MG-Cars.com
MG MGA New Bimini Strut Design BBS discussion at MG-Cars.net
MG-Cars.net
Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.
Recommendations
Parts
MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.
|
|
MG MGA - New Bimini Strut Design
| One of the few drawbacks to the original design of the Bimini Top was the jointed vertical strut, which at time would buckle and bring the hood down on the driver and passenger at "inappropriate" times.
The vendor, Ed Kirkland has redesigned the strut to completely eliminate the problem. I've attached a picture of the old and new struts and one of how they look on the car. I tested it out at 70+ MPH today and it was rock solid. Ed charges $40 for the pair plus $10 shipping in the US. He can be reached at edkirkland@centurylink.net - Ken   |
| KR Doris |
| Hi Ken That's good news. I didn't have the hood collapse on me but I did notice that I had to keep tightening the fittings after a long day driving. I didn't use mine last year but hopefully one day we will be able to travel to the continent again where it is a real bonus. John |
| John Francis |
| Hi John,
Be sure if you return to the continent and are in the southeast US to let us know ahead and plan to visit us in Beaufort SC - ideally located between Savannah GA and Charleston SC! Melon and I spent several days in Wales last August as part of our 50th wedding using wedding cars tunbridge wells Anniversary trip to the British Isles. We had planned to ship our MGA over but that didn't work out, and ended up touring Wales in a '68 XK-E. A long story that is summarized here: https://mgamk2com.ipage.com/50thAnniversaryTrip.html As things open up here in the States, we hope to take a long trip (~ 4K miles) in the MGA up the East coast in mid-July, where the Bimini will be a great asset! - Ken  |
| KR Doris |
| Hi Ken
great to hear from you, how's life in S/C for the Doris's, looks like you are getting some pretty good weather over there. I have looked at getting a Bimini top for my MGA but, as you will recall from our amazing, but incredibly wet, weekend last year on the Scottish MGA Day Tour, we tend to have to work much harder at keeping the rain out of the car, rather than keeping out of the sun. If we had a Bimini top I would probably have to develop a way of rapidly attaching a rear window panel to quickly turn it into a soft top! You can tell the different UK weather oriented mind-set by the type of work I have been doing on the car since the Covid-19 "lock-down". I have been modifying the heater unit to increase the airflow output so that we can get better windscreen demisting and a better heat output! Cheers Colyn |
| Colyn Firth |
| (Off title topic)
Ken, it was great to read your summarized story, the Morgan repair made me laugh, didn't expect that but cable-ties and barbed-wire have been staples of our northern tours too (not on our cars, never that simple). Good choice of engine (and Rover version) for a hired Morgan, ideal for the whole of the UK (as long as you note the opening times of petrol stations if driving fast). The E-Type whilst lovely to look at as you found isn't best for wet days (not that we get many over here of course) or for the better small roads of Wales. Like many classic cars, these hire cars don't get used enough or regularly enough, over reasonable distances, and serviced and maintained enough to get them thorough proper running test to iron out their wrinkles so the hirers repeatedly do so. But it sounds like you had a great time and the opportunity to go out with other owners properly driving their classics on great roads. And you'll probably appreciate more now why the British cars are smaller for the narrower roads we have. :) (BTW it's a (1969 by reg) (just) E-Type over here) :) |
| Nigel Atkins |
| Hi Colyn and Nigel,
Colyn - the weather here in The Lowcountry has been incredible - all blue skies and temps in the 70's and low 80's. No real need for the Bimini yet, but once it gets 85 and above it will be in place regularly. I do understand the British climate is not an ideal market for it, especially after our very wet Scottish MGA Day weekend! I'm inspired by all of your pandemic projects on the A! Nigel - you are absolutely right about lack of use in those hire cars. They were both newly acquired by the agent and were not properly sorted out before we got them. The Morgan was a 2001 with 18,000 original miles on it. We added about 1500 more. The E-Type had 23,000 showing on the clock, but it must have been missing the leading "1". First clue was it was delivered (exchanged for the Morgan after the fan failure) with a full gallon each of oil and coolant! Didn't do much for our confidence level over the next 500 miles or so we drove it. I've attached a picture of the E-Type battery that died. It looks like it was original! - Ken  |
| KR Doris |
| Hi Ken,
