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MG MGF Technical - TF Mesh

Advice & Help required.

I treated myself to some stainless steel mesh grills for my TF the other day fro Mike Satur and as they didn't come with any instructions, I just thought I'd better seek some advice before going at it and messing up.

First off, the side intakes. I assume its a simple case of careful prising then cleaning the residual black mastic off, then putting some new mastic down before moving the new grills into position.

The back will be simple enough but the only way that I can see myself accessing the front is to undo the plastic 'deflector' underneath behind the bumper and hope that I can find someone with small enough hands to then fit in the gap as the only other way would be to remove the front bumper!

Advice and assitance would be grately appreciated.

thanks
john
J Ip

To change the grills on the MGF it's necessary to remove the front bumper. I'd imagine this is still quite possible with the TF, although I'm not certain. Would certainly be useful to know what is required though, please do post back if/when you do find out. :)
Paul Lathwell

John,

Assuming that it is the same as the F, the front bumper is easily removed.

Undo the row of self-tapping screws along the top of the front bumper panel. Carefully remove the front indicator units with a thin screwdriver and remove the two large bolts now exposed.

Make sure you have a sheet on the ground to rest the face of the panel on.

There are a number of self-tappers holding the two mesh panels in place.

Simply reverse the process once you have fitted the new mesh panels.

Good luck!

Sam
Sam Murray

Sam/John,

>Carefully remove the front indicator units with a thin screwdriver and remove the two large bolts now exposed.

This does not apply to the TF, the two bolts in question are visible/accessible without needing to remove any other items first. I must admit though this was a nice tidy way of doing things on the F. :)
Paul Lathwell

TF Front Bumper removal

Note this is different to the F in a couple of places.

Common steps:

Undo 2 wheelarch liner screws (repeat for other wheelarch)
Undo 1 bumper to front wing screw (repeat for other wheelarch)
Loosen 1 (hidden) bumper to wheelarch screw (repeat for other wheelarch)
Open bonnet, undo 5 bumper to slam panel screws

TF Specific steps:

Undo the 2 plastic screws in the middle that secure the underside of the bumper. (Note these do not exist on the F bumper)
Undo the two alan key headed bolts that are the main bumper fixings, visible in the tops of the recesses each side of the lower grille. (Note these bolts are not hidden behind the indicators on the TF, they are also an Alan headed bolt as opposed to the F's 17mm hex bolts).

TF TIP:
When refitting the bumper pay close attention to the fit around the points of the lights - easy to get this wrong and have to re-do your work.

It's quite straigtforward to do, budget around ½ an hour for the removal and the same again for the refitting as it's your first time. I reckon it's a 20 minute job if you know where everything is.

This site may help you, it is for an F bumper but apart from the TF specific items it gives details on all the common fixings:

>> http://www.hometown.aol.com/ap1000000/howtofbu.htm <<

HTH

SF
Scarlet Fever

>>Undo the two alan key headed bolts that >>are the main bumper fixings, visible in >>the tops of the recesses each side of the >>lower grille.

Slight correction, they are Torx bolts not allen key ;o)
Steve White

>> First off, the side intakes. I assume its a simple case of careful prising then cleaning the residual black mastic off, then putting some new mastic down before moving the new grills into position. <<

John, yes, I believe that this is the basic procedure. Use a wide bladed plastic spatula for this, and carefully work around the trim and prise it off. If you use a metal blate, be sure to protect the paint work.

I've not ever removed a TF bumper - but it looks as though the chaps have got this angle covered already! ;o)
Rob Bell

Yep Steve, they are Torx bolts, but did you know you can use an allan key in them? Neither did i untill i saw it being done on a TF front bumper!

Not sure on the size, T50 maybe it's a pretty big one.

SF
Scarlet Fever

Thanks for the info everyone, hope it doesn't rain on Saturday (spent too much of my youth messing around the cars in the rain), I'll give it a go and report back. Think I'll also fix the wind block from Mike Satur and start praying for the sun to come out to play.

Just one more thing, I'm assuming I can get some mastic for the sides from B&Q or will it need to be somewhere specific? Sorry to sound thick!

john
J Ip

Well, job done, many thanks everyone for your advice (especially SF) but its all done and the SS mesh looks really good against the cars colour (Anthracite).

Only thing was the back turned out harder than I thought as I didn't want to take the bumper off, in hindsight (and an extremely grazed hand later)I think it would probably been easier.

Cheers
john
J Ip

This thread was discussed between 24/03/2004 and 28/03/2004

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