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MG MGA - Boot lid & misc

I believe there should be a wooden stiffener at the rear of the boot lid. Does anyone have a pattern or sketch of it?
Re the bottom flanges of the fenders - is it OK to insert a couple of pop rivets to keep them tight before installing the final fasteners? Would it interfere with the final trim?

Art Pearse

Art
Sorry, no pattern or sketch, but I've taken a tape measure to mine - guaranteed 100% original, untouched since assembled in October 1959.

It's a rectangular piece of hardwood (not plywood). MG bodies pre-MGA were ash framed - who knows what it is?
It is 15 7/8 X 2 1/4 X 3/8 inches. Sorry if you're metric (so am I) but it was originally built from a pile of inches. I am estimating the 2 1/4 inches - you can't see it, but they would have placed the two securing screws centrally in the stiffener. Also it looks to take up the full depth of the steel frame.

There is a centrally placed cut-out for the boot catch screws and nuts. This is 2 inches wide and 5/16 deep. It is cut out along the whole 2 1/4 inch width of the stiffener.

It is secured to the steel boot lid frame by two cross-headed Philips-type screws. These are 15 7/8 inches apart, symmetrical about the middle of the stiffener.

There is a thin layer of sound-deadening material (the black-backed, brown, fibrous MG carpet underlay) glued to the 2 inch wide top of the stiffener, to go between the wood and the aluminium skin of the boot lid.

Maybe a sketch would have been quicker.

If it's not clear, let me know and I'll draw it up.

David
D Brown

David, perfectly clear!
Thanks
Art
Art Pearse

Art
Mine was painted matt black (the car was originally dove grey)
David
D Brown

Ho hum. Just been to look at my car - not fitted! Either missing when I got the wreck or I failed to fit it during the rebuild. Obviously a very important part! Not had any issues in the boot area in the last 16 years. It all looks very sturdy in there. Belt and braces engineering?

Steve
Steve Gyles

http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/body/bd111.htm
http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/body/bd111a.htm
http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/body/bd112.htm
Barney Gaylord

Steve ... or a post-design bodge?
D Brown

Would I be right in guessing that it is to prevent damage to the aluminium skin when pressing the lid down to lock?

This is something I never do as I do all my lid raising and lowering by grabbing the luggage rack.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Steve - that's a good thought, especially since, as Barney points out, there is an even mightier piece of wood at the nose of the bonnet (hood) - David
D Brown

This thread was discussed between 06/08/2013 and 07/08/2013

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This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.