Reskinning?

[J Man]

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]

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]

no other opinions?

[djw090]

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]

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

[Bill Young]

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.