MG-Cars.info

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

Recommendations

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 - Imperfect Grille Fit

I have finally installed my grille (which came with the car) to find that it doesn't quite fit. I thought the piping might hide any imperfections.

Overall I'm happy with how it turned out but are there any tricks to getting a better fit?
gerard hutchinson

I suppose the "trick" is to remodel the nose of the body to mate with the grill before painting the car. I did this in 1977/78 as part of the process of repairing a damaged nose, taking advantage of the situation to make it fit the contemporary replacement grille (which was flatter than the original).

Last winter I was doing body restoration work and repainting the body again. A brand new replacement grill happened on the scene immediately AFTER the paint work was finished. The new grill is much closer to original shape, so it didn't fit the body that was taylored to fit the interim grille. Bummer. In the end I boldly did some sheet metal reforming along the sides of the body opening. This went perhaps a little better than I expected but ended up with a few very minor cracks in the paint (which I may or may not fix later).

Short of reforming and repainting the body nose, about all you can do is try to press the new grill around the edges to mate with the existing body profile, using the piping to avoid damage to the paint. This may require lots of patience, and some extra hands might help. It's not too difficult if the corners of the grill gape away from the body where you can press the corners back while installing the bolts. If you have gaps midway up the sides (like I did this last time), then the only solution may be to pull the sheet metal out to mate up to the grille surround.

Many if the interim repro grilles circa 1975-2005 had larger radius on the outside corners. This can leave a noticeable radial gap between the piping and the body shoulder, but it may still fit together. In my case I had filled that space with leading 20 years ago. When fitting the new grill this year (with smaller radius on the corners as original), the piping ended up sitting partly on the face of the main body surface around the corners. If you look close you find there is no body step visible outboard of the piping at the top corners (but at least there's no gap).

How about a picture of the way your grill fits (or doesn't fit)?
Barney Gaylord

The grill I bought from Moss in 2000 was quite flat compared to the nose of the car and left a gap on each side. I dissassembled the new grill and using my thigh as a soft support reformed the grill surround to fit the front of the car. I then formed the slat holders to fit the new shape of the grill and put it back together. The radius on the corners of the grill did not match the recess on the car, so I had my body man fill the recess flush with the rest of the nose. The end result is quite good.

Ed Bell

Another photo of the grill.

Ed Bell

Here is a shot of my grille.

gerard hutchinson

And from another angle.

gerard hutchinson

This thread was discussed between 21/12/2008 and 23/12/2008

MG MGA index

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