Hi need to get the sills repaired on my Niva (yes its a lada!!!!).









How much would an average quote be for the repair (in your opinion). Ill be getting the repair done at the MOT but im just trying to see what people think the price will be.

Cheers

I have a guy locally who still charges 1960s prices for stuff like that.

I do appreciate that he is from a dying breed right enough. To cut off an old outer sill and weld a new one on would be about 30-50 quid off him.

You will be lucky to get this done by an MOT place! most body shops will laugh you out the door, I would say about 6 hours work as a min plus paint shop time so a good few hundred!

Caber

I use to charge £50 for a full sill repair (inner and outer), most garages are not able to do good repairs and most of my work was ripping out their efforts and doing it properly. These days there is little call for such repairs as the cars just don’t rust the same now.

2 sills on my old e reg integra a few years back was about £500... and the welding was shite

Bet they weren’t as bad as the current beetle I'm restoring, sills held together with black mastic, seriously. Ripped both sills of with my bare hands aarrrh I must be strong I never seen repairs like this on a car, ever! Just huge lumps of black rusty stuff everywhere. No less than 60% of the shell has had to be replaced, what a death trap

sorry but I have worked on Nivas before.........and that looks ouch!!

I wouldn't want the work for less than £200-£250, and I can't imagine many garages doing either.

Sorry to be negative but its never the bits you can see that are the problem, its just that rot is always an iceberg jobbie and that's why I have stopped welding cars for others. As Mr Whippy said, most garages do a shite job of bodging, and those that don't are called restorers and charge by the hour, and take their time over it, but do it right.

Nivas are cheap though and the rot varies dramatically from shell to shell

[Edited on 29/12/07 by NS Dev]

Yeah the rust is fairly localized fortunately. ive had a good going over on the other parts of the chassis.

I think this is time for me to invest in a good MIG. rather that and spend some time over it and have a welder at the end of it.

now to choose what i want.....