by droopsnoot » Wed May 22, 2013 9:56 am
It does sound a lot - I'd guess it's priced as either "we don't want to do the job, but we will if you pay this much", or "we'll have to make most of the repair sections, so it's dear" - I'd like to think the latter. Keep in mind a lot of sills you can get are cover sills, thinner than the original and make the assumption that some of the original is still there.
If they've worked on old cars before, they may also be factoring in that the edges of the inner sills might be gone where they meet the outers, and if doing the inners as well, they might have to re-make the edge of the floors and bottom of pillars to suit. Add in removing trim, carpets and so on and putting it back afterwards.
None of it's particularly difficult, but time adds up. At that price (3 days for £1200) it sounds like they're charging £50/hour, you might be able to find someone with a lower hourly rate. A patched repair is perfectly acceptable as long as it's done properly, and can be done so neatly it's impossible to see it once you've had the retest - but leave the repairs visible until then. If they go over the whole outer sill with a grinder-mounted wire brush, that should point out anywhere the sill is thin (by converting it to a hole) so anything else is good enough to leave alone as long as it's rust-proofed.