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MG MGA - Fender piping

Does anyone have a good method/trick for installing the fender piping on MGA front wings? I know that I have cut the slots in the piping large enough for the fender bolts to clear without binding.

Try as I might, I can't seem to get the piplig to lay flat in the seam. The piping puckers at the fender bolt sites, most noticeably about mid way between the windshield post and the headlights. I have used the two man method, one person holding the piping while the other tightens the bolts, but I'm still having issues.

The rear fenders were no problem, but the front wings are giving me fits!
F Valenzano

FV this can be a dispairing exercise that I found out when I did my piping. Peter west gave me this advice that I'm happy to pass on.

The piping I originally purchased from Moss was very flexible and seemed to be from a fairly soft plastic. I binned this and bought some much stiffer (and less silvery) piping that was less prone to squeeze upwards from the bolt fixing. I believe the original piping was similar to this.

Don't cut an open slot out of the piping skirt. Carefully work out where the bolt goes and cut a small hole only. This way there's a degree of restraint that stops the piping escaping from its position.

Don't over tighten the wings. Pull them in enough to close against the shroud but don't over do it.

You may already be doing this but it did work for me.



J H Cole

Apparently there are two different widths of this piping. I'm not sure what these are off the top of my head. But as a rough guide the smaller size is about 1 inch wide, and the wider one about 1&1/2 inces. When I came to fit mine, I bought the piping from Moss UK which had the smaller width. It wouldn't fit in properly no matter how hard we tried. It was useless. Discarded this one and bought another from Brown & Gammons which was the wider type. Fitted in perfect, just don't overtighten the bolts.

Frank
F Camilleri

The "stiffness' of the piping which has been referred to is no doubt relevant. However most owner/restorers (like me) tend to overtighten the fender (we call them mudguard) bolts. I made this mistake when restoring my coupe so my later roadster is OK.
Barry Bahnisch

It sounds as though snug for the fender bolts is most appropriate, and may be part of my issue with the piping.

I will back off the fender bolts and see if this will make a differnce. Stay tuned
F Valenzano

You might want to check the fender flanges too. If they are bent out they will wedge the piping up as you tighten the bolts. Best if they are bent in a little bit so that the top edge contacts the piping first and holds it down.
John DeWolf

FV I got my fender piping from Scarborough Faire and the half round section was a little wider than the origianl say 1/32" which help hide any discrepancies in the fender fit. The piping was fairly rigid and I cut the holes with a hole punch and then continued the cut at a 45 degree angle to the bottom. This way I could hang the fenders on all the bolts and push the piping down into the open slot, which made it a one man job. I found it important to have both sides of the opening as parallel as possible so the piping didn't pinch.


Andrew Preston

I just recently completed this task. In fact last Friday.
I found it was rather a painless task if you do things in sequence.
I also bough the SF piping and left it hand for a couple of days to straighten it.

For the front fenders, start at the front but cutting the notched for the curvature and the slots for the first screws.
Make sure that all the fender bolts are loose and work your way up the fender with the piping cutting one slot at a time and testing for fit.
If it bulges out it generally means either the slot is not deep enough or the part of the piping is fouling on the he bolt so just cut a bit more further back/forward.

As you tighten the bolts just press it down with the hand. I found it was relatively straight forward but it does depend on the general condition of the fender edge.

I also found that in difficult areas you can wedge a screw driver from the underside in between fender and body and lever it to open the fender just slightly and press down.

I also found that a bit of WD40 in some tight areas works wonders, although I am sure someone will kill me for saying this.

Anyway this was my way... ; ) but I am happy with the result.
Gonzalo Ramos

This thread was discussed between 18/12/2010 and 20/12/2010

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