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MG MGA - Fender liners

Hey all, while restoring an MGB, I was able to purchase fender liners from Moss. They fit and work very well. Are such liners available from the usual sources?

If not, does anyone have an idea where to purchase a suitable material?

Thanks, Tom
Thomas McNamara

Do you refer here to aftermarket plastic wheel-well liners, Tom? (I assume that you don't mean the metal splash panels delivered with the MGA.) I've never seen them before.

Ken
Ken Korey

Hey Ken, yes, I mean aftermarket wheel well liners. Where to source plastic? Tom
Thomas McNamara

Never seen or heard of wheel well liners for an 'A'. I have heard of a number of folks that spray undercoating inside the fenders prior to final paint. That's what I did on my car.
Larry Wheeler

Tom-
Glad to hear you plan to drive it in the winter, and on gravel roads!
Must be gettin' close now.

Plastic comes from plastic suppliers, probably polyethylene here. But, it would be lots easier to use the MGB ones maybe, or something from a junkyard - lot of cars have these now.

FRM
FR Millmore

I too fitted a pair to my MGBGT some 15 years ago - perfect for keeping the winter muck away from the back of the headlights and from going past the wheel arch splash panels. They can probably be modified to fit an A rather than trying to make a pair from a sheet of plastic from scratch .
Cam Cunningham

Hey all, I was also thinking of the rear wheel arches as that seems to be where most rot occurs. Perhaps I'll make them out of cardboard and coat them with POR 15. :)

Tom
Thomas McNamara

Tom, coat them with polyester resin and fibreglass cloth.
Art Pearse

You might look into 1/4" Airex; can form it with a heat lamp.

http://www.dragonplate.com/ecart/categories.asp?cID=35
David Werblow

Here's a picture of the front fender liner I made from fiberglass. Works well. I live on a dirt road and need all the help I can get.


Lmazoway

Hey all, I went to a local collision shop and they often have "scrap" fender liners. I will measure the desired coverage area and pick up a couple of the liners tomorrow, if they are appropriate. More to follow, Tom
Thomas McNamara

Lmazoway, neat. How did you mould it?
Art Pearse

Hi Art.
I had to make a mold first. Pic. attached. Then covered the mold with thin rubbery latex. Then covered the latex with fiberglass cloth and on that a layer of fiberglass matt. Soaked it with epoxy and then stretched another layer of rubbery latex over everything. Squeegy the air bubbles out. Sort of like making a vacuum mold.
Had to make 2 molds (left and right). Showed it to a few people and sort of went over like a lead balloon. Oh well. Does the trick. Some day I'll do the rear fenders.
Hope this helps.
Cheers.


Lmazoway

Lmaz-
Ambitious! Only quibble is it looks as if you have a bolted flange causing a goodly area to be directly against the fender itself. General rule is that liners should have as much unobstructed clean air flow as possible.
Did you really use epoxy resin? Good but $$$. Polyester more commonly used.
Any pic of the finished liner uninstalled?

Related techniques are to use styrofoam as a mold, and then dissolve the styrofoam with acetone or gasoline - can make tanks this way. Or leave the styrofoam and laminate the backside if you want an insulated and rigid composite panel.

I needed to make a very complex gearbox/transfer case cover for a Landcruiser I had "adjusted" a bit - very knobbly and essential clearance required at all points. I wanted to assure clearance and maybe smooth it out a bit inside the car, but not waste space. I figured out to use polyester upholstery foam over the in-situ power unit, to the required clearance, and tucked under the edge of the floor pan around the box. Then I painted the foam and floor with melted wax, laid up the fibreglass over it. Drilled the screw holes, removed the piece, trimmed edges, sanded and painted the top surface a bit - voila and tootle-ooo! It has since come to me that I should have done this twice, leaving a foam insulation thickness integral to the gearbox cover. (I had built two layer insulated aluminum heat shields for the entire firewall, which had somehow had a 350 Chev recessed into it, and everything exposed to exhaust heat, from my outrageous headers.)

Worked so well I then made anti-snow excluders around the front damper mounts and other holes that formerly filled the engine room with snow. Painted flat black, many people swore they were factory parts, and demanded the part numbers!

FRM
FR Millmore

Peter Gamble, 5 speed gearbox kit supplier, has fitted liners to his MGA. They were made from ABS sheet I seem to recall when I spoke to him. I wonder if he would provide a comment.

John
John Francis

Hello FRM
I used epoxy since I had some left over from a boat build awhile back. Here's the final product. The earlier picture showed the far side where I attached it to the body using the fender bolts. The side you see here was quite rough when finally trimmed. I didn't want this rubbing against the inside of the fender, rubbing off the new paint. I purchased a vinyl door guard from Pep Boys and slid it over this tough edge. There is plant of air circulating around this.

Hope this helps the next ambitious individual.

Cheers.

Larry


Lmazoway

Larry-
OK, nice!
Always interested to see coverage on such, most cover a lot more of the wheel well. My Aceca has very heavy aluminum mesh stone shields from the factory, to prevent noise and fender out-dings from stones.

FRM
FR Millmore

Wouldn't it be easier to just lay up some fibreglass on the inside top of the fender itself?
Art Pearse

Possibly.

My concern would be that moisture could be trapped between the fender and the fiberglass eventually causing rust. Although if you had an old fender it might possible be used as a mold. Not sure about that but worth a ponder.
Lmazoway

This thread was discussed between 08/07/2012 and 13/07/2012

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