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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Interior

Hi all,

as a birthday present to myself, I am trying to get my midget back on the road including a refreshing the tired looking interior.

I have a couple of questions I wonder if people here may be able to offer some good advice.

1. as you can see in the pic, I am laying out the carpet ready to install, I've made a start trimming the wheel arches piece first, but have not yet started gluing down, probably for fear of doing it all wrong, any advice of putting in carpets? should trim panels go in after carpet? any tips on how to line up screw holes in new trim?

2. I have decided to paint the dash (it looks a bit better than in the photo now) and install radio console in the body colour. with this I was putting in magnolia dials. I have all the dials except rev counter and speedo. This is primarily due to cost, I have contact companies to renovate the original units who request around £250 a piece, this is not affordable to me in the short term. I'm not convinced I can find matching units to the original (except colour) from Smiths, and besides they cost similar to the renovations. Does anyone know how to paint the dials? what magnolia paint Smiths use? or if there is there a faceplate which can be swapped? or any other suggestions welcome

3. After finally removing the door caps, when I come to reinstalling them, is there any advice of how to fix in place? I could reach 2 of the 3 nuts when removing, so at most I can see me refitting those 2, but may get frustrated and throw things and leave it at 1 and half! I've read about people using Velcro, comments on that please. Any other suggestions on how to fit these more easily than the inaccessible nuts?

there are probably other questions too, but any help here now would be amazing.

many thanks

Pete






P J Gingell

Hi Pete,

I glued in the carpets first and then placed the panels.
I use as many factory holes as possible.

Replacing the door caps is a bit of a pain in the ar.. but its doable, there are worst jobs on the spridgets if its any comfert. :)

I did see gauge-plates available somewhere... cant remember if they were stickers or complete replacements?

https://www.prancingmoose.com/WhiteFaceGauges_smiths.html

https://www.smiths-instruments.co.uk/blog/bespoke-mini-smiths-gauge-faces
A de Best

Thank you A de Best, that was very quick.

I've had a quick look at the sites you shared they may well be ideal. If they can do the colour the vinyl coverings are exactly what I was looking for. thanks.

When you replace trim, how do you locate the holes in the new trim pieces? I have the old trim, but sizes are slightly different, so need to line up one hole first, tricky? then replicate the other holes easily.
how do you line it up accurately?

what jobs are worse? bleeding the clutch is awkward but not as impossible for my stumpy fingers!

I rembered another job, the B pillars, what goes there?! I don't seem to have any trim in my kit, can't find anything that I have removed, but don't remember it being bare metal, anyone have any pics? i can't find one from a google image search!

thanks again

P J Gingell

A while since I did this but for the capping rails you fit the little fasteners loosely to the door first, with the square plate head outwards and tiny nuts on the inside. Line the squares up horizontally and the capping rail then fits onto the square heads - there are cut outs in the slot on the back, and then slides forwards into position. Done correctly, the tiny and difficult to get at nuts should then only need a half turn each.

If you have spare matching vinyl, use off cuts glued over the radiused corners at the front and back of the door sill before clipping the door draft seal in place. Then you wont have contrasting gaps between the edges of the door and trim panels.
GuyW

Pete, for locating the fixing screw holes get a screw of similar size to fit the existing holes in the bodywork. One about an inch long works best. Cut the head off and file the end to a point. Screw it loosely into the chosen hole in the body, pointed end outwards. Offer up the panel,position it as accurately as you can, aligning the most visible edges and then press it against the pointy screw to mark the back. Remove the panel and use the mark to drill a pilot hole for that fastener.

Be careful drilling the panel if the vinyl cover has a foam backing as a drill bit can snag the foam and wind it up into a knot on the drill bit, behind the vinyl! Take it slowly and gently.

Move the pointy filed screw to a new location. (you only fitted it a turn or two as you have to remove the headless screw with your fingers!)
Reposition the trim panel, this time using a screw in the first hole to position it and then repeat the marking and drilling process. Sounds laborious, but its pretty quick really as most panels only have 2 or 3 fixing points. Dont overtighten trim screws or the panels will distort and not look as smart. On final fixing of panels I put copper ease on the screw threads to keep rusting at bay.
GuyW

I fitted sound proofing pads under most of the interior eg floor, transmission tunnel and rear shelf. They were made from a black material with a foil face. The rear had a pull of film to exposed an adhesive. There were very heavy. The difference it has made to the car is astounding. The Sprite is now quitere than our new Audi.


