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MG MGA - Fender / Wing beading

As my car is being re-painted following a rear-end shunt, I thought I would also replace the wing beading. So I ordered a set from Moss.

What has turned up is absolute rubbish, it's half the size and thickness of the original, and according to the body shop (which did an A last year) there's no way you can get it to stay put when bolting the wings up because it's just too small.

So apart from telling Moss that it's total cr*p, does anyone have a source where I can get the right stuff?

Woolies does not appear to have it (which was a surprise)

Thanks

Dominic
dominic clancy

Answered my own question with a phone call. Bob West has a mile of the stuff (literally) sitting on the shelf. It's 50% more than Moss' effort, but at least I know it will be right.

Maybe Moss should buy some from Bob rather than peddle the rubbish I received.


dominic clancy

Dominic,

I used Bob West's beading when I did my restoration and it is the best. Good color and stiff enough that it doesn't distort when tightening fender bolts. Now, 4 years later is is still where it should be and shows no sign of deterioration. Good choice.

Randy Myers
'59 roadster, coupe
Randy

What are the preferred dimensions of the wing piping? I bought some from Moss a while ago and yet to be fitted: it measures 18 mm flange width and 7mm across the 'D' section. How does this compare with Bob West's? Mike
m.j. moore

The attached badly focused image is of the Wing Bead that I bought from Moss in 1994 and finally installed in 2004. It installed without major problems and looks good. The bead spreads out where necessary.

I softened it in hot water and dried it unrolled. I also had it warmed by the sun when installing. There was a lot of tighten, loosen, push, retighten to get it to be smooth.

Jim

Jim Ferguson

I had exactly the same problem years ago when trying to fit my wings. I had bought some very shiny beading from Motobuild and it was quite flexible. When tightened up it looked awful so I spoke to Peter Wood who gave me some good advice as follows.

Don't buy the cheap shiny beading. Peter supplied me with some much stiffer beading and it was a duller colour.

Don't over cut the holes for the bolts. Work out where the hole needs to be and cut the smallest hole necessary. Don't make the hole open ended at the bottom, the idea is the trap the bead to stop it squeezing out when the bolt is tightened. The positioning of the hole in this way is quite tricky and needs a lot of time to get it right.

Don't over tighten the bolts. As long as the wing is drawn up tight to the bead the bolts don't need to be much more than hand tight. This is not always possible especially if the wing is not a perfect fit and needs a little pulling into position.
J H Cole

Jim, Thanks for the picture and dimensions. Looks like the flange width on mine is too small - yet another unsuitable part I've bought! I've just looked at a front wing (original) and the metal flange width is as much as 35 mm. So this would be the ideal flange size for piping. Mike
m.j. moore

I purchased the beading from MacGregor in Canada. I haven't installed it yet, although he claims it is per
original specification.
G Goeppner

I've never had any problem with simply cutting a 'V' for the bolt, but then I have been using the proper stiffer beading - which Moss US used to supply in the past.

You get all sorts of problems like this when suppliers change their source for materials, and all of a sudden what has been satisfactory for years is suddenly wrong, and the vendor doesn't notice until they start to get returns from the small percentage of customers that know the difference - and care.

It is called quality control, and is preferably done in-house rather than being delegated by default to your customers.....

Bill Spohn

Greetings to all,

So what is Bob West's phone number? Thanks!
Robert Maupin

Bob West - MGA Specialists
Classic Sports Cars Havelands Farm, Hardwick Road Pontefract, West Yorks WF8 3DL. Tel: +44(0)1977 703828 Fax: +44(0)1977 602858
www.bobwestclassiccars.co.uk

He's competing in the Mille Miglia this week. He's the guy that has done almost all the restorations of the "big name" MGAs, and apparently a lot of the photos in Claushager are of cars that Bob has done.

Bob is a REALLY nice man, and whatever he says can be treated as gospel wrt MGAs.
dominic clancy

This thread was discussed between 09/05/2008 and 13/05/2008

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