Repair panel choices

[Jon_Morris]

Hi new to the forum, so please bear with me. I've just taken ownership of 58, 1000 4 door. The whole underside seems pretty gone. I've never had any experience with Morris's. I know with VW's the panel quality varies majorly between. I guess what i'm asking is, is there major differences in quality and fit, on panels available. Thanks.

[deano69]

In a word yes.There are good reviews of BullMotif panels though.Im sure you'll hear from others on the forum as to where to get good quality panels.

[Fingolfin]

The three really preeminent Morris Minor parts suppliers are Bull Motif (BM), East Sussex Minors (ESM), and JLH, which apparently has no proper name. Of those, the first two deal in panels -- JLH mostly does mechanical modifications and the like, and of very high quality, I hear.

I've fitted new wings on the left side of my Mog, and they fit wellish -- bought from BM, and bought by them from Heritage. (Still had the Heritage stickers.) The rear wing fit perfectly, except I had to modify it to take my earlier-type rear lights. The front wing had to be modified for the same reason, but it's maybe an inch too narrow at the front (keeping it from touching the bumper), and comes with this great seam down the middle of the frontisplate that has to be Bondo'd. Also missing the hole for a wing mirror, but not everyone uses those. Other than that, fine quality -- nice thick steel and certainly weldable, paintable, whatever-you-likeable.

I'll be bringing over some floor panels (among others) from ESM next. I'll keep you advised about their quality.

[bmcecosse]

The seam in the front of the wing is part of the design/character - it should not be 'Bondo'd' ???

[Fingolfin]

Hmm. Surely there's a misconception, but I'm unsure how to describe it better, and I have no photos....

On the front face, with the headlamp and sidelamp apertures, there's a large exposed rough seam running close-to-vertically. I've never seen any such seam on any wings in any of the Minor photos I've collected, so I decided the seam should be smoothed to match normal wings -- if anything, my other wing had no such seam, and it would have looked awful to have it on one side and not the other. I s'pose if you like a big seam running down your wings, leave it, but I sure thought it looked bad...

[IaininTenbury]

On original wings, the front part of the wing (that the side light fits into) is fitted on top of the curved main part of the wing, so the seam isn't visible. New ones for whatever reason are done the other way so you see the edge of the join where it has been spot welded.
As you say its a simple enough matter to fill the joint for a smooth finish before painting. I suspect bmc was reffering to the short horizontal join between headlamp and bonnet which are normally always visible to a certain extent.
Wing mirrors werer never fitted as standard and were always a dealer fit, or aftermarket choice, so theres no standard hole in the front wings. Personally I prefer them without as they interupt the lines of the car, but thats just my (minority) view point!