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 - painting a rebuit 1500 engine

Where can I find details on the original paint scheme for a '67 1500. I'm interesting in how everything was treated, including block, head, valve cover waterpump, starter, generator, coil, bellhousing and transmission.

thanks
brucep

Hirsch makes excellant engine paint that is a perfect match.

Clausigers book is the definative sourse for restoration details.

Tranny is left aluminum-as-cast finish.
Starter when new was painted maroon along with the engine. Replacements were black with natural aluminum front and rear plates.

The waterpump and fan were maroon. Later the fan was painted safety yellow.

I'm not sure about the generator. I'm inclined to believe they were as the replacement starter, black with unfinished aluminum ends. The end plates are open for cooling and were they painted at the factory the innards could get fowled with paint.

http://www.hirschauto.com/acb/showdetl.cfm?&DID=27&Product_ID=1&CATID=1

Doug
D Sjostrom

did you mean '57 not '67?
Dennis

There's a section on engine painting on Barney Gaylord's website (mgaguru.com).

As I recall, his approach is to build up the engine, then mount it in an engine stand and paint the whole thing in one go.
James Reinhardt

As James says,the MGA engines were painted when fully assembled .
This meant that even the the rocker cover nuts and their rubber bushes got a coat of maroon engine paint.
The Lucas coils were added later and were in a natural metal finish .

Ray.
RC Brown

Ditto to the above. After getting involved with the competitive aspects of car shows, what often seperate others is the hardware. Many, many people paint their generators, starters, thermostat housings, and heads and then bolt them up with new shinny hardware. Obviously it works just fine but its not how the factory did it. Some will say that hoses and clamps were attached and should/could be randomly oversprayed. I prefer the clamps and hoses to be shinny and new

When was the gearbox attached? I don't know this bit of MGA production history. With the MGB, the gearboxes were attached to the engines before painting so if one wants to be truly anal and nuts, there is overspray on the gearbox bellhousing. I must admit, as my MGB engine was on the crane, ready to be placed in the car, I shot the backplate and its bolts one last coat, getting just oh so much overspray on the bellhousing! What the heck--didn't cost any more.
Paul Hanley

The hoses and clamps should not have any engine paint on them as they were not installed until the engine had been mounted in the rolling chassis.
Page no. 68 of A.D.Clausager's "Original MGA " has a picture of 4 gearboxes,all in a used condition. One,the tranny from a Mk 2 has either a coat of black paint applied by a PO or a layer of dirt and grease so is hard to draw any conclusions from. The other 3 show no signs whatsoever of engine paint. When I stripped down my own car,no. 84647,a '60 Roadster, I noticed no paint at all on the gearbox , not even overspray.
I guess from this that the MGA boxes were added to the engines after the latter were painted.

Ray.
RC Brown

This thread was discussed on 23/12/2004

MG MGA index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.