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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Replacing the floor

Hi,

As anyone replaced an entire floor before?

I am now ready to start replacing the metal work and am looking for any advice or tips.

You can see my progress on my blog:

http://1965mgmidgetrestoration.blogspot.co.uk

Many thanks

James
J Paul

Might be easier to repair what you have, even though it does have a "few" holes.

This is an interesting one you have. First time I've ever seen anyone do this to get to the uj.
Edit, as you already said on your website. :)


Lawrence Slater

I'd go with replacing each floor side as separate repair pieces rather than replace the whole floor. That way you always have a piece of floor holding the rest of the body in shape.

You could also turn the peeled back section into a proper UJ inspection cover. Place a flange around it with nuts welded on the inside and screw a cover over it.

You're not the only one to use a chisel - they're a very versatile tool. However that one looks too nice to use them the way I do - for cutting metal and separating panels.

Jed
J Southwood

James,

If the sills are sound and the door shuts all line up then leave in the sills and go ahead and replace each side floor as complete panels. The rigidity of the sills and transmission tunnel will maintain the shape of the whole car and all will be well. Do each side one at a time and if you even think the car is sagging check it and correct before even tacking with jacks and baulks of wood. (Once the car has sagged in the middle and you have welded it is very difficult to correct and basically you have to undo what you have done and start again.)
Checking the door openings and their alignment are much more important on a soft topped car as there is no roof for additional rigidity. Just measuring the door opening is not enough and most of us have removed the door before starting and jigged in rigid spacers that fit and hold the opening exactly when the door is removed so that the opening is held in the correct shape and allows yet allows access to cut and weld.
Even so I regularly removed the spacer and checked with the actual door whenever I was at a stage that I new I could do it.
To be honest your floor looks a lot better than mine did and I repair panelled mine. Although I am fixing to drive as a day car not to be prisine. Anyway there are lots of threads on here and of course there is a great book by Lindsay Porter. (I'l find the title in the morning). It mainly stresses what I have written and it does work. He gives ideas and pictures of jigs and working practices that if like me you are starting from engineering experience scratch are really useful.
Patience, check, check, align, adjust, check, tack, check - more aligning than welding for sure.

Good luck and keep going.
Dave Squire - Notts

Its title is 'Guide to Purchase & D.I.Y. Restoration' by Lindsay Porter ISBN 0 85429 336 1 Published by Haynes.

Bought mine off amazon for about £20 2 and a half years ago.
Dave Squire - Notts

I dont think id replace the floor, I fhink that could turn hairy really fast...with the exception of the leaf spring mounts...it looks very solid

.id replace around the leaf springs and patch the rest, then use rhino linner truck bed coating as a sealer


dont fix a non.damaged.part, or something like that

prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

If it aint broke don't fix it.

I agree with Prop by the way, I had no choice, I had the most expensive project (a free one from the brother in law) and an MoT fail that needed offside sills, floor, cross member, lower wheel arch, nearside front bumper mount, front valence sort out, nearside rear of front wheel arch to sill, both rear mounts attention. One or two other bits and pieces at the front as well but difficult to decribe.

With hold ups 2 and a bit years and just MoT'd. Road testing just starting.

If you don't need to then my advice is don't. Its much more fun to drive than fix.
Dave Squire - Notts

Hi,

Thank you for all you advise.

I agree and will purchase two replacement floor sections and work on each side in turn. But certainly going to start on the sills and footwells then turn to the floor.

Dave I was given a copy of the book by Kim Dear when I bought the car. Deep down I know he knew I'd need it!!

I will be putting the doors back on tonight to check the alignment, but I have got a nasty feeling that a PO (not Kim) replaced the offside sill and has not been accurate when welding. More fun of the fair!

Many thanks as always

James
J Paul

I replaced the entire floor on my car. Luckily i was doing a full nuts and bolts restoration so i was able to get the shell on it's side to do the work - makes it much easier.
one thing to be aware of is that the rust in the boxed sections will always be much worse than you expect - especially the area around the spring hangars. I ended up having to replace the triangular support pillars that include the spring hangar Nuts. here's a couple of pics to show what I mean..

most of the rust cut out...




graeme jackson

and the new floor, rear panel and spring hanger welded in..




graeme jackson

Hi Graeme,

Yup that's pretty much what I am expecting too!!

Thanks for the photos

Kind regards

James
J Paul

Hi James,

Just been through this whole process myself too. Spring hangers probably will be shot, unfortunatly, in my opinion they are are the worst bit on the whole car to deal with as they are made from armour plate (appart from the bit at the bottom that rusts and forces the replacement! grrr!) and they are welded in with 10000000 difficult to get to welds!

I have plenty of pictures too, will upload some tonight. Trying to replace the driver side hanger at the moment after doing the floor last summer/autumn.

Malcolm
Malcolm Le Chevalier

Hey Malcolm are there any pics of the latest state of play? Good to see you are still going at it.
Dave Squire - Notts

Well, current state of play is as follows, also for James interest...

As you may or may not remember, I have been unemployed for past couple of months so been busy doing loads of stuff other than the car and hanging out on here! Back to work now so back to routines and having time for such things! :-D

Pictures from mid last week, made a small amount more progress in chopping out all the mess here!

Malcolm


Malcolm Le Chevalier

From behind...



Malcolm Le Chevalier

Done quite a few other bits that I forgot to take shots of, will try and get a wide angle one sometime. Still missing the drivers side wheel arch and triangly bit between the footwell and spring pan. But footwell is mostly patched up and inner sill is one bar a few more plug welds.

(Just found this of pre footwell patching! Back in September)

Malcolm


Malcolm Le Chevalier

Malcolm,
Are you going to fabricate a replacement spring hanger, or have you bought a complete replacement? I have a couple of the triangular web pieces that you can have if they are of any use to you. - I mean the verticakl sides to the spring hanger.

Guy W

Passenger side spring hanger bit once pretty much complete (minus a lick of paint, things look so much better once painted!)

Malcolm


Malcolm Le Chevalier

Bought one already Guy, thanks for the offer! Looked at just replacing the sides, but I figured it was easier to remove the thing as a whole than to try and just remove the sides from the thing.

To bring things back to topic, a pic of floor replacement of last summer!

Malcolm


Malcolm Le Chevalier

And I love the website James, you have your work cut out! We are right behind you!

Malcolm
Malcolm Le Chevalier

Malcolm,
I thought you might have. The complete unit is rather easier to fit!

Incidentally, When I have rebuilt those sections I have temporarily reinstalled the back axle and used the rear springs to locate and align the spring boxes. Sort of reverse engineering! Probably frowned on, but is seems to work. I suspect the proper way would be to fabricate a jig.
Guy W

I did use the spring hanger plate thing (the bit the attaches to the spring and then bolts to the floor) to help clamp the repair bits in place but didn't bother with the whole axle.

I can't see why there wouldn't be sufficient "play" in the the spring/axle bushes and the various mounting holes etc to be able to get things to line up OK. Marked things up before dismantling too.

Roll on the rebuild I bet I will be eating many of my words! ha ha

Malcolm

Malcolm Le Chevalier

Hi Malcolm,

Thank you for the photo's. You certainly had your work cut out there and I am sure I'll be repeating similar cuts and welding very soon.

I can't wait to get the new metal in, hopefully will be starting in the next couple of weeks. Just need to remove the front and rear suspension and axle.

Glad you like the website. I will be keeping it up to date, as and when I get in the workshop.

Many thanks

James
J Paul

This thread was discussed between 04/01/2013 and 08/01/2013

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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