I'm not sure the battery is quite the original by the look of all the safety markings on the label, but look at the state of the nuts and bolts and I hope you added all the dust and dizzle. I did try to drop you some heavy hints before, perhaps more than hints. FYI if you'd been told the registrations before hiring you could have looked up some (public) information about the car(s) to give you a clue. V8 PLM - May 2001, 3.9 Morgan, probably acquired by hirers in May 2019 by the last change of "logbook". It had clocked less than 5,000 miles in the previous 13 years to their acquisition and possibly less than 100 miles in the last three years before purchase. JXC 83H - Shows as an October 1969, 4.2, last change of "logbook" October 2019 (50 years) so they might have moved the car on. MoT'd 2 February 2019 at a recorded 20,790 miles on the clock, having recorded only 1,600 miles in the previous 13 years and a gap in recording for the last 3 years but 84 miles added. Perhaps the hirers did do full road testing and servicing on both vehicles and just wanted to keep the "patina" to the E-Type engine bay. I think I mentioned the hired V12 E-Type we had on our tour the other year. Good job you're used to classic cars and could take it in your stride, I look forward to reading Melon's MGA Magazine article when I have a bit more time. |
| Nigel Atkins |
| First off - apologies to the BBS for continuing to go off topic!
Nigel - wow! I didn't realize all that info was readily available with just the plate number! Here in the US I don't believe it is centralized (at least not for the public(; rather it is held by each state, so doing a search is much more difficult. Note that we hired the cars from Bespokes Motors, and neither of the cars we ended up with are listed on their website. Other Morgans and Jags are, but those are not. In the case of the Morgan, that was not the car we originally reserved. That was a 2014 Morgan +4, but it was damaged just a few days before we arrived in the UK (see photo). At that point we were stuck - too late to find alternatives from other firms as it was the height of the season. The +8 seemed a reasonable alternative. When the Morgan died, Bespokes offered the E-type as the last chance to keep our contract going and they also made it clear they had just acquired it and were working to quickly get it prepped and delivered to us (we were then in Castelton and the car was in London). I questioned the battery at the handover but was assured it was fine. At 6PM, again not much chance for alternatives, so there in a pub parking lot we made the exchange. BTW, the plate on the damaged +4 was MX14 GGE. I just checked and it is shown as off road (SORN) Also note that in addition to Melon's article in MGA! Colyn wrote a companion piece for the same issue that was brilliant! Please tell me about the V-12 E-Type. - Ken  |
| KR Doris |
| Ken was originally going to ship his (well Melons actually) MGA to the UK for his amazing tour, but the cost was such that it would have been less expensive to buy a car over here just for the trip.
I suggested that they should join us on the Scottish MGA Day last July, which coincided with their trip. I managed to persuade the event organiser (Paul Dean) to accept their rented Morgan+8 on his tour because, if you look carefully, their car name does in fact include the correct letters, MorGAn :^) We had a great weekend with you guys Ken in spite of the weather, Ken made me chuckle when he told me that Morgan state that their soft top is completely waterproof, so long as the car is stationary! Cheers Colyn |
| Colyn Firth |
| Ken,
if you want any information from around the world surely you just ask someone that works at Google, Amazon, Facebook, et al. In case you've not found the MoT check this is it (cars 40+ years old don't need an MoT but must be roadworthy). - https://www.check-mot.service.gov.uk/ We'll give Bespoke the benefit of the doubt over the E-type if they made it clear that they'd not fully tested it and only a wiper arm came off. But I'd missed the part about the battery dying. Given it was a car that did next to no mileage each year unless the battery was quite newish rather than changing it you'd replace it with new or find a good battery to put on it, it's literally their business to know such things. Red, drop-top V12 5.3l E-Type, some friends in our car club hired it for a tour in Cumbria as their car was playing up and as he's tall and got a beer-belly he needed a car with legroom. There was some fuss about the collection but I can't now remember details. At a tea stop on the tour as I walked passed it I noticed a smell of petrol and later on lifting the bonnet it appeared to be from a union that was wet so probably needed nipping up but I didn't have any tools and it was prefered not to touch the hired car. He's used to a lot of faults and high petrol consumption on his own car and considered the weap too small to worry about. That afternoon on a very narrow road where cows were moving from one field to another one animal took exception to a red drop-top E-type and back-kicked the wing (fender). It was the other smaller engined E-type on the tour which saved our friends some insurance hassle with the hired car. Another long story short, about 15 years back, I was talking to a chap that looked after a few classics that a wealthy chap owned and was told that the owner was selling two of them to a hire company but had insisted as part of the deal that they also took away a red drop-top E-Type as the car had issues and was a disappointment to the owner. The owner had plenty of money so that wasn't one of the issues. Apparently he owned a pizza delivery company, not a major one either, and was away supervising a £3m extension to his London flat, and this was 15 years ago. But I've never trusted red cars with wire wheels, the more so the shinier the red paint and wheels. :) |
