MG MGA Alternative to a chrome grille BBS discussion at MG-Cars.net

MG MGA - Alternative to a chrome grille

Happy Christmas to you all. Something to ponder over when the Christmassy thing gets a bit too much. I need to dress my repro grille to get it to fit correctly its miles out at the moment it is chrome on brass though.so as my restoration is a bit off piste I thought of powder coating grille to match wheels. Not sure if this can be done but think it would look really good and different. The attached image is of car as is minus engine and box it's only taken me since 2008 to get this far. Best wishes to you all during these trying times. Mark

M Dollimore

A picture of the front end of my car.

Colyn Firth

Stainless mesh may be something to consider. Link below is to Barney's site has the info on the modification. Parts are also available from Moss. https://mgaguru.com/mgtech/body/bd208.htm

Nick Kopernik

You'll wish you never powder coated it Mark Nothing better than some chrome on a silver car

William Revit

Cheers Graham, the pic was taken a couple of years ago, back in the days when you could drive your MGA to Europe without the fear of passing on or contracting a nasty virus. It's at the summit of the Col du Tourmalet in the French Pyrenees (approx 7000 ft altitude), temperature approx 29 degrees C. A fantastic spot for taking in the spectacular views over a glass of wine or beer. It is also the famous Tour de France destination. I have attached another picture taken approximately 100 yards away from where the first one was taken, but this one was taken much earlier in the year! We are actually sitting on the same main road which we drove up with the MGA, which becomes the actual ski piste in the winter months! The temperature is around 40 degrees cooler though than the first pic! at minus 10 degrees C! And of course, we had to order mulled wine! My car does polish up well, but the paint is beginning to show its age, so a few months ago, I decided to spend some time touching in the stone chips on the sills. Once I got down close up to the sills, there were so many stone chips that I realised that it was looking like I would need to use a 2" wide brush to touch them in! So it looks like I will need to have some respraying work done in the near future. Cheers Colyn Cheers Colyn

Colyn Firth

Thanks for responses Just a little history to take us where I am today. Bought my first MGA in 1975 Chariot Red 1600 YXP853 restored it and did many concours events including the "proper" autotests at MGCC events. Restored black Twin Cam coupe YDA160 did numerous concours events, with many successes. Then in 84 took to racing with MGCC in 1622cc Ash Green MGA 114EPK scored numerous std class wins, lap records and best prepared MGA. Then took a brief sabbatical from racing until returning in 96 with 750 MC in kit cars until 2006. During this time I was honoured to race the Ex Dick Jacob's Ash Green mga twin cam 1MTW for Roger Daniells. In 2008 I acquired my current A from a scrapyard in Virginia. Roger D undertook the chassis and body restoration so having done the concours bit for the MGA I felt this time round I would do my own thing, hence what you now see. The A is actually a 1600 but subtly changed to delete bumpers and convert to Mk 11 rear light arrangement. Colour is Ford Dark Micastone. Colyn - front valance is f'glass not a good choice as it needed cutting into 3 and reblending to fit. Given comments I may well stick to chrome, grille will be Mk 11 with every other slat removed. Happy New year to you all. Let's hope we can get on top of this Covid thing and relieve ourselves of all the stresses it brings. Mark

M Dollimore

A MKII grille with some slats removed does look quite nice:

Nick Kopernik

Gary About 450KB (4.5MB)is the biggest that'll go through--just resize to something there or smaller and you'll be set-----this pic is 320KB if that helps Cheers willy

William Revit

Finally, got a pic to upload!

Gary Lock

Looks really nice Gary, if I didn't already have an MGA Roadster, I would want your car for sure!] Graham, my car was a race car before I got it with no interior or heater, a full roll cage, grp Sebring front valance and a full-race engine that had ridiculous performance but almost impossible to drive on the road. I have uploaded a picture that I took a few weeks before it was finished, the engine is out, waiting for the 1850cc MGB engine to be fitted and for the new valance to be fitted. The second picture shows the front valance as it was when I got the car, I have since then cut a vent into it to feed air through into the oil cooler and I think this also improves the look of the Sebring front end. So, although I do have a full set of chrome bumpers stashed away in my garage, they wont fit on the car now because the chassis dumb-irons have been cut down to fit behind the valance. I love the look of the car with no bumpers but it does leave the front end a little vulnerable and I have admit to having the valance re-painted quite a few times. James Horner who paints the car, jokes that I have a permanent slot booked every year which has become a guaranteed source of annual income for him :^) Cheers Colyn

Colyn Firth

The first picture here shows how wide the vent for my oil cooler was when I first fitted it. The second picture shows that I subsequently cut the vent a little bit wider to increase airflow to the cooler. Cheers Colyn

Colyn Firth

Found these searching around---

William Revit

I’m a lucky boy, I have one of both! I prefer the smaller aperture and smaller dia wire mesh grille compared to those shown in this thread. Interestingly I don’t have overheating issues with either. Mike

Mike Ellsmore

This thread was discussed between 24/12/2020 and 11/01/2021

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