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MG MGA - Concours Trimmer in UK

Has anyone a recommendation for a concours quality trimmer in the UK for interior, hood and sidescreens, including carpets. My seats have beautiful old patina but I will probably get them redyed becuase the armrest is worn and has a hole. I was planning to get Bob West to do it but am struggling to get an estimate.

Thanks

John
John Francis

Hi John

Keep trying with Bob - have you called him?

I also had to keep reminding him that I wanted a quote, and am now waiting for the complete interior from him - a friend of mine is replicating the 100,000 MGA (without the shag pile carpet) and the interior from Bob is cheaper than a local trimmer, and his quality is of course superb.

Dominic
dominic clancy

I concur (pun) Dominic's comment. Bob West's trimmer, Les, is as good as they come.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Bob's one off stuff is good, but you will find that his "run of the mill" stuff comes from Newton Commer cial.
Gary Lock

John, I have very recently had seats recovered and a new hood. I chose PJM motors in Market Drayton who specialize in trimming MGs up here.
Before I chose them I also asked for samples of the leather and piping for the seats and the vinyl for the hood from Newton Commercial and Motobuild. All three of these I believe make up their own items.
On receiving the samples I found that the piping colour varied a lot. I wanted the pale blue piping for an iris blue car and I was surprised to find that Newton Commercial's sample was dark grey and nothing like the original; they said that the original colour was no longer available.

The Motobuild colour was as close to Iris blue as you could get but the piping vinyl was very thick at 1.15 mm which is nearly three times the thickness of the original which was 0.43 mm. This has the effect of producing a finished piping which has a larger diameter than original. For example with the original core diameter of 1/8" the original finished diameter would have been close to 4 mm but with a modern 3 mm core the finished diameter with the Motobuild thickness would be over 5 mm. These differences might seem small but they have a noticeable appearance on the finished product.
Another consequence of the thick vinyl is that it becomes more difficult to finish the cut piping at the ends of the cockpit trim pieces.
I spoke with a Motobuild man and he said this thick vinyl was the reason why some trimmers recommend that the piping on the rear cockpit trim is kept in one piece as opposed to the original three because there are four fewer piping ends to trim neatly.
The piping colour from PJM was almost identical to the original, some of which I still have, but a touch greener which made it match my blue paint less well. So I spent a long time searching various trimming suppliers for the right piping vinyl and I couldn't find one anywhere near the original thickness so I compromised on one which was exactly the same colour as the paint but a bit thinner than the Motobuild one. The only reason I chose PJM over Motobuild was the distance away.
PJM kindly agreed to make up the seats with my own piping.
They took a few weeks to make and I was very pleased with the final result. They have used vinyl for the backs and for the places around the base of the seats as original and the leather quality is superb
If I were to be super critical I would say that the use of foam for upholstery is not to my liking and it has too much 'spring back'. I think I would have preferred the feel of the original Dunlopillo.

The hood PJM made for me is excellent even though it hasn't been fitted yet. I'd have absolutely no hesitation in using them again.
However if you fancied using someone closer I would suggest you talk to Motobuild because they seemed very knowledgeable about the MGA....................Mike
m.j. moore

Thanks everyone. I think I'll stick with Les and Bob. However, lots of calls and still struggling to get a proper estimate! I am planning to use Tod Clarke's door trim which is very expensive but the samples he sent over look very good although not sure whether to use the bright red or the reddy brown colour. Has anyone else used Tod's? See picture.

Thanks

John



John Francis

I use Todd Clarke's door seals. Love it. See here:
http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/interior/int108b.htm
Barney Gaylord

This thread was discussed between 11/02/2010 and 15/02/2010

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