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MG TD TF 1500 - Raising front Wing Height

My left front wing is noticeably and definitely hanging lower than the right wing (confirmed by measuring from the center of the front hub cap vertically to the edge of the wheel arch). The car has always been this way. I just finished putting new front coil springs in and it made no difference. Is there a way to raise the left wing, or is it fixed by factory bolt holes with no adjustment possible?
L Karpman

I have the same problem Larry. When viewed from the front my RHS (driver's on a RHD car) is appreciably lower. My issue can be traced back to the reassembly of the radiator after a prang which happened prior to when I bought the car. The headlight mounting point on the RHS is lower on mine than on the other side. I'm about to take it to a radiator repair shop & have the RHS mounting point relocated to match the left which appears to be in the original & correct location. The difference is about 3/4's of an inch at the radiator which is magnified at the wing. I can see no other cause for my problem. My front wing on the RHS had been repaired where the headlight bracket attached to the wing, probably because after the radiator repair the mounting point no longer aligned. My suggestion would be to measure the radiator on either side where the headlight bracket is fitted. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Thanks Peter. Sounds like my car which took a prang in a former life on the drivers side (which is lower at the wing). I will try to measure at the mounting points if I can with all in situ.
L Karpman

Peter, is your rad perfectly verticle? I cant imagine how the headlight mounting point can change, seeing it is bolted to the crossmember on the rad
Steve
SPW Wincze

Steve on mine the the radiator cross member that is sweated to the radiator frame & that the headlights are mounted to, is not parallel to the top tank or the bottom tank. I just measured it & there is a difference of just over 1/2" from one side to the other. I think this is why one wing was lower on my car. I may be able to pack up one side of the mounting point on the chassis mounting rail to correct the error so that the headlight cross member is horizontal, as long as it doesn't set the radiator too far from the vertical. However I don't like to introduce an error to correct an error unless I absolutely have to. This is why I think my solution lies in having the headlight cross member relocated so that it is parallel to the tanks. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

May I reiterate my question.

Is there a way to raise the left wing, or is it fixed by factory bolt holes with no adjustment possible?
L Karpman

There is no adjustment Larry. Mounting points of the headlight arm on the guards are fixed, as are the points on the radiator. The only 'adjustment' is as I've suggested above. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Peter, my radiator, at least as viewed from the front shell is not vertical. It is lower on the left side (driver side). The same same side as the lower wing. If I shim the radiator mounting on that side, and then reattach the headlamp bar, I would think it would lift the wing. What say you?
L Karpman

LK, my TF's radiator wasn't square so I packed up one side so that it looked right and everything else now 'looks' square.
Don TF 4887 "Figaro' TC 1736 "Sibelius'
Don Walker

That would be the best fix. The holes in the tie bar to chrome bracket are oversize I recall. You can loosen the two tie bar to chrome bracket bolts, have an assistant lift the wing and then tighten to gain a little. You may have to loosen all of the wing mounting bolts a bit either way. George
George Butz

Thanks all. Now to figure out the best way to access the radiator mounting bolts. A quick check makes it look like a really fiddly job :-)
L Karpman

Well yesterday my neighbor and I tackled the lower driver side wing and the tilted radiator. Pulling the front bumper and the splash apron revealed a bit more collision damage than I thought. But, some good news too. The radiator itself was not crooked, but it was the shell that had taken a hit on the lower driver side during the collision, and was actually just shoved to the right on the bottom. While I could insert my crank handle, the shell hole never did align perfectly with the crank hole, but by pulling hard to the driver side on the bottom of the shell, we were able to get it vertical. We are going to fashion a small metal/rubber brace to keep it vertical and not work its way back to the tilted position.

As for the driver side wing, by loosening the bolts on the upper radiator brace and the headlamp bar, both inside the bonnet and the large exterior bar bolt, and the small bolt under the wing, we were able to lift the wing a good 1.5" and get it darn near even with the right wing. Might be off .25" though, but looks even with the other wing. I don't think I'll sweat the .25" difference as long as it "looks" even. We are also going to tackle the very front on the frame that the splash apron attaches to as it is slightly bent. This may give me the.25" needed for perfect symetry. Don't know yet.

All in all I'm very pleased so far, and we'll see how the rest goes. Thanks to all for all the suggestions and info!!
L Karpman

Good deal! I'm in favor of eyeball leveling as well. George
George Butz

Mr Karpman, Just out of curiosity, have you ever checked to see if both front coil springs are seated properly around the upper spring guide? My car had a similar problem and I found out that the right coil was hanging up on the edge of the cup in the top of the cross member, near impossible to see until everything is back together. A different measurement to the chassis from the floor on both sides will indicate this problem, usually a 1/4 inch difference. PJ
PSJ Jennings

I'll check again, but I don't believe the spring is hung up. The suspect now is the wing itself. From the previous front end damage, the wing is obviously deformed in some way. This is noted by the difference in profile of the wheel arches, and other repairs made to the wing. Almost makes one wonder if this wing is some sort of "aftermarket" wing which I don't believe were ever made. But, from close visual inspection, the wing itself is suspect. Visually, the car looks fine now, and the only thing that tells me the left wing is lower are the measurements themselves. As the car is a solid "driver" quality car, I don't think I'm going to lose any more sleep over it. Getting the radiator shell vertical was a major accomplishment, and the car looks fine from the front. Now if this were a "restoration" I'd be concerned. Of course I could change my mind in the future, which I so often do, but for right now I'm happy. (sort of) :-) Thanks for the input.
L Karpman

On ours the right side headlight bracket which goes through the chrome radiator housing was about 1/2" shorter than the other side.
Replaced that and fenders were level.
Norm Peacey

This thread was discussed between 06/05/2017 and 14/05/2017

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