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MG MGA - Chassis plate looks too new

During a sypmathetic restoration the chassis plate went missing and was replaced with a new one. Unfortunatly it is just too brightand looked out of place. Has anybody managed to replicate the look that years of neglect a chassis plate normaly looks like.
Tried rubbing salt into it and leaving it damp, leaving out in the rain, immersing in white wine vinegar, and finaly using a kettle descaler acid, disaster the black fell off, so i need to get another chassis plate now and start again.

Any thoughts ... Thanks
R Mcknight

Reproduction Car No. plates for the past 30 years or more have been incorrect configuration. Most of them are perfectly flat with printed and anodized face, black print on the aluminum plate.

Original plates were chemically etched for depth relief and black background. If you press on it with your finger you get an impression of the raised lettering on your finger tip. See details here:
http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/restore/rt107.htm
http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/restore/rt107a.htm

About five years ago Serge Vliegen in Belgium began reproducing these plates in correct configuration. As far as I know he is the only source for these plates in correct form. If you want it to look vintage, maybe throw some sand on it and walk on it to scuff it up a bit.
Barney Gaylord

Do you need the plate for an early 1500, "middle age" 1500 ?

What year is your car?


Giovanni
Giovanni Delicio

Hi Giovanni , its a early 1960 1600 .. Roy
R Mcknight

Emails to Serge are bouncing back so looks like he does not do Plates any more.
Any other sources for good repro plates?

Thanks Roy
R Mcknight

Roy,

I have one of the Serge Vliegen plates with "SEE engine" in the Engine Number space, suitable for a 1600 car. Contact me off-line (email link above).
Barney Gaylord

This may sound a bit odd but it works on aluminium parts.

To age a plate, put it in the dishwasher with anything made of copper.

It very lightly electroplates the aluminium with copper. This turns it very slightly brown.

I know this because I dishwashed my carbs a couple of years ago and the spindles caused the same effect on the dashpots.

Paddy Reardon

I think Serge may have had two or three batches of plates made with improvements to each subsequent batch. I got one from the first batch six years ago for 25 Euros.

It might be worth looking at Ebay item 230995797892 which the seller claims to be an original and new factory plate. If he is correct the price is comparable with Serge's plate. However he appears to have the plate dimensions incorrectly stated in the ad. by an inch in both directions. This would need checking. The fonts appear to be correct compared with my original plate which can't be said of the normal repro plates.............................Mike
m.j. moore

Barney , Email sent .. Roy
R Mcknight

hi,

I still have some plates left, for the early 1500 10 pieces, for the 1500 about 40 and for the 1600 about 50.
The price for the plate is 30 euros

serge
serge

Serge, I tried to order a plate from you but the email from your ORDER page bounced back. Is there another way to contact you?
G Goeppner

Hi Barney, Plate arrived safe and sound, it makes the Moss product look rubbish. We had builders in mixing up cement so I put it in the cement mixer for a couple of minutes with the mix and let it churn, then let it dry in the sun and then scoured the of the dried cement and it now looks 50 years old. Job done.

Thanks Roy
R Mcknight

Todd Clarke Spares has a very good chassis and engine plate stamping service. He is located in Pennsylvania and I have one with an excellent result.

Link: www.clarkespares.com

He has other excellent offerings for the breed and its cousins. Tell him Steve Lofaro sent you please.
Stephen Lofaro

This thread was discussed between 02/06/2013 and 25/06/2013

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