BODYWORK RESTORATION PART 3
Last month, we showed you how to cut out rusty metal and stressed the importance of doing it sequentially. In other words, you remove the corroded metal in, as far as possible, the reverse order to that in which it was originally put together. The reason for doing this should start to become clear now, as we move on to making up some repair sections with which to replace what’s been taken out.
Some classics have great parts availability – Mini and MGB owners can even buy complete new bodyshells – whereas even some mechanical stuff for my 1958 Minx featured here is tricky to find. But even if your classic does enjoy nearly 100% replacement panel availability, there will be some situations where, quite apart from any issues around retaining originality, you would generally choose to repair rather than replace. Take an MGB windscreen surround for example. I’m sure you can buy them ready-made; after all, you can buy a complete shell. But renewing the whole lot is a massive amount of work, and not something you would do if the only issue is a few localised areas of rot around the bottom. Similarly, a small area of localised corrosion on, for example, an inner wing or floorpan would normally be dealt with by repairing rather than renewing and, as we’ll see over the next couple of months, it’s perfectly
