Are you kidding me. Floorpan replacement.

I've come to find that the 72 I bought back in 96 was "restored" by an idiot!! The amount of bondo, crappy welds and old parts that this guy used to piecemeal the car back together with is astounding. Hindsight would suggest that the car was not worth the money to restore, or at least not correctly. If not for the very fair cost charged by my sheet metal and welding guy this would have been a financial mess. Already replaced the passenger side and after a little exploretory investigation decided to replace the drvr side too. Floor pan was full of bondo and then we found this in the crossmember. What was the guy thinking.

Filled with steelwool. Must be some kinda new soundproofing deal. NOT!!
Anyways, we were able to clean up the area in preperation for the new pan. Next is the brake MC shelf, saving the best for last.

Its wierd what some people can do and then call it "restored".

But it does look like you've got it down to good metal now. That degree of rust in the floors is what many of us started with.

How are your rockers, castle rail, etc?

Who puts bondo on a floor pan?

Rockers are good, needed very minor work.

Repairs completed

Finished.

Actually now it's finished.

WOW! I think the DPO has been redefined.
X2 with Scottydawg- Bondo on the floorpan? I did not know that Bondo could be used for a structural fix.

I'm thinking he must of stuffed the steelwool into the cross member channel to support the bondo. Then just built up from there.

I've seen that to bridge a hole in a rocker, but never a floor. Amazing!

Let's see...one step forward, two steps back.... dumb previous owner, three steps back, one step forward.....

Brian this must be driving you nuts knowing how you are trying to do the car right. But it will be worth it in the end. Keep up the good work.

Steel wool is very good rust fertilizer as I hear :)

I think it's driving my body guys more nuts than me. He absolutily hates this kind of workmanship. When I hired him he said "Brian, there's only one way I'm going to do this work, and thats the right way. So if your looking for quick and easy you can take your car and leave now" That was a year ago.

B..seein ya Wrote:

B..seein ya Wrote:

That really does look like some supreme DPO activity, but maybe he didn't have a good cheep body guy to do the work for him.

You're not alone.
My PO used glue and a license plate on one side and on the other side, sheet metal from a sign, glue and some sheet metal screws. The weird thing is that there was a nice new carpet kit installed and uninstalled new leather upholstery for the seats that came with the car. Good thing the upholstery wasn't installed as no telling what condition the seats would have been underneath (my next job).

Here is the before picture.
And after cutting out the junk and welding in material.

B..seein ya Wrote:

what will you say about me , in future when my maintanence /reconditioning [ i make no pretense to restoration] sins are revealed.. will i be a DPO or will i be a hero that maintained a vehicle in restorable condition ....
.....
solder floor repair.. at least it is not a license plate or steel wool and bondo..
the lead has tensil strength of 6000 lbs, seems well adhered and solid , no light leaks from the underside. .

worst case would be my wife pokes her stilleto heels through the repar and i have to do another repair.. solder is easier than welding, cooler temps.. though i did catch the sound deadning on fife ..
#1 the holes .. green is light sheet bridging 1x1.5 holes. it peeled right off after the solder fill
# 2 the fill ...looks like a mud dauber been working , looks better after filing . after all, it is under a OEM floor board plastic/foam pad and rugs..


.

prbrauer Wrote:

Brian:

According to you, if the PO was not such and idiot, he should have done the right thing and scrapped the car. Anything else, and he/she was doomed to be judged a DPO by history. Instead, he did something that was in budget,and drove the car for a few more years.

Truth is that at the time the crappy fix was implemented, the car was probably only worth a few hundred bucks regardless of its mechanical condition. That cheap fix kept it on the road and allowed it to survive until it reached a more skilled owner who will now put more into the car than it is worth! As we restore these cars and berate the DPO, lets take amoment to reflect and see that we may be charter members of the MMTBC and actually lower on the intelligence ladder thanthe DPO!

When I was a teenager with my first MGs, I used the steel wool and bondo fix more than once; the process was described on the side of the can! I was buying cars for a few hundred bucks and driving then on a non-existent budget. The cheap(ish) mig welder was way in the future and I would not have known how to weld amyways!

So, unless the previous owner has sold me the car as a fresh restoration and the repairs are a deliberate deception, I tend to take a more acheological approach to the past repairs. Its all part of the cars history.

Pete

MMTB=More Money Than Brains Club. I believe it is headed by a guy named Jay Leno.

Brian:

I tend to be a bit more charitable to the DPOs since whatever bodges they have performed kept the cars on the road through a period when common financial sense (or reality) would have dictated crushing the car. Believe it or not floor pan replacement was just not done when these cars were current; it fell under the heading of "Frame Damage" and was a death knell to many a MG.

The bondo and steel wool fix is not so hard to understand if you put it into historical perspective; the method was actually described on the side of the can of bondo! I have used it a few times as a teenager trying to keep some of my $200 MGs on the road.

Now that I have a few more miles behing me, I realize that I am a chartered member of the MMTBC and often have to ask myself if this has not put me lower on the food chain than the DPO tag?

Regardless, unless it is a case of outright fraud, I look at these bodges as an acheological dig and am thankful that the car is getting a new lease on life becasue someone refured to give up on the car.

Pete

MMTBC= More Money Than Brains Club.

I know a guy with stolen traffic signs pieced together to make up his replacement floor boards. Better than bondo, but why?

Sure hope no one got killed or injured because of those stolen traffic signs.

NOHOME Wrote:

Crumpled up newspaper is just the thing for house insulation too!

Yes, the mice love nesting in it. And as a litter box. Good to get them house trained! :)

You know, I can almost give a pass to bodges like this if they happened before say...1995 or so. Why, you ask? Well that is right about the time, if memory serves, that you could get a decent quality entry level shielded gas Mig welder kit for about $400. It pays for itself on the first or second repair, and its so easy that a cave...well, that I can do it.

Actually, this is still an inexcusable bodge, I could forgive a proper patch panel secured with rivets, but bondo and steel wool? Steel Wool!!..what better than this to collect moisture and feed rust. E-gads!


Big body bodges post cheap MIG= mortal sin; Pre cheap Mig, think before you haul back and throw stones.