JayDeeVDP wrote:

To me I think protection is just as if not more important as appearance, so perhaps I will find a Smoothrite-type paint in as similar colour to my Oporto Red as I can, an whilst I'm down there I will do the wheelarches too...

Or should the wheelarches remain matt black Confused

Then the boot floor.... Rolling Eyes

Paint technology has moved on since the 1980s, so it's probably not
so important to have stone-chip protection on the sills...?

Wheelarches? Inside? They should be black I think, the PVC underseal
stuff. They don't really notice?

Bootfloor - the underside should be matt/satin black. When my bodyshop
corrected the sill colour, they sprayed the underside of the bootfloor
targa red too. The car looked like one of those monkeys with a purple
bottom Laughing

I just resprayed it black using Hammerite stone-chip
prevention.

JayDeeVDP · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 11:17 pm Post subject: Monkey's bottom

lol about the monkeys with the purple bottom... Very Happy

With the low aggressive front of an SD1, the back of the SD1 has always seemed a bit "bum up in the air" what with seeing the boot floor et al.

Please see my new topic, "rear valance" Laughing

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Lifelong SD1 fan - 1983 Rover 3500 Vanden Plas