Jan T
J Targosz

Some excellent advice GuyW, thank you.

the door cap advice sounds great in theory, I'll try and put it to practice, and be selective over which of the holes i use in the door.

sadly no spare matching vinyl, but the trim is two tone and have some of the contrasting colour which may work just fine. If not I'll have to think of something else. suggestions welcome.

Thanks for words of caution drilling into foam...I'm sure I'll try and not do that!

Screw sounds perfect for locating hole.

J Targosz sounds great J Targosz, maybe next time I'll go that way, bit later now for me.

I've just glued the rear arches down and fitted the securon seatbelts, in my eyes these are brilliant. they have a knob to turn so the inertia reel can point any angle to safely operate and I can use the bolt holes at the top of arch without cutting new holes and fitting brackets.

the next step is the rear trim panel blocking boot, the "original" panel was made in 2 pieces so it bent along the horizontal to fit. the new piece from my kit is a single piece and does not fit...I am thinking I need to score the hardboard to bend it, and was going to use some backing tape to reinforce it...sound silly?
P J Gingell

“the new piece from my kit is a single piece and does not fit.”Are you sure it’s not from an earlier car , they are flat and a different size . It could be the new later ones are supplied flat for packaging purposes and you have to put the bend in ?
Mike Fairclough

Thanks mike, that sounds likely being meant for earlier model, but since i bought the kit years ago, ill just have to adapt it. Thanks though
P J Gingell

I have the idea that the bend isnt to facilitate fitting, but was a modification to add a little rigidity and stop it drumming. A flat one should still fit in. The only difference may be detailed positioning of the side lugs in the body tub that it screws to.
GuyW

There must be a lot of tiny nuts sitting in my door sills that have been lost by various owners trying to fix the hood fittings and cockpit trim. After decades of losing them I now have the solution - rivnuts. Get yourself a rivnut tool and insert 5 millimetre items - they accept the 2BA screws and studs originally fitted to the car. I now have rivnuts all over the place on my car, wherever there is a nut that's inaccessible on the other side of a panel. The kit that comes with the tool enables various sizes to be inserted, and the nuts themselves are readily available from the usual sources.
Les Rose

If using stainless rivnuts a decent tool is required as they take more force to set than ordinary steel ones IME, I found out when doing one with an Avdel knock off rivnut setting tool and the tool collapsed. I've got a ramp type and a Sealey long twin arm tool and both set stainless rivnuts easily.
David Billington

Another vote for rivnuts - wish I'd thought to use them as you've done Les.
Photos show a pair in use to hold the interior door handles. The Heritage door came without any fittings so rivnuts were a handy solution.
They're soft alloy but have survived 15 years of door slamming shuts!





Jeremy MkIII

Two of the Frogeye rear hood tenax pegs were almost impossible to get the nut on from underneath. I ended up gluing the nut with superglue to an appropriate finger position on a latex glove such that it aligned with the peg - think I omitted the washer. I then managed to hold something against the nut while I tightened from above.
Bill Bretherton

Bill,

I used the same trick but super glued the washer to the nut! Goodness knows how the stud was secured at the factory! I had a oddly shaped spanner that fitted the nut. Annoyingly, the leather washer has compressed over the years and the stud could do with tightening but I can't find the original spanner!
Bob Beaumont

>>>the next step is the rear trim panel blocking boot, the "original" panel was made in 2 pieces so it bent along the horizontal to fit. the new piece from my kit is a single piece and does not fit...I am thinking I need to score the hardboard to bend it, and was going to use some backing tape to reinforce it...sound silly?<<<

It's usually possible to persuade hardboard to bend to a curve by wetting it, then covering it with a few sheets of wet newspaper and attacking it with a hot iron.
Try it with some scrap first to get a feel for it because it's easy to overdo it and break the board.

Even better I think if you have an empty steel drum big enough to put the board in on something like a trivet. Add water, but not enough to wet the board (hence the trivet). Set it on a gas ring/camp stove and cover it with something - a tray perhaps - then simmer to thoroughly steam the board. Takes a while though so might need topping up with boiling water.
Greybeard

This thread was discussed between 06/05/2023 and 07/05/2023

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