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MG MGA - Boot space ideas

Hi guys, me again you'll be getting fed up with me haha!

I'm looking at my boot this weekend, I have nice new spare wheel and new tyre, by the way u have chrome wires on my car new ones fitted by last owner, my spare was an old painted wire, I found this guy who is a five minute drive from me in the new forest, called Tudor wheels he has blasted and painted my old wire wheel with chrome paint, brilliant, you would have a job not to think it was chrome, and easy to clean just wash no polishing ideal for the spare.
Just thought I would share that info, it might help someone.
Right onto the boot space, at present mine has no carpet, and the carpet back piece that you shove the sore into is rough and the surrounding holder with rivets is poor, do it take it out and not bother, can't wee the point of it ! Being there, can you guys perhaps give me some pics of your boot space to give me some idea what to do to get the best out of a small space, ie car jacks spares storage and wheel storage, hope you can help.

Cheers Jack.



Cracking day in the forest by the way, but the roads are manic that's why I'm working on the car get away from the holiday traffic.


Jack New Forest

The wheel cover seals, or tries to seal, the boot space from the cockpit, you can get the occasional whiff of fuel from the boot.
Also it covers up the spare which if you have had to change it after a puncture, may be pretty dirty and also it looks better.

I use an old Saab space-saver wheel and tyre and this gives me a couple more inches of boot space but I don't think you can get space saver wire wheels.

There have been lots of discussions on the forum about making the best use of your MGAs boot space.
There are a lot of tricks you can use to utilise all of it, the main thing is to use lots of small soft bags for your luggage instead of trying to fit one big bag in there.

Let me know if you need any more info.
Cheers
Colyn
Colyn Firth

Jack, Tudor Wheels has a really interesting website and looks like a good contact for the future. He does some useful looking work and appears to be quite an enthusiast. I will look in on him next time we drive down to Lymington. Good tip from you!
Bruce.
Bruce Mayo

Jack: you need to be able to push the spare wheel through that gap into the cockpit. It has a major role in supporting the folded hood and keeping it in place. Without that it tends to fall down and forward, taking up even more useful space.
Carpet in the boot - the extra thickness is taking up space you can ill-afford to loose! :-)
Graeme Williams

Jack, a photo of my boot is attached. I made the odd gray shaped container (lower left) to wrap around the spare and hold the jack & knockoff hammers; extra rad hoses & gas filter; some tools, as well as engine & carb oils and brake fluid. A gallon sized jug of water fits nicely inside the container as well. The blue nylon cover holds my tonneau cover (the cover is from a collapsible folding chair). And a soft side tool bag holds the majority of my road tools.


Nick Kopernik

Nick
And the luggage?!
Bruce.
Bruce Mayo

Luggage? Men don't need luggage. Only spanners.
But women........
Graeme Williams

"Luggage? Men don't need luggage. Only spanners.
But women........"

Exactly! But when needed and/or forced to, I can place a soft garment bag in the boot and strap a hard case or two onto the boot rack. Plus some smaller soft shell bags can be placed within the odd places in the boot.
Nick Kopernik

Thanks Nick for the picture, and yes Bruce, he is a young guy and a big enthusiast mainly older vintage cars, he has Model T fords, interesting guy his name is Richard, if you need anything wire wheel related he's the man. I think he also does Wodden wheels for the old London to Brighton type of cars.

Cheers
Jack New Forest

Regarding storage, I'm trying a motorcycle tank bag which should fit on the tunnel between the gearlever and the heater outlet. Not arrived yet but for £14 I thought it was worth a try. Should hold a fleece or the hats/gloves/knitting the Mrs brings with her for a run out and always looses down the side of the seats. At 21 litres it is almost as big as the space left in the boot!
Graeme Williams

It is surprising just how much space you can find in your MGA.
I must admit that I am in the "dislike the boot rack" camp, I just think that the boot rack (especially with a suitcase strapped onto) it just spoils the lovely lines of an MGA.

We have travelled Europe a few times as well last years entire Lands End-John-o-Groats trip and still managed to pack everything we needed inside the car.

This included loads of spare parts, lots of tools, all our luggage for over 2 weeks and we still found space in the car for the unplanned for pair of crutches that Chris needed after she broke her leg on arrival at the Lands End Hotel.

I fitted a thin carpet in the boot that I made myself, it takes up almost no space and will stop everything from rattling around in there and scratching the paintwork on your boot floor.

Colyn
Colyn Firth

I have two boot lids, one with and one without rack. I did it at the time the car was done. In the end I have left the rack version on most of the time as it seems to be handy a lot. For traveling I found that with the spare tire on the rack there is quite a bit of room for soft sided bags. I run with a single 12V battery and use the other rack for a weather proof road spares box. I talked my wife into making a vinyl tire cover for times when the tire is on the rack. More room for her clothes. She also made vinyl draw a string bag for the jack and knock off hammer.
Keith Lowman

Based on this thread and other recents threads ( spacer saver tyres etc ) and my own experience of driving my mga for 27 years without a single flat tyre ( or any other roadside non-promptly-curable failure ) i have removed the full size wire wheel spare from the boot , and bought a good tyre repair kit . The boot is monstrous in size ( a relative statement ) and i have just had two 24 beer bottle packs plus other shopping tucked in the cavern ...a truly useful car now.
Loads of room behind the seat as well ( my side screens are stored near vertical and at the back of the boot )
I also have my scissor jack , a foot pump and jumpers wrapped in plastic and ocky-strap secured on to the right hand battery support ( I have only one 12v battery ).
..plus one extra security ...I have just joined a oz wide roadside assistance company for $89 a year on a basic plan
Feel fairly secure ...
Neil Ferguson

Assume you must have tubeless tyres then Neil?
Otherwise you would have to include a set of giant tyre levers and a hernia self-repair fixer to your puncture repair outfit! ☺
Cheers
Colyn
Colyn Firth

Colyn....Indeed they are tubeless.. I did have a hernia op about 2 years ago ( chicken wire or similar installed ) so don't want a repeat of that.
Looking in the tubeless repair kit there does seem to be tools for doing an emergency self inflicted hernia op at the side of the road if needed.
Neil Ferguson

Roadside self applied hernia repair kit Neil, now I know this is hard to believe but that is actually something I never even considered including in my on board-spares list.☺

As you know I do keep the space-saver spare in the boot but I cheat a little by keeping it un-inflated, I have a tiny tyre inflator pump in the boot to pump it up if I should ever need it.
cheers
Colyn
ps
here's to us both remaining hernia-free for the forsee able future.☺
Colyn Firth

Still got my aircrew mini first aid pack from 1969 that I occasionally carry in the car. I was meant to hand it in but never did. Not sure how suitable it would be for hernias. It was issued for our transit flights taking the Lightnings out to Singapore. Among the assorted bandages are Morphine tablets and condoms! Time expired by now I expect! Not sure about the value of a condom in a single seat life raft in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

Steve
Steve Gyles

This thread was discussed between 25/03/2016 and 22/04/2016

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