Replacement Panel Questions

[kgb123]

Hi,

I'm after some advice hopefully from some folks with experience of options.

I need to replace the boot floor and a lot of the surrounding structures entirely on my car. from the Robey catalogue and from some discussions it seems I can either purchase a complete "rear end assembly" (its item 12 on page 67 of the robey catalogue) or the component parts of the boot.
Anyone fitted a complete "rear end assembly" and if so how did it go in?
Anyone essentialy replaced their entire rear end using the component parts and if so how did that go.
Complete assembly would appear to make most sense, but if it is a pain to fit and uses up lots of mah hours through excessive fettling, perhaps the component part route would make mores sense?

My doors are also in need of some love. Initial thoughts were to repair the frames and re skin. In the Robey catalogue, there is a "Door Shell Assembly" which I'm told is a whoe new door. it obvioulsy needs to be worked to fit the car, but again I suspect man hours spent repairing the exisiting door frame, then re-skinning migh tbe more expensive than a new door...if infact this is a whole new door. Anyone been there and done that who can offer advice.

Thanks

Kevin

[paulsco]

Hi Kevin,

I have done a full restoration on my body shell, but it is a FHC, which is slightly different. These cars are largely hand built, so panel fit can vary quite a bit.
My experience is that all the panels will need some adjustment to fit and fitting assembled components could prove to be difficult; I can almost guarantee that they won’t fit easily.
I would recommend buying individual panels and fitting them together on the car.
I made up, repaired or replaced all the boot panels and although I spot welded the three main panels together before fitting the unit to the car, I did trial fit them all together on the car to clamp them before welding. Even though I did this, it was still very difficult to place the whole assembly on the shell and line it up to weld it.

I must add here that I did the boot panels with the car on stands, i.e. upwards.
Later on I built a rotisserie, which in my view is a must.

Replacement doors may or may not fit. FHC ones are over £1000.00 each. It might be best to repair the frames and fit new skins; FHC ones are about £150.00.

What to do all depends on the extent of the rust and your metal working skills.

I hope this helps.

Paul

[288gto]

As regards the complete floor with lower rear quarters, this gets over the problem of spot welding the lower quarters to the boot floor which requires a spot welder with a very long reach. The downside is that you don't have any adjustment along this seam.
When I helped Alty Ian do his boot floor, having the components separate was very useful in getting a good fit. The panels were then held together with self tapping screws prior to being spot welded together. There may be some pics in his restoration blog.
I can't speak about the complete doors but have fitted Robey skins with success.

Simon

[ralphr1780]

Kevin, if this can help, here I have spotted a pair of 2+2 doors at a bargain price even if you add the shipping:
http://m.kapaza.be/fr/vi/116486406.htm
No interest/affiliation/...
If I can be of help, let me know.

[kgb123]

Thanks for the feeback gents. Very useful and parts seems to be thwe way to go over completed assemblies.
Appreciate the link to the doors being sold as well, but my doors are recoverable so will stick with the originals.
Now for a chat with the folks at Roby's