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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Gearbox colour

Hi
As part of my Frog restoration I've re-built a ribcase gearbox which came to me with flaking gold paint. As I did it in the winter I didn't pay attention to the paint although now realise it should have been sorted whilst stripped...... I've searched for clues on original ribcase finish and the jury still seems to be out. I thought they were all bare metal (ally of course). Some people seem to think they were painted. I'm in the leave as metal camp but am interested in opinions on this. When I had a mk3 Sprite back in the mists of time I'm sure it had a bare metal g/box. Thing is you can't really see it so I'm not spending ages on some fancy finish.
Bill
W Bretherton

My Frog smoothcase was painted, whilst my '71 ribcase was bare metal. So you can choose your "back to the original" whichever way you like!
Guyw

1275 ribcases were always bare ex-factory. I don't know enough about 1098s to comment.
Gold Seal factory rebuilds were gold (obv.) and some rebuilt ones were black, not sure if they were Silver Seal or maybe an independent.
David Smith

Just to add another dimension, My Frog smooth case was painted green. I had an early 1275 ribcase Sprite which was bare but with two stripes of green on the bellhousing and then a 1973 midget which was painted black!
Bob Beaumont

Seems to be all over the place! My mk3 was a 1098 David with a bare finish ribcase. I've heard that there was factory over spray in some cases which might account for the green Bob. There seems to be something "right" about natural finish aluminium - I don't know why......
Bill
W Bretherton

The vast majority of the 'boxes I have seen have been bare ally finish.

I have seen the odd smoothcase painted green, along with a few ribcases - probably rebuilds - painted various colours.
Dave O'Neill 2

To muddle things a bit, I have an old smooth case of unknown origin that is red and another that is green where as the rib case that I have is black. I don't remember where I got them but it was many years ago.
Martin Washington

My frog smooth-case gearbox was bare alloy when my father bought the car in 1973
Simon Wood

Surely Original Sprite and Midget shows the smoothcase painted green?
Nick and Cherry Scoop

certainly some (many?) smoothcase boxes were green ex-factory; but that's thread drift as Bill is putting a ribcase in his frogeye.
David Smith

I should have said when I fitted the ribcase to my Frog I left it in the bare ally!
Bob Beaumont

The ribcase in my Frog was installed in 1966, and it's bare metal. It was overhauled in 1980, but I doubt they would have paintstripped it.
Nick and Cherry Scoop

Had a few gearboxes rebuilt by Peter Cavanagh of Classic Gearboxes, Marple and he maintained that they were never painted, always bare metal.

Stands to reason. It can't be seen (unlike an engine) so why waste 2d of paint?

Rob
Rob aka MG Moneypit

Great feedback. I'm returning mine to bare metal. Bit of a fiddle scraping old paint out of the ribbed sections though. But that's nothing compared to re-fitting the rear apron and wings which I'll get back to soon.....
W Bretherton

Guess BMC only painted cast iron parts - head and block - against obvious external rusting visible in the engine bay - less concerned about any corrosion on aluminium castings in running gear..

Mike
M Wood

This thread was discussed between 08/06/2016 and 13/06/2016

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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