MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGA - Floorboard preservation?

Hi Folks. I have put 2 sets of floorboards in my MGA roadster since 1980, and they need replacement again due to delamination and rotting of the plywood. My car is a daily driver, and is NOT garaged except when in winter storage. Consequently, the floorboards usually get wet during heavy rainstorms, despite the tonneau cover. I am wondering what is the best method of protecting the new plywood floorboards I am fabricating? I am leaning toward fiberglassing all the floorboards, but am wondering if anyone has any better, or perhaps hgh tech, or even low tech solutions that are effective? Thanks! GLenn
Glenn

Hi Glenn,

A guy in our loacal car club took his old rotted floor boards to a fabrication shop and had them cut medium guage metal boards. Simply drilled holes and bolted them in. It made the car much more rigid and they will never rot.

He painted them with a rust proof paint and laid a bead of silicone between the rails and the new metal boards prior to installing. Then, once they were in, he painted the entire assembly, top and bottom.

Not original, but a very nice fix. I may do the same when I need to replace mine.

DT
Danny T

What we do you over here is use Beton Triplex, thats the special plywood they use for shuttering on the concrete castings. It is far better quality and waterproof.

Clive
Clive Skelhorn

You might want to consider West System marine materials, or is that what you already mean by fiberglass.
John DeWolf

Glenn,
I covered mine using WEST system epoxy, which is an excellent marine epoxy. You can mix carbon powder into the mix and make it go on black or you can paint over it with rustoleom after it has cured. A wooden boat dealer in Ohio suggested this paint to me.

Mark
M Gannon

Glenn,
Make them from the marine grade plywood known commonly as "Okume" and as recommended above, finish them with West System Epoxy paying special attention to the edges. these should outlive the iron in the chassis.
BOL,
Doug
D Sjostrom

I had a tin shop cut tin to the same size as the wood floorboards. The tin went down first then the wood. The tin protects the wood.
JEFF BECKER

If your not worried about originality, leave the wood to boats.

I 've had great success with 1/8" aluminum. I used old highway signs I purchased from a salvage yard and used a carbide tipped circular saw to cut them out. It's noisey and messy but works very well.

I also used silicone sealant in between the frame flanges and the aluminum flooring to avoid any moisture issues or buzzing noises.

j
J Bries

Really good idea J!. Vic
vem myers

Hi Folks. Call me old fashioned, but I have decided to stay with wooden floor boards. Guess I am a pig for punishment! So I am essentially looking for the most effective methods to keep my new plywood floors from rotting out. My new wooden floorboards are already fabricated and are ready for an anti rot treatment. As a perhaps newsworthy note, and with a touch of bragging mixed in as well, I managed to cut all seven floorboard components out, drilled all the holes, and sanded them all, in just under 6 hours. I intend to trial fit them on the car before applying the anti rot treatment, which is yet to be decided on. Cheers! GLenn PS. I have heard of west system epoxy for making cedar strip canoes. I hear the stuff is terribly expensive. Is this true? Does anyone in Ontario Canada have any west system epoxy left over from their floorboards that they would want to sell? I suspect west system epoxy has limited shelf life? Also has anyone used plain old polyester fiberglass resin and cloth to cover floorboards? Thanks! GLenn
Glenn

The West system is indeed kinda pricey. I would use marine grade plywood or a product called starboard. The starboard is about the same thickness but is a teflon-like compound. Paint won't stick to it, nothing will stick to it. It is indestructible and would last forever. It can be cut with a jigsaw of a Skilsaw. Self tapping screws hold nicely it it.
Wray Lemke

I use a marine product called Cetol from Sikkens Co. It lasts very well while exposed to the elements 24/7 on my boat so I used it on my new floorboards ( birch cabinet quality plywood). It's only been a year and a half but it looks as good as the day I applied it.
Al
Al McMillan

I think Glenns question is about how to seal plywood. What I have done in the past is soak the plywood, after cutting to size, in Thompsons water seal. Leave it to soak in the stuff for a few days. After it has soaked for a few days get it out and let it dry. Then mix the left over water seal (75%)with a compatible black paint(25%). After about 7-10 coats it starts to look original, kind of a translucent black finish. To soak the 4 small pieces I used a drain pan. To soak the large pieces I made a tray out of 2x4s and plastic sheet. The water seal is very thin and will soak deeply into the wood.
Silicon sealant is bad to seal between flat pieces of metal I used it to glue an aluninum finisher to the top lip of a pick up truck tailgate to protect the paint from the topper. When I removed the aluminum piece to repaint the truck the tailgate was rusted through where the silicone sealant had touched the paint, where the silicone did not touch the paint was like new. Use an asphalt or tar based sealant.
Randy
R J Brown

I used Marine Ply painted with flat black latex house paint. The boards were caulked using butryl rubber leaving the weep hgoles free. Not really hi-tech but I figured if the originals lasted for 30-40 years then .......

Sounds like Glen's environment is really tough. One problem with the marine polyesters and epoxy's is, once the water gets past the coating, it is very difficult for it to dry out. I like Randy's idea of soaking in Thompson's. It good stuff. but I don't think that it will even protect against Glen's normal use. I have seen Thompson's treated wooden decks rot out. If you don't resael them periodically.

Randy, the reason you had rust is that the general use silicones release acetic acid during the cure. This never gets washed. There are some silicones that do not use acetic acid. These would be more appropriate.

If going the aluminum route ensure that there is something between the aluminum and steel rails. Galvanic corrosion occurs when the two are in contact with each other.

