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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Wing removal

I'm planning a tidy up of my engine bay and I want to spruce up the footwells, radfiator cowling and splash plates. The inner wings and outer wings are fine, but the wings have no protection under them apart from black spray paint (and Rover dealer part number stickers!). My plan is to dust them off and paint or underseal the insides before refitting them. The outer paintwork is fine and I definitely don't want to damage it.

So, hopefully a basic question - How are the front wings attach? I can see bolts at the top of the door posts / scuttle area and bolts onto the radiator top cowl. What's at the bottom? Are they welded anywhere? What do I need to remove before taking the wings off?

Ant
Ant Allen

Ant,
They are just bolted, but not all the bolts are easy to find!

Front vertical seam behind the bumper is bolted to the front valance by 3 bolts
Top front of wing to slam panel - 2 bolts
Rear edge of wing to scuttle - 1 bolt in the back corner of the drainage channel
From inside the engine compartment there is one bolt through the firewall into the top of the A post
From inside the footwell. Remove the side trim panel. There are 2 (maybe 3?) bolts behind the A post and a third at the extreme lower front outer corner of the footwell

Guy
Guy Weller

3 bolts behind the A-post
Chris H (1970 Midget 1275)

Guy / Chris - That's great. Thanks. Chances of removing a wing without damaging the outer paintwork?

Ant
Ant Allen

Apart from possibly flaking a little bit of paint around the bolt heads and at that front seam with the valance, it should come off with no damage.
Unless of course you drop it on the floor as you lift it clear!
Guy Weller

Not too bad, take some masking tape and cover the cowl area, A post, and sill on both the wing and body to prevent any unwanted nicks. I'd leave one bolt in at the corner of the wing cowl joint in the drain channel and one in the slam panel, remove the rest then remove these last two and carefully remove the wing.
Quite a few here in the US are using truck bed liner material on the underside of the chassis and wings for protection from stones, might be something you might consider. It will save the tops of the wings near the headlights from those small dings and paint cracks caused by small stones thrown up by the tyres and prevent corrosion as well.
Bill Young

I've seen this "truck bed liner" mentioned often before by people in the States. But have failed to find the product in the UK. Unless I am looking for the wrong stuff! I assume it is like a floor levelling compound that you can trowel on and it smooths itself out (thixotropic), hardens but does not go brittle. Anyone come across it in the UK?

Guy
Guy Weller

Hmm,
Having tried to use a fancy word (thixotropic) - I thought I better go and look it up. Not quite the characteristics I thought! A thixotropic substance is a semi-solid which turns to a liquid when vibrated. Not much good for Spridget floors then!

Guy
Guy Weller

Here's the page for the leading brand of liner you can apply at home. I don't know if they have any distributors in Europe, you might contact them and see if there are any. As you can see from the site, it's a liquid polyurethane which hardens into a flexible yet durable coating and it's available in 4 colors so you can find something that will work with your car.
Bill Young

Forgot to add the link http://www.herculiner.com/index.html
Bill Young

Thanks Bill. I will try them.
I still haven't really got the hang of this Global Economy thing. If I cannot find it in the local agricultural merchants I tend to think it isn't available!
But I will e-mail them unless someone else in the UK has already tracked the stuff down over here.

Guy
Guy Weller

Hi Guy/Ant,

http://www.protectakote.co.uk/kits.htm?kw=herculiner&fl=19585&gclid=CJ--y_bKz5YCFQRBMAodqRcc2w

This is a link to a similar product I've used in the past.

Simon.
S McGregor

This thread was discussed on 30/10/2008

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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