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MG MGB Technical - Glove box locks

I have an ex US '74 cb B roadster. It is still LHD but I am preparing the parts for a RHD conversion using the steel type dash.

One of the good things about my existing dash is that the glove box lock is a push button type so it can be shut but not locked. This is a feature I would like to keep but the standard steel dash glove box lock is only key opperated.

Has anyone tried fitting the later US push button lock to a steel dash glove box? If so how did it go?

David
David Witham

David,
just spent most of a 4 days trying to correctly refit my "badly-made-very-badly-installed-if-they-could-do- the-wrong-way-that's-the-way-they-did-it-fibre-glass-RHD-copy-of-an-American-Dash". Got it looking pretty good now but a welder, angle grinder, carbon/kevlar epoxy and superglue were all involved!

Spent some time on the ill fitting glove box and had occasion to dissassemble the lock. The lock you mention (and accompanying bits) can also be got off a make of car "Leyland Marina" at wreckers for peanuts, and possibly a few other Leylands of that period. This is the catch (ha ha) because it's actualy designed for an upward closing style glove box, not an American MGB style swing pannel so it should actualy work better on the english style Dash because 1-the English style has some upward/offset component like the Marina and 2-the English glove box can be closed past 'dead level with the dash'. My variety of Glove box won't do this and idealy that style of catch needs to go a few mm past dead level in order to activate the lock cam, then settle back a few mm.
At worst you may need to grind a few mm off the backmost part of the small cam, as I had to do, but I doubt it. You may also need to make a mounting plate for the catch the lock hooks onto, to locate it properly, but that won't be hard.
Good luck
Peter

That is helpful. Those RHD copies of the American dash do not seem to be available here. You are only the second person I remember mentioning them. The other being from New Zealand.

I am using the early rubber bumper metal dash. Sometimes known as the V8 dash as, I believe, it was first seen on CB GTV8s. It has a cutout under the speedo and tach that will accept the column from my car and it takes the 80mm speedo and tach. What to do with the oil gauge is an issue though. I may cut an opening for it between the tach and speedo to replicate its current position.
David Witham

The American dash from memory is curved & slightly concave, whereas the UK dash is flat. You will have to weld an elonged "D' piece of sheet steel to the scuttle above the dash for a filler.I once attempted to replace the glove box catch on a CB car with that from an RB car. When I found out what was involved, I changed my mind & took another direction. I used a key for the glove box & epoxied a knob on it. A plastic bottle top to be exact & stuck a small black & silver "MG" badge onit. I think the badge came from a midget hub cap.It made the glovebox accessible without searching for keys, which in turn meant taking the keys from the ignition. Barrie E
Barrie egerton

The simple and cheapest solution is to do just what Barry did and buy another key and leave it in the glove box all the time. Guaranteed to work and only costs a few bucks.

Andy
Andy Preston

Barrie, I have a whole new dash top panel in the roof of my garage. The push button latch on the current dash has a lock in it and I hope to preserve the ability to lock the glove box when leaving the car.
David Witham

You should be able to attach the catch to the top of the inside of the glove box. Or make up a bracket that attaches to something. Where there is a will there is a way!
Actualy I threw away the tiny little glove box the Dash came with and made up a "Huge Fill The Whole Space behind the dash" box out of thin MDF/chipboard and carpet. It was very easy to do,took a couple of hours. Much easier than fixing horrible past mistakes for example.
Basicaly I just cut a flat piece of board that sits on top of the scuttle brace and fills the gap between the dash and the firewall. It's held in place with that one bolt that the dash brace attaches to. I made up a rough, slightly too big, carpet bag(duct tape wrapped around the outside, pile in the inside), to line the hole, looks very good. Practical as well, I can fit CD's and Street directories and sun screen in there now with lots of room to spare.
A piece of tin would probably have been better, but I happened to have some thin MDF lying around.

Infact with a bit of effort you could have a false back in the unexpectedly large glove box and a hiding place for things such as your Walter PPK. Next step, ejector seat!
Peter

Well Peter it is funny you should have done that because I have been intending to explore the possibility of enlarging the glove box.

On the LHD cars the depth is limited by the wiper motor and the loom but with a RHD car there is plenty of space to play with. Secure storage is always useful in an open car.
David Witham

read all with extreme interest, my problem is in my 1980 B the lock just does not stay in, looks like some sort of ring retainer goes on the rear but can't find a picture of it anywhere .... its a yankee car
thanks for anyhelp
....rocky
rocco grillo

Hey Rocky,
Sounds like you've got a non orrigional lock. The Marina type lock is made of alloy of some kind (monol maybe, you certainly can't weld it, I tried!). It has two projections either side, where in the Marina it rivets to the back of the box. On the MG there are no rivets, but the projections are still there. The lock pushes through from the back of the box door and is held on by the front screw on chromed ring surround. More clearly, from the front, there is a central lock that has a thread on it and a chromed ring that screws on after the lock is pushed through from the back. The cheapest car to get this off is the Leyland Marina. You'll be pleased to find that that are many other MGB bits and pieces on the Marina.
Mind you, as I said the lock doesn't work all that well on fibre glass copies of American style dashes and took some effort to get it to work properly on my car. You might do better looking at something else that fits the hole and does the job better. Since the marina style lock has a different shaped key to all the other keys on the MGB it'll make no difference.
You know it continually amazes me that a car so unsecure as an MGB has so may different keys to get into it. There is the Ignition Key, which is entirely different to the door and boot keys, which are both entirely differnt to the glove box key. Did it not cross their minds at MG that people might want to have a single key to their car. Perhaps they thought it was a promotional thing, "MGB.. you get more keys than any other car in the world!"
Peter

Peter
you are a truckload of information, i have the lock in front of me... there are no protrusions....at the back there are two step downs, a quarter inch tab and a grove a 1/16 inch from the end ... may just go to a salvage yard and be done with it.....thanks.....rocky
rocco grillo

This thread was discussed between 25/07/2005 and 08/08/2005

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