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MG MGA - Heater Assembly part missing

I am trying to catch up to Larry in York, ME - he's now pulled ahead of me in the restoration of our similar cars - but he cheated by starting 20 years ago while I only started about 11 years ago.

I am now trying to figure out what things I am still missing - most of which are small bits that can be purchased for a lot of money from Moss or the like.

One thing though is the bottom sheet metal for the heater assy. A new heater assy from Moss is $600 (ouch), but they don't sell the bottom piece separately. I am missing the rectangular boxy part with the holes that the defroster vent hoses would go into.

Short of fabricating one, does anyone know where I can get just this part? I might borrow Larry's and make my own if needs be...

Thanks.

JIM in NH
AJ Mail

Funny how these pieces go missing. I need the exact same thing for my '58 coupe, so if you should find two, please let me know. My guess is that the vent tubes have to be detached to get the heater out of the shelf, and then they go walk about.
When I bought my '56 roadtser, it didn't have a heater at all. But that was in the middle of Africa! Fitted one as soon as the car came to Canada. Maybe someone in Aussie has a heater they don't use.
Peter.
P. Tilbury

That's kind of a complicated piece of metal, if you want it to look, work, and fit like the original. This sounds like a job for Ebay...
Del Rawlins

It shouldnt be too difficult to fabricate a small flat hinged flap to fit over the rectangular hole in the base of the heater unit. A small section of brass "piano" type hinge would be ok I think. It would also be fairly easy to put a "V" shaped deflector on the inside of the flap to help deflect the warm air to each footwell when opened. I cant see any real need to replicate the small vents that are cut through the original flap.
The difficult part would be to fabricate the cable attachment to control the opening and closing of the flap. I used some motorcycle cable fittings to fix mine.
I managed for a year or so without the heater flap without real problems and if I needed to demist the screen I just took small cleaning sponge I used in the car and stuffed it into the hole. This worked just fine and had the double advantage of drying the sponge at the same time!
This may be the easiest option until you find a spare original flap.
Cheers
Colyn

colyn firth

Jim I just realised that the heater part you are looking for isnt the one I was talking about. I have a spare lower heater section which has the demister nozzles on it as you described. It doesnt have the flap on it that I mistakenly described in great detail as I have cannibalised it to fit onto my present car. It will need paint as it has been in my garage for almost 30 years but if you cant get one in NH and would like it, let me know. No idea what cost of postage may be!
Colyn
colyn firth

The lower part of a B heater box is pretty much the same, and could be used as a basis to modify and make an A one.
Probably much easier to find too. The flap assembly is very different on a B, so that's where most of the work would be if you wanted to make it original. Look at the link here I found on Barney's site
http://chicagolandmgclub.com/photos/b_heater/

You would have to buy the hose flanges from Moss, but I believe they are available as a separate part
dominic clancy

I thank you Colyn.

I think I am missing both assy's - the flaps and the covering box.

I have contacted the PO to see if he by chance has them stored away still - he owes me a box of parts.

If not, I'll post a pic to show what I actually have!

JIM in NH
AJ Mail

Jim,

I had a bunch of parts, including a heater, that I didn't want to trailer up from Oregon two years ago. I gave them to Keith Ansell at Foreign Parts Positively near Portland. Keith has a lot of used MGA stuff. You might check with him.
http://www.foreignpartspositively.com/

Ken
k v morton

I have what I think you are looking for; it is part of the heater shroud. It is rusted but serviceable. If you’re down in CT some time I’ll give it to you. (MG, the Marque of friendship, and all that sort of thing)


David werblow

David - thank you so much - I will be down presently!

I am missing just the very bottom oval part with the flap as it turns out...

JIM in NH
AJ Mail

You could try Ashley Hinton. He makes replica heaters from the original tooling although I think the tooling for the flap was damaged a few years ago. He was very helpful with some internal parts/ rubber seal for the air intake flap but not so keen to sell individual metal parts. He will sell just the whole case though I think.

http://www.mgcars.org.uk/ah/heater.htm

John Francis

Hi I make all the MGA and mga twin cam heater unit let me know what you need part number 7H1995 in stock fits on the bottom of heater unit MGA and MGA Twin cam
Let me know if you like to see some photos
Regards Ashley Hinton
tel 01372 456304 work day time
www.mgcars.org.uk/ah/
A Hinton

AJ,
Would you be interested in a complete heater assembly?

Ed Stanfield
Columbia, SC
ECS Stanfield

I got the part from David in CT - I think I am all set now. However, there are others who would love a whole heater assembly. What are you asking?

JIM in NH
AJ Mail

This thread was discussed between 12/11/2009 and 12/03/2011

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