Sill panel joint gap on Dino 246 L series

Are you sure the early L-series had the same sill panel seams as the 206, since it has the steel body?
I've only seen the vertical seam under the doors on these, see the brown L-series in the compendium.
I have a drawing, photos and dimensions of that configuration if you need them. We reconstructed mine...
regards, Andrew

 

Hello Peter,

What is your chassis number? My 246GT (#00714) L-serie has no gap at all front or aft!

Regards,

Raymond

 

No. I bought the car new in march 1970 and it is still home!

 

L-series have two slightly different bodies. The change was approx. at #00800.
The main difference is the hole for the jack. Early L-series have it on the sill edge, late ones just below the edge.
As far as I know no L-series had a seam in the front of the sill, like the 206 GT`s.
Late L-series had just a vertical seam correctly discribed by Andrew. (like see picture of my GTS #06830 before restoration)
Raymonds #00714 is still in untouched original condition. If he has no seam at all, that should be correct for early L-series.
Raymond, maybe you can take a picture of your sill and post it here.
Regards Matthias
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Hi Peter, Mathias,

2 pictures...on the second one you can see the jack hole.

Rgds,

Raymond
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great, thanks Raymond

 

Hi Peter. Here are 2 pictures of 00636, and as far as I know this is correct for this car.
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I looked through a pile of old photos and many L-series seem to have the seam filled in, if it existed at all. Bear in mind, the lapped joint is still be there on all L-series and the factory may have filled in the seam with lead on earlier cars which may have cracked the paint as the sheet metal flexed. A guess but it may explain the inconsistency.

Usually the lower portion of the sill panel just below the door edge is replaced during restoration so the door opening is intact. Sometimes they fold up the whole section over the door jamb, depends on the shop and how bad it was.
So you might be able to find evidence of the seam where the overlap between the front and rear sill panel sections meet, just where the curve at the rear of the door just flattens out. Might need to dig around the filler.

There's a lap joint where the front sill section overlaps the rear 1/4 panel.
The location is approx. 90cm to the front sill edge and 65cm to the rear sill edge, but best to locate it right where the rear door curve flattens out if totally reconstructing it.
regards, Andrew

 

If you look in the 206 body manual, the rear 1/4 panel and sill panel to the front gap noted earlier is 1 piece (aluminum).
The M-series body manual shows the steel rear 1/4 panel ending at the seam we're discussing and the front sill panel as a separate piece. (ok there is no L-series body manual but the steel body construction is similar to the M-series whereas the chassis has minor changes from the 206...)

So I don't believe early L-series had a different body construction in this regard than later L-series, just the seam might have been leaded over.
Hope that clarifies my previous post a little more.

 

On 1104, there was lead in the seam, as that was practically all that was left, the sill(s) had practically been completely eaten away by the rust. We decided to skip the lead and did not apply the seam.

Regards, Alberto

 

Is the gap from the jack hole centre to the sill seam on M series (Feb 71) similar to early E (Aug 71)?
195mm on the GT I measured.
Many thanks for help.

 

Hi Vince,
I checked my early E-series and it's spot on 195mm both sides as you describe.
Regards and to the old home town (nth Adl),
Andrew

 

Thanks Andrew. PM me if you're ever down here.
Anyone measured M series gap? Cheers, Vince