Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Steel or Aluminum Body?

It's time to pick the brains of the members of the Talk Mog world again. I have a chance to have my panels made out of steel or Aluminium. What is the current view of each metals. My car left the factory in 1976 with steel and to be fair it has lasted petty good. I got the car in 2002 and apart from the yearly battle with the corrosion where the steel wire is located, it has lasted good. The panels I will be getting replaced our the quarter panel, scuttle, door skins and the rear panel. The front wings and rear wheel arches are being repaired/ are good enough to just get taken back to bare metal and resprayed. At various Noggins I have heard pros and cons for both, but it would be nice to hear from people who have had a steel car in the pass and have a aluminium car today. I hope this makes sense!

Aluminium can dent easily on the wings & get corrosion with the beading too but it doesn't rust and long door cars have a stainless bulk head too.
My 94 4/4 had terrible rust on the bulkhead under the tool tray.

But with an existing car I think I would rebuild as is.

JohnV6
Do you mean steel?

For the panels yes steel

On the other hand there's the weight saving benefit and if it does dent easily then it's easy to pull out. I have had both and would definitely go for aluminium

I would go for the steel to keep it authentic and as John says keep the dings out of the arches.

My '59-built +4 was rebuilt in the 80s with aluminum on the tub behind the scuttle and retains it's other original steel panels. No problems, but I was talked out of replacing a rear wing with aluminum because of the frailty/corrosion issues.

When I rebuilt my +8 in the '80s i used galvanized steel panels to replace the rotted out steel. On the scuttle I cut off the lower parts and welded galvanized to it. So far so good.