Bugeye - Sills or Floorpans first?

[John Moore]

I've been cleaning up the garage and thinking about starting the body work on my '61 bugeye. It needs both the rockers and floor pans replaced. Which should I do first? I'll do one at a time to maintain enough rigidity and keep the body aligned much as possible. Of course I'll reinforce the door openins, etc. FWIW, I'll probably have to do some repairs in the spring boxes and I'm not sure at this time if I'll have to replace the inner sills, just the rockers.

Thoughts?

Oh yeah, I found a local guy who said he would sand blast the body for around $500! I thought that sounds like a great deal, except for the fact he said he would use black beauty. I asked him if that might cause panel warpage, and he said it wouldn't be a problem. I dunno! Maybe I should just strip it myself.

 

[Trevor Jessie]

My father has used black beauty, and he claims that warpage is caused by operator error, not the media. Obviously, there are better choices of media. When I do mine, I think I'm going to manually strip the large panels and then have the sand blaster do the nooks, crannies, etc.

 

[jlaird]

Warpage is caused by the operator. That said the steel on the little cars is heavy and hard to warp if you can even do it.

 

[Trevor Jessie]

Regarding the order...

It becomes a matter of visualizing the process. I think it is helpful to have all your repair panels set out in their relative position to see what makes sense. Generally, I'd do the floor last, but there are times when it is advantageous to have it temporarily fitted with a few sheet metal screws to help see that things are squaring up.

 

[John Moore]

Thanks Trevor,

Regarding the floor or rockers, I just want to make sure I replace them in an way that helps me keep the car square.

 

[mightymidget]

I replaced my floor pans first, along with the spring box repair, one side at a time

 

[James_the_elder]

A most helpful book is "MG Midget & Austin-Healey Sprite Restoration" by Jim Tyler. Published by Osprey Books. Chapter 5 gives all the information you will need to do any kind of work on the sheet metal tub.