Should I replace the whole rear inner wing with repair panel, or smaller custom patch?

[hanvyj]

Finally set up my welder and I'm getting some awful, but hopefully improving, weld on thin sheet to practice.

Just ordering some repair panels. The front inner wing has some rust-holes at the rear bottom. I'm wondering if it'll be easier replacing the whole rear panel with this repair panel:

https://www.morrisminorspares.com/body- ... de-p828572

Or just cutting some small patches (it's a reasonably flat area). Here's the rust, and what I was thinking the patch panel would look like:



Would be a lot less welding, less likely to mess up the bolt positions for the wings along the top etc?

I don't mind the extra expense, my main concern is making life easier!

[Murrayminor]

Have a look at some of the video clips I made showing how Indid mine.
I repaired mine to keep the wing nuts in the correct position.
The tops of mine are rusted through but I intend to find solid metal and repair rather than replace.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsbZsl ... Z08ArjvOjA

[ManyMinors]

I would carry out a localised repair, cutting out the rusted area and welding new metal in. If you attempt to fit the new panel you have highlighted you will have a very big job on your hands as you'll have to remove the door and cut away the hinge pillar as that repair panel goes behind it. You really don't want or need to disturb the hinge pillar unless you have to.

[hanvyj]

I would carry out a localised repair, cutting out the rusted area and welding new metal in. If you attempt to fit the new panel you have highlighted you will have a very big job on your hands as you'll have to remove the door and cut away the hinge pillar as that repair panel goes behind it. You really don't want or need to disturb the hinge pillar unless you have to.

Door is removed and bracing across the bottom, as the sills are in a pretty bad state.

I'll need to repair the bottom where there's holes but could also patch just the base of the pillar cover.

The top of the pillar cover has no holes but looks pretty pitted.



I'm thinking I might just patch the inside of the hinge pillar, it looks in good state except for the inner bit, and I don't want to have to reposition the hinge bolt holes.

[philthehill]

I would suggest that you need to bight the bullet and replace all the corroded panels - if not it will only come back to bite you.

[ianmack]

I would have to disagree with you there Phil, cutting off the a post and inner wing could result in serious alignment difficulties, especially if the sills also need cutting away. I would add repair pieces to these flat sections. Provided it is well treated afterwards the repair should be durable.

[panky]

I'm currently doing this very job and I've experienced a bit of project creep It's pretty easy to drill out the spot weld in the backing panel to see what's behind, hopefully it will be better than what I found





My car has be unmercifully bodged everywhere so ended up replacing inner wing, hinge panel and several localised repairs to the wheel arch and much much more.
So the question is - do you feel lucky

[philthehill]

If the sills are being replaced properly the door opening should be well braced (the OP states he has fitted bracing, how much bracing is fitted I do not know) so as to eliminate any deformation of the bodyshell.
Looking at the photos around the bottom of the 'A' Post & front of the sill there does not seem to be much sound metal left.
If not done correctly it will have to be revisited sooner or later.
Once the cutting out of rusty metal and the welding starts it may end up as per panky's photos above.
To me panky has done the right thing in removing only the front part of the hinge post. Doing it that way keeps the door/door hinge alignment correct. The rear half of the hinge pillar can be replaced later using the front part of the hinge pillar for alignment
As I said above - bite the bullet and do the job properly and do it only once.

[hanvyj]

That sounds like a good plan, remove the front half of the door pillar, repair the front half of the pillar, and inner wing area (can get an idea of how bad it is behind too, suspect it'll be similar), then move onto the other side (hopefully repairing "around" the hinge bolt holes themselves so I shouldn't have too much alignment issues).

Bracing is a section of scrap box section I found:



Though I'm thinking of adding some in an X in the middle of the car as I'll probably roll it over onto some old mattresses to replace the underneath of the sill sections (the boxing section seems okay, so ill have to drill the welds out from underneath?).

Although I'm wondering whether it would be easier replacing the boxing sections too...

I'd rather do the job properly once. It'll be years before the car is driving again, I'm expecting a long project.

[ManyMinors]

I'm really not sure what makes you feel that your car's sills are in poor condition. It all looks remarkably good to me.
Each to his own but if the car has lasted 50 years or more in that condition it'll last a lot longer yet without hacking half the car away and replacing it with probably inferior steel. I would only replace what I had to and preserve everything else. I think Mr Panky would probably agree that the car pictured and his own are in very different states

[hanvyj]

They look fine from the outside, but the bottom of them has rusted through in a bunch of places, and I'm pretty sure has some awful patch sandwiches in places along the bottom.