| Nigel Atkins |
| "But I've never trusted red cars with wire wheels, the more so the shinier the red paint and wheels. :)" Well you've gone and done it now Nigel! that's half of all MGA owners insulted in one sentence! Good job you added the "Smiley" at the end! Fortunately, Kens car is OEW and mine is dark blue and so we are unaffected! :^) Colyn |
| Colyn Firth |
| Colyn,
I've put stuff before about the over abundance of Tartan red, particularly Bs but also Spridgets, and it's the law they must have chrome wire wheels. Some even have wooden dashes and of course tartan picnic blankets - but as always each to their own. Taste is a personal thing, some take the mickey out of more unusual and different design schemes on our type of classics when often living in glass houses. :) Ken's looks spot on to me, white with red interior, steel wheels with chrome hubcaps, yours I think I remember and dark blue is good - we are three of good taste, it's some of the others that aren't always. :) I don't like my old man's red on my midget, Spridgets should be brighter colours, but it was one of the reason's I bought the car as I knew I'd not worry about where I parked it or its appearance, the paint finish wasn't great. My previous Spridget was a very well painted "Henley's" green and after someone reversed into it only causing minor damage I started to get a bit precious about it which isn't good for a 'daily drive' classic. |
| Nigel Atkins |
| well I e-mailed Ed Kirkland and asked to order a top and please send an invoice including shipping to me here in Switzerland. I can only assume he doesn't want to sell me one as i have heard absolutely nothing. |
| Dominic Clancy |
| Dominic - I'll email him to ask about it. He usually answers my emails within 24 hours. - Ken |
| KR Doris |
| Yes you are correct Nigel, the main disadvantage of having a dark colour MGA is that it appears to render it completely invisible!
My dark blue MGA has been run into four times in car parks, once in the UK and 3 times whilst touring in Europe and the repairs were all at my own expense. The first 3 times they were hit and run where we never found out who did the damage. The 4th bump was in a secure underground hotel car park, on this occasion, I was advised by a very apologetic Spanish driver, that he had reverse his hire car into my MGA because he didn't see it in the dark conditions. In the end,it proved so difficult to process the insurance claim through his hire car company that it was easier for me just to again, pay for the repairs myself. I obviously need to carry 4 traffic cones with me to make my MGA more Hi-Vis. Colyn |
| Colyn Firth |
| Another thing to upset owners then, another reason to have (hivis) reflective plates on your classics to make them stand out more. I know you'll say it'd made no odds with your accidents but also a good idea for parking outside at night (a second idea that'd put the wind up many).
When my previous Spridget was backed into it was in a company car park and a note was left on my car by the chap who had the parking bump which was very good of him as he could have just driven off without trace. I saw a company van parked just in front of my Spridget, look at my Spridget and could see no damage so I rang the number on the note and the chap said he thought he'd cracked the indicator and I thought as the front glass lens has a circular pattern on it he probably thought he'd cracked it so I told him to forget it. At home that night when my wife came in she asked how I'd damaged the car and I went out with her to look - at the rear of the car with a missing lens and other minor damage, I had to ring the chap back for his insurance details and all was sorted easily. |
| Nigel Atkins |
| The only problem with the steel wheels is the tendency to get stress fractures, either at the holes for the studs or worse running around the wheel dome. I have had this happen on so many wheels that I have fitted minilite copies and keep the originals for compulsory testing only. Fitting TR& wheel nuts with their larger cone area seems to reduce the problem a lot. Otherwise I too prefer the steel wheel look over wires, but the minilites look pretty good too on my OEW car too. |
| Dominic Clancy |
| I have a slightly amusing tale about getting my Bimini from Ed a couple of years ago. He emailed me to ask if the UAE was the same as the UK before posting it. We sorted it out very quickly.
