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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 TD TF 1500 - Taking on a second restoration project

I picked up another TD to restore. Fortunately, this one is a little smaller.

Found this at our local flea market. Christmas came early.

I have one that was painted the color my TD was. I will do this one in the colors we are restoring the TD to.




Bruce Cunha

Parts are still available! Thomas Toys and Gasoline Alley are two I know, but do compare prices - one guy wants $25 for a part another wants $7...

Tom Lange
MGT Repair
t lange

Thanks Tom.

I did some shopping and found a nice deal on the bumpers, overriders, dash decal (I wish they made it in green), steering wheel, and windscreen on Ebay for $40

I ordered the other parts from Gasoline Alley. But you are very correct. prices vary between sellers.

I will have about $150 into it with parts and what I paid for it. While this will go in my collection, I see these going from $175 to $390 on Ebay.

I will strip it and paint it when we paint the TD
Bruce Cunha

Hey Bruce have one to in "slightly??" better paint condition. Like many others, also missing the windshield etc. Maybe someday will "restore" it!
At one of the British Conclave's here in Colorado I had a display of some other little cars. A fellow LBC enthusiast asked if I wanted a car. Sure and he gave me mine.
R Biallas

I have told this story before, but when I got my first one, I took it to the body shop that had done some painting on my TD to get it sprayed.

I parked it outside in the back of the shop in a parking stall. I went in and got the owner explaining I had another TD that I needed a full respray on.

I took him outside and we both got a good laugh. But then he gets an even better idea. He has a new young worker in the shop. He calls him in and tells him that it will be his job to do a full paint job on my MGTD.

You could see the mix of excitement and sheer fear in the kids' eyes. The owner tells the kid the car is parked in the back and he should go get it to evaluate what is needed. The kid walks back in with the Doepke and we all had a great laugh. But the kid did do a great job on the model.

Bruce Cunha

The Doepke was in reasonable shape. I disassembled it, used steel wool on the blued parts, and reblued them.

The body was stripped with a stripper and primered with an acrylic enamel two-part primer.

I ordered the parts that needed replacing.

It will get a coat of the same paint I am using on the big TD today.





Bruce Cunha

I need to paint my tonneau cover tan. Right now it's just plan metal. Not sure what the originals were. I have seen others that were just metal too.

I left my seats black as original but wished they were red to match my car. Did not know they were blued.

My car is pretty close to immaculate so I only added the dash decal that was missing. I suspect the original owner was too lazy to install it.
Christopher Couper

Bruce I’ve made decals on my computer for my scooters. If you want a green decal., Scan the one you have. Using Paint or some other app you can change the color of your scanned decals image. Once you get the color where you want it print the image onto a sheet of clear, white or black decalcomania (water slide). When the ink dries spray several coats of clear over the ink to seal it. Once dry you can then trim to fit, wet the decal and move it onto your model’s dashboard

Bill Chasser
TD-4834
W A Chasser

Bill Thanks, I was thinking of doing that and will give it a try.


I did email the seller to see if they can request these in tan and green.

Chris. I don't know if the tonneau was original for the model car. All that I have seen are shiny metal. That is how the one on my yellow doepky is, but I painted this one.

The black seat is plastic and plastic paint seems to stick well to it.

I have a bit more to do to the paint as it has a few runs and some of the lines are light, but this is an idea of what it will look like.

I am thinking of using one of the new chrome paints to see if I can make the pot metal for the radiator, windshield and bumpers look more like chrome.



Bruce Cunha

Bruce: I did not know the seats were plastic. Must admit I have not really dived into my car because it was pretty immaculate when I bought it. I suspect few people probably painted the tonneau cover as you stated.

One thing about models and paint. If you buy model paint the pigments are generally ground much finer and the paint is generally lighter too so they don't cover all the details. You sort of have to mist them on and then mist a final coat for the shine. Using automotive paints on a model could be difficult and you probably won't get as smooth a surface as you would like, even thinning them extensively.
Christopher Couper

And for chrome there is always Bare Metal Foil in chrome available at hobby shops. You cut it to fit an area, peel if off the backing, burnish it on with a tooth pick or Q tip. It's a common modelers' technique.
John Quilter (TD8986)

Bill. I took your advice and scanned the dash decal. Used a paint program and redid the colors. This came out ok.

I bought the decal printing paper and will print it out tomorrow





Bruce Cunha

I got the Dopeke finished today. This is what my TD will look like when it is finished.


Bruce Cunha

Overly restored. And you did not take it back to original (red >> green). :-)

I like your tan tonneau. I think I need to paint mine that way and also paint my black plastic seats red too.
Christopher Couper

Hehe Yea. I wanted to have this one look like what my restoration is going to look like.
Bruce Cunha

Now you got me wanting to get a pair !
W A Chasser

This thread was discussed between 21/12/2020 and 17/01/2021

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