Healey Sports Cars

mods & upgrades for Healey (Nash, Austin, or Jensen) cars, including engine swaps

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J Man
jason adkins
NW OH
(202 posts)

Registered:
01/21/2009 08:49PM

Main British Car:
'61 Morris Minor panel, '70 MGB GT, '74 MGB GT MGB 1.8, unsure yet on the GTs

Reskinning?
Posted by: J Man
Date: May 14, 2011 01:08PM

I have a really rough Bugeye body with no basic structure to it.
I also have a solid spridget tub ('72) with really nice structure to it.

Would it be possible to pull the outer body off of the good structure and reskinning it with my Bugeye body? This would give me disc brakes, a good structure and hopefully a easier and quicker option to get started on this project.


HealeyRick
Rick Neville

(489 posts)

Registered:
12/19/2007 05:01PM

Main British Car:
1963 Austin-Healey 3000 Ford 5.0L

authors avatar
Re: Reskinning?
Posted by: HealeyRick
Date: May 14, 2011 09:37PM

They're virtually the same under the skin. You could pretty much strip the later car of the entire front clip, doors and rear clip and replace them with the bugeye parts.


J Man
jason adkins
NW OH
(202 posts)

Registered:
01/21/2009 08:49PM

Main British Car:
'61 Morris Minor panel, '70 MGB GT, '74 MGB GT MGB 1.8, unsure yet on the GTs

Re: Reskinning?
Posted by: J Man
Date: May 18, 2011 09:45AM

no other opinions?


djw090
David Witham
Warwick UK
(115 posts)

Registered:
06/12/2008 11:20AM

Main British Car:
MGB 1974 and MG ZT 160 turbo 2005

Re: Reskinning?
Posted by: djw090
Date: May 19, 2011 06:05AM

Somewhere on the net there was a site documenting someones restoration of a Frogeye/Bugeye. He brought sections of structure from a later car that were available from Heritage new and modified them as required.

www.bmh-ltd.com/midgetparts.htm


samuelsun
samuel sun
Elka Park, NY
(14 posts)

Registered:
11/03/2010 01:53PM

Main British Car:


Re: Reskinning?
Posted by: samuelsun
Date: May 31, 2011 03:59PM

Hi,
yeah this is possible .. but you should have to work from a experienced mechanic ....


Bill Young
Bill Young
Kansas City, MO
(1337 posts)

Registered:
10/23/2007 09:23AM

Main British Car:
'73 MG Midget V6 , '59 MGA I6 2.8 GM, 4.0 Jeep

authors avatar
Re: Reskinning?
Posted by: Bill Young
Date: May 31, 2011 04:25PM

Jason, the basic floor pan is the same but the inner wheel arches from the Bugeye and the later Midget won't be quite the same, but very close as the 72 is also a round wheel arch car. The rear suspension on the Bugeye is quarter eliptic and the later Midget is half eliptic springs, I'd say it would be much easier to use the later Midget suspenison in the rear. The fuel tank and filler will be slightly different, you'll have to compare those and modify the mounting if needed.
The main point is the cockpit. There the shape of the cowl and rear deck is quite different along with the inner supports for the windshield. That will take some modification if you want to retain the original Bugeye type doors and windscreen, but it does make for a pretty nice car to just use the Bugeye rear quarter panels and deck and modify those to fit the later cockpit and keep the roll up windows and fixed folding top with the styling of the Bugeye front and rear.


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