My father moved to El Paso the USA for a couple of years in the 80's. He said the he knew more about what was happening in the US and the rest of the world by reading his favourite UK paper than he did reading the US news. However he was most interested in the politics and economy than anything else. Dominic I needed my Bimini quickly and the postage was fairly high £50+ but the customs duty was also about £75. I think the Bimini was £300. Ken I read your travel account some time ago with interest. I have also read about a lovely drive from Boston up the East Coast of the US to Nova Scotia. It sounded wonderful so am envious of your proposed trip. |
| John Francis |
| Ken, if your trip takes you through Upstate SC, be sure to give me a holler. I'm in the Dark Corner between Greer and Landrum. Jud |
| J K Chapin |
| Minilite copies are one of the only alloy wheel designs I quite like, I prefer the copies to the original mag or alloy actual Minilight which are a bit more square edged. |
| Nigel Atkins |
| Ken,
I really enjoyed Melon's write up. I was going to put that the Morgan's bumper was a brilliant British design feature for quick removal but saw it was caused by a bracket rusting all the way through. And then the immobiliser and the electric cooling fan both packing in was very poor show. If the E-Type battery was totally unsecured(?) that's a total no-no, I'm surprised the recovery man let that go. Although all the motorways are at the national speed limit of 70mph the M1 generally isn't the fastest and whilst it's often horrific it's not the most horrific, generally motorways are often best avoided. You must try the M69 and M25 next time for the enjoyment of comparison. At least you didn't have to suffer the extreme heat for too long and got a more typical refreshing UK weather. And understand why the softops of Japanese cars are so appreciated here, and see why us Brits buy the most convertibles compared to Europe. :) |
| Nigel Atkins |
| Colyn, nice write-up too. I liked all the photos, in all the articles, too, and thought the b/w of the house appropriate. :) |
| Nigel Atkins |
| Dominic - I emailed Ed Kirkland and he called me back a few hours later. He said he had emailed you back to ask to clarify what you wanted - a full set (hood, etc) or just the struts. He said he had sent a full set off to someone in Switzerland in early April, with a shipping cost of $80. He doesn't know the cost of shipping the struts alone until he actually does it, but at least it will be less. Check for his email and if still missing let me know how you want to proceed. -Ken |
| KR Doris |
| Ken, sorry I owe you an apology I didn't previously give you heavy hints about the possible quality of hired classic cars, my poor memory I thought I had. I either thought about it at the time and changed my mind or it's another false memory of mine. Talking of which, the two red soft-top Jags on the tour were XJSs not E-Types, although last year there were two E-Types on the tour but one was grey and the other a Coupe - I remember that because both are reasonably local to us.. |
| Nigel Atkins |
| Hi Ken, thanks for doing that. I don't have any mails from hm so it seems to have been caught by the spam filter and deleted. I have emailed him again, and if he sends me an invoice with PayPal, it should be whitelisted and come through. Dominic |
| Dominic Clancy |
| Hi Dominic - I'll let Ed know to look for your email. If there are continued communications problems I'd be happy to act as a middle-man. - Ken |
| KR Doris |
| Nigel - in your post about the history of the cars we rented you mentioned their "logbooks". I used the links for viewing the overall status and the MOT history but didn't discover how to access the logbooks. - Ken |
| KR Doris |
| Hi Ken, no you won't get to see the "logbook" as such and don't need to for your purposes. The " logbook" is the V5C registration certificate of the vehicle and includes the current registered keeper (not necessarily the owner) so data protection issues, it also has details of the vehicle. Taxed (and MoT) - http://www.gov.uk/check-vehicle-tax MoT (and MoT history) - http://www.check-mot.service.gov.uk/ MoT stats - http://www.vehiclestats.co.uk/Home/About |
| Nigel Atkins |
| This is now out of date (a few years, no local offices now) but will give you the idea. - http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/167212/response/411848/attach/4/INS160.pdf |
| Nigel Atkins |
This thread was discussed between 09/05/2020 and 14/05/2020
MG MGA index
This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.