Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi I have been looking around for some FG body parts, e.g. boot lid, doors and wings.
does anyone have any advise / views on them?
Cheers Tom[frame][/frame]

If you are not bothered by originality they are fine and the older the better as they are better quality. I wouldnt go for doors though from a safety aspect unless you are lightening the car for racing etc

Iv'e got a set of fibreglass rear wings for sale. Very old but new, (you know what I mean)

I've just fitted a pair of JLH fibre-glass door skins including the bottom panel to my original metal frames.
Gives me the lightness of fibre-glass with the side impact protection of the steel frame.

Sorry, the best pic I have!
[frame][/frame]

I bought a pair of FG rear wings for my 2 door from Honeybourne mouldings 15+ years ago.I ended up taking them to the dump as they just didn't fit!Hopefully things have improved a bit.Just remembered I fitted a front bumper valance yesterday.That was fine apart from the holes being in the wrong place but that was simple enough to rectify.It will be interesting to see how much abuse it can take!
Fingers crossed.

I have always found the valances to be a good job and certainly last better than the steel ones. Ive also used rear wings on saloons and travellers and again are fine, front wings are a different matter though I have found them to be a poor fit and that they crack very easily just were people sit on them.....

Hello Big DawgV8,

surely the weight saving of fibreglass over a steel skin must be minimal, if any? Bare doors weigh very little anyway, it's the mechanisms and glass that add all the weight?

Alec

Does seem hardly worth the effort - unless going racing? In which case - I would use ally sheet.......inside and out.

bmcecosse wrote:Does seem hardly worth the effort - unless going racing? In which case - I would use ally sheet.......inside and out.

Erm, they wont rust at all like most minor doors do; either the bottom lip, or underneath of the door.
Also have heard from a few sources that the fg rear wings on a traveller tend to start to flex outwards and flap about slightly at anything approaching motorway speeds. A few people have added reinforcements to stop this happening.

Hello Alex and Anne,

"Erm, they wont rust at all like most minor doors do"

yes they will, at least the frame will unless thoroughly treated, just the same as with an outer steel skin.

Alec

I was not aware that fibreglass rusted?! And I was also not aware that the inner steel support of a minor door was usually a major area of rust concern on any minor?...

Just a quick tip with fibreglass bits - many years ago I bought some wings and they were very flimsy so I built up the thickness with a few more layers of fibreglass. It can make a big difference.

While making a wing from scratch from a mold is tricky, building up the wing thickness from the inside with chopped strand mat is not that difficult and relatively cheap if you buy from a big supplier or boating supplies place. You can choose how strong or light you want your wings to be...

Also, with wings it's worth putting something in place to protect against stone pings causing star crazings in the top. I use camping mat foam cut and glued. I've seen diving wetsuit material used too.

Hello Alex and ane,

the doors are not a major concern but both the outer and inner parts rust away as water gets into the seam at the base.
If fibreglass skins are fitted and there are no drainage holes provide or made then the frame will rust fairly quickly.

Alec

My Traveller was bought cheap as it had fibreglass wings.
4 years on they are still fine! Had a white van hit the rear right corner almost as soon as I got the car, the wing flexed and went back to shape. Rear bumper pulled out with a swift tug and the only real damage was a broken tail light lense! AA picked his van up if I remember
Fibreglass may not be original, but is flexible (to a point) and if made by a reputable source, then doesn't flap around in the wind....
And it doesn't rust!! The rust/drainage holes argument could easily be levelled at steel wings made from recycled Focus's if wrongly applied.
Not too sure about comparative structural loading/weight figures, still waiting for a reply from Lotus on that one

Hello Linearaudio,

"The rust/drainage holes argument could easily be levelled at steel wings made from recycled Focus's if wrongly applied."

Yes of course, but to think that just fitting fibreglass skins will eliminate rust is nonsense.
And please stop saying it doesn't rust, nothing rusts except iron.

Alec

hi,ime after a pr of fibre or steel wings ,a boot lid steel or fibre,and door skins 2 door saloon ime restoring,if you could help please just joind,keith minisareme.

FG is fine many high end sports are built out of it,but to get a good paint finish requires a lot more work,none of the ones I have seen for aftermarket use have been very good.The surface is not exactly smooth or flat and requires layer after layer of primer(Don't use etch on it by the way) with hours of hand flatting before top coat. ALL glass fibre bodied cars suffer from micro blistering ,eventually, even well undersealed wings will let moisture through from the inside ,it also gets through the paint from the outside via osmosis,all boats suffer the same. The work involved to get rid of it usually means back to base layer and into an oven to bake the water out before priming and flatting again. As a scimitar owner ,been there like just about every other owner has. So yes no rusting but its not the end to problems in the future.