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MG MGB Technical - heritage shells

i was wondering what people thought of the new heritage shells as mine is terrible,rear wings 20mm out each side,nuts held on by paint only ,new hinges bent and unable to adjust.i am converting one back to 3 synchro pull handle spec some pics on

www.mgste.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
s brown

I thought that poor fit in Heritage shells was almost a thing of the past but apparently not. I was given good advice many years ago by several rebuilders to always restore an existing shell unless it is absolutely impossible. Both my GT and roadster therefore have rebuilt shells so the cars are largely original and everything fits well compared to having to knife and fork your way through a Heritage rebuild. Unfortunately too, our own time is free so the end product whilst better than a reshell if done properly is also much cheaper to accomplish.
Iain MacKintosh

the gt we did was terrible only bulk head parts of inner wings and the battery boxs were untouched but the roadster was even worse than that so a reshell was the only option.my dads is a heritage shell which was one of the first off the line after the rv8 stopped production so it had all panels with it as early shells didnt fit with doors,sohis was perfect but 10yrs down the line and they are getting worse or i got a friday night /monday morning shell.i know people go on about original shell rebuild but they were bad out of the factory .I dont know wether anyone will agree with me but heritage use the ORIGINAL tooling from the factory which built the ORIGINAL shell so in a roundabout way my shell is an ORIGINAL shell? ive been updating my website http://www.mgste.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/and i will update every few days.
s brown

I don't agree that yours is an original shell. The original shell was that fitted at the date of first registration. Agreed that original fit wasn't perfect but it could be made fairly good. Heritage shells are made from the original dies but these are now well worn and do nothing for accuracy.
Iain MacKintosh

i know its not an original shell but like i say about the gt the amount of heritage panels that went on it there was hardly anything left so there are no original shells around as over the yrs they have had panels fit due to damage or rust and there is no way of knowing if our cars had not been reshelled by the factory after an accident ,i think that if the shell is truely unrestorable i think that a heritage shell is a better way than scrapping a car and losing an early car forever,how many of these early mgs TCs/PBs with ash frames have had them replaced but nothing is said about them
s brown

It seems these problems are universely known among Brit car guys.Which begs the ongoing question,why are excellent used original parts selling for a fraction of aftermarket parts? Is there such a thing as an aftermarket rolex at premium prices? Just had a talk with a guy in Ohio trying to fit repro MGA fenders,lots of profanity.
wc wolcott

its the same over here,grills that will not fit,bumpers not correct shape and bad chrome. moss do a very good rear bumper now, but very limited stock,i had my brass grill and bumpers rechromed for about £20 more than new but far better quality.the problem seems that its cheaper in the long run to buy new than have to travel to get you bits chromed ,blasted, plated.its all about time and capabilities of some people.my problem is they dont do that many spares for the pull handle model(not enough left now to bother with)so we have to restore original bits.
s brown

If you look closely at some of the components that make up the shell, they are very poorly formed and this is not always a fault with the tooling. I had the unfortunate experience of needing a new nearside wing for a 67B roadster. The previous one was not very much older than the replacement, circa 4yrs, but was well formed and fitted very well. The new one made off the same tooling was very badly formed, but not in a way that was caused by a worn tool. Firstly, the lip that forms the water run off was not straight and does not follow the bonnet line, secondly the curve that forms the top of the wing was over-formed and the headlight aperature was oval. This to me suggests that the steel used was not of the correct quality, or temper, thus not holding its newly formed shape correctly. This should have seen and rectified by their quality dept, but as a small company they can not afford to scrap off components that do not quite make the grade, so they make do.
It the Ford AQAP system was installed nothing would ever leave the factory.
Graham
Graham Cherry

There seems to be very little quality control of the shells, the replacement panels more generally or indeed of most of the remanufactured equipment which goes in them - those of us who rate reliability highly - (daily drivers) - look hard at quality and sometimes other manufacturers' new gear - as wellas at remanufacturing the OE.
The moral perhaps is to inspect the shell very carefully before purchase - to be prepared for metal bashing when replacing the rusty bits and to be realistic about originality if your car is to be a driver rather than a trailer queen!
FWIW
Roger
RMW

Ste The alternative to a heritage shell especially for
a pull handle car is an ex usa dry state shell.
I have an ex usa 64 Iris blue 3brg pull handle car,and the sills, castle sections, floors,inner wings etc are original and perfect!Door gaps etc are also perfect. Having had a 3 year old MGB in 1981 with panels rusting through from the inside I was totally amazed at this!
Your heritage shell has had more work on it than my
original 64 shell, but I think you efforts will be rewarded on completion.
My car gets more attention than any £70K Porshe etc if I park it in outside a pub!
Robert Collier