Chuck



Chuck Schaefer

Hi Chuck. You hit the nail on the head when you stated that my floorboards are exposed to a "tough" environment. Since my MG is a roadster, and has only a leaky tonneau cover for weather protection during the driving season, the interior and floorboards often get extremely wet. The two previous sets of plywood floorboard that I installed rotted out, and/or delaminated. I am hoping that I can find a coating or sealer that will prevent my new floorboards from suffering a similar fate. So I look forward to more suggestions about how to preserve my new plywood floors. I am looking for an effective, inexpensive, and simple solution. As with most things generally, there may not be a perfect solution! ;-( GLenn
Glenn

Hi Folks. I forgot to mention that the plywood rot and delamination takes place INSIDE the car, on the topmost surfaces! The undersides of the floorboards are in more or less excellent condition. This indicates that moisture drains off the underside of the floorboards, but does not drain off the interior (topside) of the floorboards. Therefore, I need some sort of tough waterproof coating or sealer that will protect the plywood from a premature demise. GLenn
Glenn

My 58 has the original floorboards. They were washed, lightly sanded, and painted with an oil base black enamel five years ago. They are doing fine. If they are sealed with a good quality paint, you shouldn't have a problem.
Bill Haglan

Glenn,
You can get a decent plywood and seal with fiberglass resin. If the bottoms are not the problem, then periodically remove the carpet to allow the wood to dry. Marine grade plywood is really your best bet.
mike parker

Hi Mike. I dont any have carpeting on my floors, just rubber mats that lay directly on top of the plywood floors. I do remove the rubber mats after the floors get wet, but it doesnt seem to matter much. The last plywood floors I put in were soaked with preservative, allowed to dry and then varnished with several coats of quality marine spar varnish. The plywood edges were given additional attention. The floors still rotted and delaminated. Cheers! Glenn. PS. can people who have used the West system epoxy please tell me how long they have been using it, and under what severity of conditions? If it stands up to severe conditions, I may bite the bullet and go with it despite the cost. Unless of course someone has a better (and proven) solution. lol. Thanks! GLenn
Glenn

Glenn, It sounds as if you are using the A as a means of transportation rather than putting it on a pedestal and worshipping it from afar. Great!

I have one thing you may want to look into. I have no idea if is doable or not. My son finished a rebuild of a '77 Toyota FJ-40. As this is a full rebuild and not a restoration, he went with a more practical floor covering. He had bedliner sprayed on the entire inside of the tub. Now when he comes home from a day (or week) in the back-country, he just hoses it down and he is done. Not sure the brand name, but this may be a practical solution. Maybe you can have just the boards coated and then install them using butryl caulk.

Chuck
Chuck Schaefer

Hi Chuck. You are coreect again. For much of the (Canadian) year my MGA roadster is my primary daily driver transportation! It is not a show vehicle and is NOT coddled. It is driven hard every day, rain or shine, usually top down, even in the rain. My MGA transports passengers, groceries, car parts, building materials, and whatever else I need to haul. My MGA is indeed not worshipped from afar, but is obsessively loved, and compulsively driven as much as possible. My car is stored only in the winter months, when there is too much snow road salt, and sub zero weather to cope with. The car owns me as much as I own it! I am trying to preserve my MGA for future generations to enjoy, and want to keep it as original, but also as practical as possible, hence my wish to retain the wooden floor boards, but find a means of keeping them from rotting. Cheers! Glenn
Glenn

I'm not going to comment on preserving the wood--a lot of you have already done a great job of describing some great options.

At our shop, we do not seal floorboards to the chassis as some people have suggested. Glenn has hit the nail on the head, as most chassis and floorboard damage occurs from the top of the floorboards--they need to be able to drain. Even without sealer, they almost seal too well. So we recommend leaving the sealer out.

--Carl

Carl Heideman

Glenn

If you do decide to try the epoxy composite method be wary of using any preservative first. The idea is to get maximum penetration of the epoxy into the wood fiber and preservatives may affect this, with the result that the epoxy will just be a top coating like paint. I would check with a supplier first.
John DeWolf

Glenn, By all means continue on your present course. These cars were built to be driven and are best when used regularly. While some may drive their cars more often than I, I recall a conversation i had with a friend. They asked why I drive it on the roads after th long (20 year) restoration. Wasn't I afraid of the damage just driving it would cause? I responded that the best thing that could happen is that 20 years from then it would need another total restoration. because, that would mean that I had 20 years of fun driving it.

One thing I forgot to mention is that whatever your method of preservation, make sure that you predrill you holes before your sealing process. This way there is no penetration of the sealant. You may have to drill oversize to compensate for the extra thickness of build. And make sure that the boards would still fit where they belongtogether afterwards.

Chuck
Chuck Schaefer

Question to Jeff Baker

Jeff, the idea of putting wood down over a metal floor seems valid. I would try that to reduce the road noise, but add stability to the car. However, what is your experience to date, with moisture getting trapped between the metal and wood? Seems to me, this would be a problem and accelerate the rotting, plus encourage rust on the wood.

What have you done to get around this problem?

Regards

Glen
Glen Lucas

Glen, I used silcoln glue to the tin to the wood around the complete surface to try to avoid this problem. My car is not normally driven in hard rain or snow as I am in Southern Calif. I have been caught in a few rain storms with the top up, and the water that hits the floor board should run off along with all the oil that is leaking from the engine!!!! I guess time will tell how well it will work. My last floorboars only lasted 43 years.
JEFF BECKER

Chuck-- great and appropriate tip senor on oversized predrilling! I have provided drip holes serviced with one way drip plugs for the chassis and intermittently open angle support for the floor boards. Idea is to drip dry first then resist whatever moisture remains. Nothing beats Miracle paint, or Rust Bullet for sealing, sticking, and resisting. I really like the tip of using that aluminum stop sign material first!
vem myers

This thread was discussed between 12/11/2005 and 17/11/2005

MG MGA index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.