Morris Minor Owners Club

Just wanted to ask peoples opinions on fibreglass wings? I have got 2 good rear steels for my saloon but only 1 reasonable metal front wing and a selection fibreglass wings. I am going to have metal on the back and have decided to have fibreglass on the front (for now anyway to keep costs down baby on way). I believe that in the 80s fibreglass wings were a very common fitment, my dad fitted fronts to my car in the early 80s after the origionals began to corrode. I have spoke to people and seem to get mixed opinion, fors and against such as not origional, look rippley when painted but I suppose they dont rust! What would you use to remove old paint from fibreglass or is it best just to rub down? and should you paint the inside so you cant see the colour of the fibreglass? Has anyone got any pics they can post of fibreglass wings they have fitted?

i remeber putting fibre glass wings and bonnet atc on a triumph spitfire in 1969 so they would not rust

if its an every day car then why worry about originality, or even what people think
i have seen vans with fibre glass front wings and are very good

and of course they will not rust or dent, and possibly easier to repair in a mishap

Here you go - 4 wings are fibreglass - fronts are from JLH, rears I've no idea:

Glassfibre has both pros and cons. Pros, do not rust, lightweight, usually well made, reasonably resistant to damage, easy to repair. Cons, need to be prep'd properly for paint and they are what they are ie you cannot tweek the mounting flanges as you can with steel, but if your car is pretty original then the fit should be acceptable. If demand were a guage of liking glassfibre then I'd say it was very popular, as we are continuously needing to re stock.

mine has a pair on the front which the previous owner fitted,and then did a total abortion trying to paint them,rattle can from BM straight on top,no prep,no sanding,and he still managed to miss half the wings,yet get spray on the chrome
Anyway i will be remedying it soon.My opinion is its one less thing to rust,and as they are very exposed from road dirt/salt etc,there a good idea.

All 4 wings plus doors, boot lid, front panel and the painted bit of the bumper are fibreglass on mine (sig below). The front wings have been on for 15+ years and they are still okay. They were actually quite badly made ones and I had to extend the rear edge with fibreglass to get a decent line-up to the doors plus a lot of filling as the finish looked like it was rough-sanded. I also added more fibreglass to the inside to make them stronger. Thing is though, with fibreglass it is possible to build them up to make stronger if you want to do that.

The other thing I would recommend is to stick something to the inner side of the wings so that stray stones do not put craze marks to the surface. I use camping mats cut and glued. Some use underseal.

Didn't know there are FG doors around! Are they much lighter than normal?

There are no glass doors on the market today. Bully have just tried , but there are devilish problems building in strength to the captive hinge section and the fitting of standard door furniture which never really fits well due to the required thickness of the glass fibre.
We have thought of and may well persue a door skin and bottom which simply bonds onto an existing door frame (once cleaned up. This gives the requires strength in steel but the outer skin in glass will be rust free and light. May even build the sills into the door as on Darrens above.

there was indeed a grp door in bull motifs counter when i was there a few weeks ago,the problem(based on my reliant experience)is in the hinge area.Reliants have a 1/4" thick steel plate that runs along the inside of the door where the hinges go with captive nuts welded on,which the hinges then bolt to.so long as the grp is at least the same thickness there is no problem with cracking or the hinges pulling out.Reliant doors complete with glass etc are suprisingly heavy so i know that the grp can take the weight,they are made out of an inner and outer skin with extra bits for rigidity and strength,i have no doubt that a minor one could be made and be successful if properly thought out.

bmcecosse wrote:Didn't know there are FG doors around! Are they much lighter than normal?

They are much lighter, I can lift one (just) with my little finger before the windows and so on are installed. I've no idea how the guy who made them did it as they don't appear to have been made in two halves. I'm sure they were made in two halves then a lot of work was put into hiding the joins. Even on the car with all the bits in place you can still feel the difference when swinging the door.

The downside though is that I've got about as much side-impact protection as a motorbike rider. Plus, as I'll go into below, with no metal strengthening the doors have sagged a bit.

jonathon wrote:There are no glass doors on the market today. Bully have just tried , but there are devilish problems building in strength to the captive hinge section and the fitting of standard door furniture which never really fits well due to the required thickness of the glass fibre.
We have thought of and may well persue a door skin and bottom which simply bonds onto an existing door frame (once cleaned up. This gives the requires strength in steel but the outer skin in glass will be rust free and light. May even build the sills into the door as on Darrens above.

The extra drop of the sills means that the left door can hit the pavement when opened on a strongly cambered road so if you do that, something metal at the bottom can save the fibreglass getting smashed. I know my r/h door sill is a bit of aluminium 'L' section from B&Q glassed and bonded into place. I think the l/h door is the same, Jonathon finished that one for me.

I went for glass as the first 2 r/h doors I had on my car rotted at the bottom and new steel one are so expensive.

The lack of steel reinforcement does mean the doors sag over time. If I was making pure glass ones myself I fit in aluminium or steel square around the front, back top and bottom of the door complete with diagonals, to take the strain of the hinges and door lock. What I'm actually planning to do is, as JLH above, take molds of the bottom and outer skin of the door and re-skin a steel door. I've got some manky old steel doors sitting in my lock-up waiting for the opportunity to do so. I've never seen the inner part of a door rust, only the bottoms and underneath.

I've got fiberglass rear wings on my Traveller. I just hate them they will be changed at the first oppertunity

when preping the glass fibre do not use water with wet and dry paper as the water can enter the glass strands and then on a warm / hot day they expand and bubble / microblister the paintwork

ive got fibre glass front wings which are terrible as you can see the ripples and fibre glass front and rear bumper.
oops ive been preping my glass fibre sunvisor today by sanding down the filler with wet, wet and dry paper. what should i do now?????

Not had a problem with wet flatting primer on glass fibre. We spray at 20C and allow panels and the paint to get warm first.
I wouldn't worry too much Andrew , just dry it off well and keep in a warm room.

Take it in the house and dry it in the airing cupboard! Intersting stories about the FG doors - and I hadn't noticed the sill cover part - but they DO look very neat like that - a big improvement. Just wondered how much weight could be scavenged from a 2 door if 'everything' was FG.
There are complete FG Mini bodyshells - very light and of course no future rot, and in some cases - they have been reduced in height (Minus) . Wonder if anyone would be interested in making some Minor shells........

mine has a pair on the front which the previous owner fitted,and then did a total abortion trying to paint them,rattle can from BM straight on top,no prep,no sanding,and he still managed to miss half the wings,yet get spray on the chrome

leave james out off this as he is a very good friend of mine

Yes, they are BM and will be available next year

he is indeed a nice chap,but doesnt change the fact that the front wings are appalling,nothing was masked off,so there is overspray over the bumpers,bonnet,doors,chrome,no primer used,nothing sanded,and half of it missed at the front.
This was discussed when i bought the car,if it was an issue i wouldnt have bought it,we were both in the agreement that it added to its character,just means i have something to do.There are anumber of bodges which could have rendered the car dangerous which i wont mention,but i have sorted them and bear no grudges,please dont assume im knocking anyone,im not.

ok i was going to have the car off him but i didnt have the money so i had to leave it

no probs josh,its a bit of a rolling resto but is improving by the day