Yes, i've seen a B in the course of a rebuild on ex Californian shell. It had been stripped back to bare metal before painting and was absolutely perfect, far better I have to say than it would ever have emerged from Abingdon. In addition there had never been a welding torch near it. I had rebuilt my GT at that time and was considering doing a roadster with a Heritage shell. The specialists who were building the car advised me that if at all possible to always go down the restored shell route as that way everything would fit easily and panel gaps etc would be good. That's the route I subsequently took and had no major problems in producing a car at least as good as new standards.
Iain MacKintosh

i agree but at the time i looked for a usa shell. there were none around, then after i got the shell they started coming out off the woodwork but they are unpanelled and trying to get a set of doors for one is near on impossible i think that is why people go for the later cars you can get good second hand parts and panels or just buy new off of the shelf with the early cars there is such a limited spares backup you need a complete usa car or a very good english one if one exists
s brown

Well, my shell was a basket case no outer panels at all and no floors. It went to the shotblasters. I had to fit new sills, crossmember, floors and back panel. Being reluctant to use all new panels for the above reasons I obtained a good s/h bonnet and lined it up to the dash panel then fitted up new wings which was fine. My doors were from two cars, one rotten heritage door shell which I repaired and reskinned and one original shell from a 75 Gt which I modified and fitted a new skin then new rear wings rear panel and boot lit. What a concoction it was and the end result is better panel alignment and fit that anything out of Abingdon.

I now have a mint condition car. Whether you could call it original or not I don't know but it's certainly as good as the hammer with two new heads and five new shafts.
Iain MacKintosh

Ste
I have not found sourcing parts for an early pull
handle MGB too bad.Obviously doors are a problem,
but door skins can be modified."b" posts and
transmission tunnels are not availiable.
I had to source a secondhand door lock mechanism,but
I even got a pull door handle with perfect chrome on ebay recently for £12.
What parts have you had a problem sourcing?
Robert Collier

the b-posts,still looking for an original set of lucas plug caps as the ones sold now are falling apart,also the chrome lock surround for the outside of the door under the trim.ive had my handles rechromed i stripped into 2 pieces then repinned for £15 each its the little bits and bats like axle brackets,gearbox parts,boot badge had to get from usa as the english ones are terrible, look like they have been hacksawed then chromed good boot lids are a bad one to get with no rust in lips as i want one so i can have one with a rack on as well as a standard one
s brown

I completed a midget rebuild with a BMH shell two years ago and noted:
Distorted panel around one of the rear spring hangers.
The rear sidelights fit really badly.
The front wing to sill fit is poor.
Worst; The bonnet curve is so bad as to look as if it is permanently open and getting it to remain permanenetly closed also has been a problem due to the poor matching of the bonnet landing panel.
I'm onto an mgb roadster now and the bonnet again is a poor fit but worst is the heater aperture - can anyone tell me if it is possible to fit the large chunk of rubber which goes behind the heater - I could only get the actual heater to fit by reducing its width to one just capable of containing the matrix and making the upper L-shaped bracket detachable.The bulkhead seems to be welded in too close.
PhilipT
Philip Travers

even though my shell was bad the heater fit with no problems at all if you do a load of measurements from front to back and side to side plus top to bottom someone will be able to tell if yours is wrong
s brown

you say rubber it should be a soft sponge at the back and neoprene under it can get new from moss it should fit then if its correct i cant see the bulkhead been wrong as a lot of things wont fit
s brown

No sorry,everything else is correct, The lower flap housing has a chunky lump of hard rubber (BHH389) which is supposed to seal the flap housing to the bulkhead and i suspect may do some sort of sound deadening also.It's supposed to be on post'70 cars only & I'm fairly certain a lot of cars that have had any sort of work to the heater may have the rubber lump binned as it's a swine to try and juggle in. The bulkhead definately fouls the heater case & just to check I've tried both early and late type heaters in the slot and neither will fit.I've even been to look at another car and it has loads of room to get the little ***** in. For anyone else in this predicament (I sympathise greatly) you can skim off about 1-2mm without a problem and the matrix will still fit. I'm just furious that BMH are making the fit so poor as to make such an operation 10 times more time consuming than it should be. If this was a normal purchase you'd be screaming "unmerchantable quality & not fit for the purpose intended" under the sale of goods act......
come to think of it!!!
Philip Travers

i agree but what will they do about it ? so far my shell has rear inner wings welded on too far out,o/s rear wing and rear panel welded on at wrong angle so boot sticks out,captive nuts not welded on,sills welded on at an angle,rear wing top seams sticking up.
This was the best shell of the lot,my dads 10 years ago was perfect but he got his after RV8 had finished so maybe there quality control was a lot better in them days.you cant even say its wear and tear on the tooling as i cant see tens of thousands of shells made in the last 10 years. i think they are in the situation that if your shell is no good you take what your given or lump it. I only found a lot of my faults out after i had put my tunnel and floors in so it was too late to complain about it so had to fix the faults ourselves
s brown

Yes, the whole job will be like that and you will have to knife and fork your way through. Just wait however until you come to the dash and also try to get the windscreen frame to match up with the door quarter lights. Both sides are different.
Iain MacKintosh

i must be lucky because both mine are ok
s brown

Take a look at this site for another experience working with the Heritage shell. You could certainly contact Roger and I am sure he would be glad to share his insights.

http://www.hotelling.com/mgb3.htm
Bob Muenchausen

This thread was discussed between 13/12/2005 and 30/12/2005

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