MG-Cars.info

Welcome to our Site for MG, Triumph and Austin-Healey Car Information.

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 - bonnet tweak

Bonnet on. Hinges pushed back as far as they will go on the holes (body & lid). I need about 1/8" more clearance at the front. Seems the options are a) open up holes in the hinges or b) gentle bending of the hinges.
Any good advice?
Art Pearse

Is this the original bonnet, and same front panel?
Did you lay the bonnet into the opening to make sure it fits? If the bonnet got flattened a little while it was off the car, it might have changed length.
That being said, lengthening the holes is probably your only practical choice.
Edward
Edward Wesson 60MGA

If the bonnet (without hinges) fits the opening, then enlarging holes is not necessary. These hinges are fairly easy to bend. Grasp front of bonnet with two hands. Push back firmly, and move side to side to stress one hinge at at time. Slowly lower the bonnet while you check clearances. It only takes a couple of minutes to get it aligned, no tools required.
Barney Gaylord

Art, The construction of the hinges is as shown in the picture. The LHS is screwed to the scuttle and the RHS to the bonnet. You can adjust the distance X by bending more or less at point A. Reduce the angle theta and the bonnet will move to the rear and vice versa.

You may have trouble yet with the rear of the bonnet catching the scuttle and chipping the paint off. I wish I'd adjusted mine before painting! If you draw it out you will see that the chance of the bonnet catching is reduced by making theta as close to zero as possible so I adjusted my hinges to make the angle zero but when I assembled the bonnet it was too far back and beyond any hole adjustment. Have fun!.........................Mike

m.j. moore

Thanks for the input. There is about 5/16 at the back and zero at the front. Yes, it came with the car but I forget the fit when I dismantled it 20 y ago! I will try the bending method, cautiously!
Art Pearse

Barney
With the hinges in the car, I would think it would be extremely difficult to bend each side, exactly the same amount, and get the hood square with the car....
Is there a "trick" to getting them bent the same, or just trial and error?
Edward
Edward Wesson 60MGA

Just trial and error, this is the reason I am always gentle with extracting the prop from its clip, because it is easy to bend the hinges if you are too brutal. I have some spacers under the hinges to give clearance between the shroud and the bonnet, but I guess it comes down to getting it right once and not bending the hinges afterwards.

If the clearances seem to be closing up, its easy to adjust by pulling strategically and gently on the open bonnet and trial and error on closing until its sits right!
dominic clancy

Mike, I tried the bending in place - could not move them, at least with the force I was happy with applying.
Took off one and bent it closer in a vice. I needed 0.15"
I also enlarged the front hole on the body side of the hinge as it had almost no free play.
Downside is that the bonnet is lowered about 1/32. I can correct this with packing. I don't think I could get 0.15" by adjusting the back angle, but it would have raised the bonnet had I done so. Maybe a bit of each is best!
Art Pearse

I think it would be better to have the bonnet higher rather than lower than the surrounding scuttle at the rear to reduce the chance of it catching and chipping the paint. My bonnet finished up a bit lower so I made up some rubber washers to pack under the bonnet buffers. The gap I have is about 1/8" at the windscreen end and 1/16" at the front. I couldn't reduce the rear gap any more otherwise the bonnet would catch on opening it. When I stood back and looked at the gap all around I decided that the bonnet wasn't the same shape as the hole anyway and I would never get an even gap so I'm living with the rear corner gaps of nearly 1/4" . You can spend hours on this job! --- but you tend not to notice uneven gaps after a while. .....................Mike
m.j. moore

I thought the reinforced large hole in the hinge was for placing a mandrill in and bending the hinge by levering the mandrill.
J Bray

Finally got the gaps right - bending in the vice plus a final bit of hole filing and the height raised by packing only the rear pair of holes on the lid side. "wedge packing" - see the thread on boot lid fit.
same gaps as Mike - 1/8 rear, 1/16 front and there is about a papers width clearance at the back when opening. The lid is a tad flatter than the body. But I'm happy.

Next issue - how to get the bonnet catch to align? I'm thinking of loading it in the catch hole, putting some ink or such on the top and lowering the lid till it prints the position for fastening.
Art Pearse

This thread was discussed between 26/09/2013 and 07/10/2013

MG MGA index

This thread is from the archives. Join the live MG MGA BBS now