BobbyB

Hi Steve - Welcome to the club. Sorry I didn't see this earlier but I've not been on the board as much since I've been in WA - But I felt your pain, literally. Some weeks before our meet & drive, I tried the DIY install of my SS door sills. To call it a PITA is an understatement. The one thing I didn't notice in your post was the amount of sweat you generate. Anyways after about an 1-1/2 hour of scraping and using the 3M product I finally got one door sill clean. I was so tired and sore, that I refused to go thru this again. I had decided to take it to an installer and let them apply the passenger side.

Then I got my second wind, and like another poster said, you don't have to remove the rubber insert, so I didn't. Then I just peeled away the rubber sill and I thought, why not just install the new sill over the old adhesive? The more I thought of it, the more viable this option became. I called a friend of mine who works at a dealer and asked what do they do. Answer, we take up the old sill, clean off the the area where we are going to apply the new sill, put a little adhesive on, and BAM-new sill installed.

You guessed it, I left the old adhesive in place, cleaned it with the 3M adhesive remover, put a little of the adhesive glue in the area, (the stuff the DIY says to buy) then put the new sill right on top of the old adhesive. It went on in an instant, and so far has stuck like glue. In fact I can not tell the difference between the two installation methods. How much time does it take to install the sill this way? 5 min and no sweating, cursing, going to get something to drink or thinking what did I get myself into.

2 things: Do not put too much glue as it spreads when you apply pressure and make sure you line up the new sill before you let it touch the glue and adhesive.

Good luck!!!

Steve 96C4S

Hi BobbyB - Good to hear from you. Interesting post... I can't believe I could have done it your way. What a shame that I wasted all that time and aggravation doing it the hard way.

Question: Did you fully remove the door seal on the bottom to be able to slip the new door sill under it? Or did you simply pry it up with your fingers or some other method and just slip it in without fully removing it? I think I'm going to try Mike Cap's method of using duct tape to pull up the door sill for this install, rather than remove it and then have to reglue it.

Hope to see you for the Feb 29th "Leap Year Meet and Drive"! Location yet to be determined.... Mark from Baltimore is organizing this one.

Steve

BobbyB

Hi Steve, I didn't remove the rubber door seal at all. No need I just sliped my SS sill right in place. After I installed the 2nd sill, I couldn't believe how easy it was and after all the sweat!!! Then I thought, no way can this work, someone would have already tried this so there must be some good reason that no one has ever posted an install doing it this way. I thought of posting what I call the simplified version but I wanted to see if it would hold. So far so good. After about 6 months, if I still have no problems, I will post this as the DIY for the lazy man.

There is one catch that I can think of, if you decide to change door sills. There will be basically two sets of adhesive to deal with. I don't know what pains you would have to go thru to put on another set.

Keep us informed of the out come.

I will be in town the weekend of the 29th so I plan to be there. I hope to see your sills on and hear how easy they were to put on.

Steve 96C4S

I'm relieved to hear your lazy man's DIY story. I've gotten MOST of the white adhesive off, except near the door hinge, so I am now just DONE with that part!!! It's good enough, ya know?

I'll put on the sills in the next couple of days when I get the mindset to deal with the next inevitable problem I'll face in this task (like, I don't get it lined up just right on the sill and it sticks crooked! That's my biggest fear).

Look forward to seeing you Bobby at the Leap Year Day Drive. Hope it doesn't snow!

Steve

swftiii

Bobby B,

Thanks for the post on your experience with not removing all the adhesive and just installing the new ones. I just did mine in the last 45 minutes and it is quite easy (Sorry your experience has been so tough Steve).

I ripped off the old sills, put a little 3M Adhesive between the original double sided mounting strips, pulled back the protective cover on the top of the new sills, removed the adhesive strip covers from the new sills, slid them in place at an angle, and then when aligned dropped them in place. They aren't going anywhere and are stuck very well. The door still closes correctly and everything .

Here are a couple pictures and I think they look great. All PCars should have come with these.





-Skip

FlyYellow

well i did one side today. it wasn't too bad (i hate to say that but i thought i'd share my experience)

I think it was in the equipment.

I used:

- a milk carton (to sit on).
- marine grade putty knife (2)
- 3M adhesive remover

I followed Kim's advice and it took me 1 hr to do one side. I'm taking a brake to post my experience. My only problem now is I'm not sure I like the sills i got. seeing all these others now makes me like some of the others more. so i have a dilemma....

boris

Steve 96C4S

Skip - you rat ba$tard... you cheater! I can't believe you didn't sweat, toil, curse, scream, go into you house in a huff swearing not to finish then coming out an hour later ready to scrape away some more at the old tape adhesive... You get my drift! Where were you and Bobby when I needed you, BEFORE I spent hours on this stupid project!

I hope to slap those puppies on there soon. The big question: How much did you physically have to lift up that weatherstrip to get the sill edge under it? One guy said he had to put duct tape on it to lift it up in 6 inch strips - that sounds like a pain!

Steve

FlyYellow

Steve,

Skip didn't cheat...

Skip,

that was just simply half ***. let me put it this way. if you asked your mechanic to install them and they took your approach wouldn't you think that it was substandard work?

just my 2 cents.

Cheers,
Boris

BobbyB

Steve: You know you always get the Monday morning quarterbacks. My Sills sliped right in when installed at an angle. I let the sill slide under the door seal.

Skip - Looks good, glad you could save a little time and energy.

Boris, half ***? This isn't exactly rocket science. I would only think it was substandard if my local Porsche dealer told me excaexactlyt they were going to do to install my sills and then didn't do it. When I had my carbon fiber sill installed on my Boxster I didn't ask what they did. I didn't ask until I struggled with installing the SS on 993. Once they confirmed to me how they did it, and gave me a 2 yr warranty on labor, I figured if it works and they can give a 2 yr warranty, I can try it. As I said, so far so good. In fact with the additional adhesive I figure there will be an even stronger bond.

