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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Help with Mk1 Soft top please??

I haven't had this Mk1 midget long and I have just tried to get the soft top on - aaarrrggghhhh!!!!!!

I am sure its either me being thick or not knowing the 'knack'.

Anyone who has the 'knack' care to share it???

Its a side screen job with non folding (but removable) pram hood.

Behind the seats are two chrome fixings that the steel rear bar built into the soft top fit into.

The top of the rim of the windscreen on the outside has a channel built into it parallel to the glass - the front of the soft top has a steel strip inside the vinyl that fits into this recess.

I can get the back strip in but cant stretch the roof far enough to get the front strip in to the windscreen surround.

I can get the windscreen strip in but cant stretch it far enough to get the rear strip in

I can post pics if that helps.

What is the correct sequence of events please???

Thanks in advance.

David

PS anyone know where to get seals and perspex for the side screens??



David Banks

The soft tops stretch in use, then shrink back while not used, and as a result it is very common for tops which haven't been up for a while to be difficult to stretch into place. (For that reason, I usually erect the top when I put it in the garage.) From the sound of it this may be your problem. If you check with the PO when he last had the top up it might help confirm (or not) this.

A way of overcoming the shrink-back is to warm the vinyl, either by leaving it out in the sun or (if the weather is unhelpful) draping the soft top over the frame and placing a blow-heater inside the car to warm it up.
Paul Walbran

Spring loaded bows?
Trevor Jessie

posting pics always helps

when i got my mkII i was thankfull there was an original drivers manual with it.
It explanes all these roten smal things.
Ebay might have one for you
Onno Könemann

Trevor is right - the hood sticks should be two halves that you put together, but the clever part is the sprung telescopic section in each upright. Have you got this?

Make sure the uprights are right down in the B-post tubes. Compress the sprung section and twist the sleeve to lock it in the compressed position. This should give you the small amount of slack you need.

I then throw the roof over, do the rear clips first, then the two side quarter-turn studs which centralises it, then the two screen studs, then feed the strip above the screen in, one side at a time. Finally the last lift-the dots.

Then you can move the front tube forward inside the car and finally release the uprights and the hood is tensioned beautifully! About a minute, but you are still wet through!!

Andy

Andy Pie-Crust

Here's the page from the Driver's Manual.


f pollock

I too compress the spring loaded bars, slip the rear into the retainers, then I sorta "roll" the bar in front into the windshield frame slot, then all the lift-a-dots. Then release the spring loaded bars and turn the retainer to now push the top up a bit. It could be that your top is just really tight too though, you might have to try it on a warm sunny day or get it somewhere heated, once on leave it for a bit maybe to stretch it back a bit?
J Van Dyke

Thanks guys,

The pram hood doesnt have a spring loaded telescopic section.

I put a fan heater in the car for 10 mins and it was MUCH easier.

Thanks for all your assistance.
David Banks

Just to confuse things, (on my frogeye which is basically the same) my front bar, inside the vynil is almost imposible to slip into it's groove at the top of the windscreen as it seems to have twisted a bit. Therefore I have to put my foof on in reverse, starting from the front and then pulling the metal bar over and into the two chrome fixings behind the seats. My frams is one piece and has thye spring tensioners. The roof is very tight before they are unsprung and like a drum when they have been sprung.
Gary Lazarus

??
I have no clue what you guys are on about, on my 1975 the hood goes up/down electric.



If only... :)


Would it have been made by Lucas it would only go down...
LOL
Arie de Best

Good result David.

Regarding the sidescreen seals, the ones around the outside of the sidescreen frame are AHA5418 (RH) and AHA5419 (LH). Moss list them at 16.98+VAT ea, no doubt others supply them too. They are a moulded seal and handed as you'd expect from different part no's for each side. If you do get some, check them when you get them that they are a matching pair - I would say that half the pairs that have come through to us have either been two lefts or two rights rather than a pair!

If by seals you meant the felts in the track in which the perspex sits, the only advice I can offer is that it is a flat strip of felt, very thin, which you then bend into shape as you insert it ... and also that what comes through from Moss is not the right one for the job as it is miles too thick.

Sorry, can't help with the perspex, we get our locally in NZ but I'm sure others can help you out on that.
Paul Walbran

This thread was discussed between 27/09/2009 and 28/09/2009

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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