I'm hoping the edge of the floor is fine, so it'll just be the bottom of the sills I can replace with these panels:

https://www.morrisminorspares.com/body- ... de-p828526

https://www.morrisminorspares.com/body- ... de-p828475

Not sure I'll be able to replace those without really hacking up the outer sill so was planning on this too:

https://www.morrisminorspares.com/body- ... de-p828397

The worst is at the door pillars though:

[philthehill]

Many Minors
I agree with you as regards the majority of the sill metal but what would concern me is the condition of the metal in the bottom area of the 'A' Post.
What has been shown so far does not look good - until it is opened up and the final condition determined I would expect the worst . It is up to the OP what he does and what he replaces as regards the sill and 'A' Post parts but why do a substandard job when the opportunity has arisen to do it properly.

[ManyMinors]

I would never suggest that anybody carried out a "substandard" job. All the rot needs to be cut away first. However there is nothing wrong with making localised repairs and only using part of a repair panel . Many repair panels do not fully replicate the original and it is a skilled job to correctly align and replace the whole door hinge pillar hence my comment that I would try to retain the original if possible. It is only at the bottom that rust has taken hold, so that is the area to concentrate on.
Similarly, I wouldn't rush to cut away boxing panels in the condition pictured. Once the rusty undersill panels have been removed, localised repairs could be made to the bottom of the original boxing panel otherwise the owner is going to have to disturb the B and C pillars when there is no need to and make a much bigger and more complex job than he needs to.
True restoration is all about retaining and preserving as much of the original as possible.

[philthehill]

Many Minors
I totally agree with you as regards cutting out the rot and using cut down repair panel sections to achieve a 'as new repair' at the bottom of the 'A' post.
I would suggest that we are singing from the same hymn sheet in that leaving or covering up the rot is not a good option.
Phil

[hanvyj]

The other side actually looks really good! Bit of surface rust around the hinge plate thingies, but there's loads of good metal, except just a little bit near the base.



When replacing a panel like this that was spot welded, is it best to plug weld rather than seam weld (say around the edge)? Also, the replacement panel arrived with some black primer/paint. Is it recommended to strip this off and re-paint (with say, weld through primer on the weld bits and something like red-oxide on the non-welded bits? Or body paint, I've got a few rattlecans of that around I think)?



(I'm obviously not welding that one on right now, need to repair the inner wing first)

It's nice to be finally getting along with this project, It's 3 year since I started pulling it apart

[mogbob]

My method for this repair was to grind down the spot welds , wire brush the loose rusty exposed metal.
Make a cardboard copy of the likely area of metal you'll need to replace. Allow a generous perimeter to allow "wriggle room " to find good solid metal to weld to. Aim for a 90 degree, one piece repair patch i.e covering the base of the A post and the lower inner wing. This will provide more strength to the repair. Again be generous with the metal so you can cut down to size as you trial fix. A large welding magnet comes in handy, either that or masking tape / gaffer tape.
You'll have to scrape away the underseal on the inner wing base , to find solid metal.
If you have a joddler , you could always put a tongue under the top edge of the inner wing side to give yourself
a head start with welding the repair section in. CARE do not obscure the fixing holes for the wing. Tack weld and then check alignment before steaming in with the welding. "Dance about a bit " with the welding torch so you don't induce heat distortion.

Put rust treatment on , put a temporary small twist of paper in each threaded holes e.g 4 in each of the 2 hinge fixing plates. Behind the new cover plate ( for the A post ) " any old paint will do because no one else will see it.
Remove the paper after painting , before the new cover is fixed.
Most people don't bother rubbing the covering off new repair panels.Personal preference , if you have the time you could take it back to clean metal and paint it. You'll need to clean metal on the flange edges for fixing. I'd do plug welding every 1" / 25 mm with your punch or drill , to make it good and strong.Weld thru primer would work in this situation on the clean metal.
Use seam sealer if you end up with tiny gaps but you shouldn't if you clamp well ( it makes the welds stronger ).
If there are any scatches / scrapes on the repair panel , treat those specifically and then paint the repaired area
with black or body colour paint as you wish. Underseal if you wish.
Good luck with it , it's very satisfying putting some strength and rust preventative measures back into the car.
Bob