Patentman

Not to beat this topic to death, but I put my SS Carrera sills on this weekend as well. Steve, you'll cringe when you hear this - it took me 20 minutes, and I REMOVED THE ADHESIVE.

I used a razor blade at a very small angle, almost flat, to the car door sill. The car was cold (30-35 degrees in my garage) and the glue was not too sticky on the blade. I had the blade in one of those scraper type retracable razor blade holders (not a box cutter). It only scuffed the painted area, no reall paint damage, and the blade left a very thin layer of adhesive in place. I did not bother with adhesive remover, figuring the thin layer remaining was already bonded well to the car, and the new adhesive woudl stick well to this thin overcoat layer. After experimenting with differnent angles of incedence to the car sill, and different angular pitches of the blade edge with respect to the path of blade travel, I was able to remove an entire adhesive strip in one piece.

The new ones fit right in place. I did a dry fit after adhesive removal to see if I could puch the new sill in under the weatherstripping. No prblem, there appear to be no need to tape back or withhold the weatherstripping in any way. When you insert the new sill with the adhesive tape exposed, be sure to align the rear edge with the recess in the car sill, and be sure to hold the new sill at an angle that does not let the new adhsive touch the car sill until the new sill is pushed all they way under the weatherstripping.

In a few spots, the blade scratched into the paint and clear coat. I used clear nailpolish to cover these areas before sticking the new seal in place (to avoide further corrosion there). I did not mind the scuffs, they are on places totally under the new sill the the eye will never see and did not expose any metal.

I tried to upload pictures, but I just joined a week or so ago and my number does not appear to be active yet.

swftiii

Steve - I didn't use tape or anything to lift the weatherstripping. I just laid the inside edge of the sill in place and held the outside about 1/2" or so off the door sill and slid the sill back and forth and pushed in until everything lined up. Then as I drop the outside edge of the sill continued to push in so the edge of the sill is in the right location.

Boris -
What's substandard or half-assed about it. I didn't know that the approved standard for installation is to remove the previous strips?

Also, who is to say a mechanic wouldn't tell you he will remove the old strips, install the new sills in 30 minutes (like me), and charge you for the removal of the adhesive strips. You as the customer will like the look of the sills and cannot see below them to tell how they were installed (unless you are Superman).

All in fun,

-Skip

swftiii

Kim,

Yup, 2 layers of adhesive tape on the back, but it fits quite nicely and everything. I don't think it sits up too high or I would have changed it.

-Skip

24FPS

damn. steve thank you for being the catalyst for a new lazy-man's diy. your pain is our gain.

thank you for this thread!
steve- may the sills go on "like butta'"

cheers!

FlyYellow

Skip,

I guess I'm just too much of a purist. I want it the way it came from the factory and I doubt the factory would put on a second adhesive. So from a personal perspective it is like taking a shower and not changing you underwear (I had to say it).

However, I'll reserve my opinion in this case to just my preference. I'm sure that your way will work fine (assuming that the extra height doesn't interfere with anything).

Cheers,
Boris

Steve 96C4S

You guys are a trip! This has been interesting for me. With all the personalities on this board, I'm surprised what good manners (for the most part) we all have. Sometimes are opinions are strong, yet we rarely cross the line. Well done.

Back to topic... OK - I think I'm ready to put my sills on the car. Every last drop drop of adhesive isn't removed from the sills, but it mostly is. I've been dreaded this moment, thinking I'll screw it up and have one sill crooked as the tape sticks to the sill in a non-perfect line-up of sill plate and door sill. I'm definitely not removing that weatherstripping and I'm not going to duct tape it back, but just try to do it like Patentman and Skip have done.

Wish me luck... I'm close to the finish line.

'1 Hour later...'

"Houston - The Eagle Has Landed". I did it - YEAHHHH! I am grinning from ear to ear. I went down stairs, got those C4S sills out of their plastic sheaths, went into the frigid garage, put them in place to see how they'd fit, realized this has the potential to be a piece of cake finish, and proceeded to take the protective plastic film off the sills and guide them into place under the weatherstripping at that perfect angle. Then I obsessed a bit as to weather they were truly fitted correctly, whether they were even, and whether I had forgot to do something crucial to getting them "just right". I decided that what I had done so far SEEMED right, so I pressed down on sills pretty hard with my fingers, feeling that adhesive tape stick to the most cleaned sills underneath. It was a good feeling. A damn good feeling. Then I stood back, shocked by what I was looking at. For the first time since I bought my car, my door sills looked startlingly amazing! They were the sills that were mean't to be there, the sills I had lusted after ever seeing them on SLVR97TT's car (his 97 C4S - the one I couldn't afford at the time). I went to the other side of the car and repeated the procedure, with the same amount of trepidation and fear that I'd get it wrong, off, crooked, ill-fitting, etc. I stepped back again and this DIY was OVER folks.

I closed the car door - it seemed to close fine. Pressed down on both sills again just in case the tape wasn't connecting with the sills just right. Then I had to open and close the door... like, 3 times. Every time I saw that C4S sill appear in view instead of my old generic black plasic sill, I KNEW this DIY was worth all the work. They look great in place of the old ones. It's the little things in life, you know? Against the Polar Silver exterior, these sills really make the "getting into the car experience" alot more dramatic. Thanks to all of you, and mostly thanks to the gent that sold them to me at a VERY fair price of $299. I'm done. No pics due to no digital camera. I'm still working on that one. It was either a new digital camera or the C4S sills.


Steve