new floorpan and cills etc

[yesfan54]

Hello,
new to car restoration but steel fabricator since prog rock and have taken collection of 1969 2 door minor saloon. Needs new floorpan and undercills etc. It seems to me that the only way to carry this out is to remove the lower door hinge pillar and rear quarter panel as the boxing plate is corroded at the front . I propose to cut out one complete floor pan (or in two parts) and corresponding cross member and weld in new to existing reasonable condition inner cill. Then cut out the pillar and rear panel, turn her on her side and weld in the new cill parts and cross member followed by new door pillar and rear panel. I would appreciate any advice and whether this is the best procedure.

[bmcecosse]

Welcome to the forum - and good luck with the plan! You should read through some of the fabulous 'restoration' threads on here to get some idea of what lies ahead. I do suggest your first job should be to make a rig to allow the shell to be rolled over as required to give good access. And DO brace the shell across door openings before cutting away any metal...........

[yesfan54]

Thanks for the prompt reply, I have been inspired by the amount of experience in the forum as a guest and it is the only reason that I took on this project. I will research your suggestions and post some pics etc.

[gammy126]

welcome . I to have started my fist restoration. Good luck looking forward to the pics.

[chickenjohn]

Hello,
new to car restoration but steel fabricator since prog rock and have taken collection of 1969 2 door minor saloon. Needs new floorpan and undercills etc. It seems to me that the only way to carry this out is to remove the lower door hinge pillar and rear quarter panel as the boxing plate is corroded at the front . I propose to cut out one complete floor pan (or in two parts) and corresponding cross member and weld in new to existing reasonable condition inner cill. Then cut out the pillar and rear panel, turn her on her side and weld in the new cill parts and cross member followed by new door pillar and rear panel. I would appreciate any advice and whether this is the best procedure.

Welcome to the forum!

Good idea, I would leave the sills in place while I do the floorpans, then with new floor pans and inner sill in place you can do the sills.

Yes to fit the complete Boxing panel the lower A pillar and lower quarter panel have to come off but these are usually also rusty if the sill is as well.

However, try is you can to save the existing door pillar as the new pressings are not quite the right shape and hence difficult to get the new A pillar in the right place. I have a Minor in my workshop at the moment with the A pillar incorrectly installed and has greater than a 1/4 " door gap. They welded the complete A pillar with cover panel in place to the inner wing.

You could remove the A pillar cover panel and just use the bottom of the A Pillar repair section (with cover panel removed) then once you are sure of your door gap, weld on the Cover panel. This would occur after repairing the sills.

Don't forget to spray inside all the box sections with Dinitrol etc. A Dinitrolled repair will last decades but an unprotected welded repair can rust out again within a few years.

[yesfan54]

Thanks for great reply, it seems I am on the right track.
How would you cut out the box panel. I see it is spotwelded. Would you drill out the welds or grind the welds out.
And, I guess , seam weld on new .
I also wondered if it was fair game to only replace the box section between the door and post. Any thoughts?[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]
Thanks to gammy post and also I may build a roll over jig as suggested. I've seen one one in the forum which is made from angle iron and fits to front and back bumper mounts.