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MG TD TF 1500 - Standard hood fitting

Hello,
The front part of the body of my TD (3 bow) is shifted lateraly toward the left. About 3 cm with respect to the rear part.
Do you think I can fit a standard hood anyway ?

Laurent.
LC Laurent31

Have you loosened the scuttle to hoop brackets and tried to shift the the scuttle to the left or right as needed You should be able to get some lateral movement by doing so.
W A Chasser

I know the best thing to do would be to align front and rear.
But if I ask that question it is because I tried to loosen the hoop bracket and couldn't moove anythinhg. I guess I should also loosen all the bolts that secure the firewall. And they are assembled with a tar strip so probably sticky.

So can I fit a standard hoop with this shift ?
The alternative is to have it done bespoke.

Laurent.
LC Laurent31

Laurent: Before you loosen anything I think you should do some measurements first. The body bucket defines the hood placement, not how it attaches to the firewall or chassis.

You need to determine why, or if, it's not square. You will need a tape measure, some string, at T-square (L) and a helper. Start at the back and put the square in the corner and then tape the string to the inside edge with someone holding it in place. Then take the string to where the windshield bracket is on the body and keep it in line with the square. Measure the distance from the string to the body there. Repeat on the other side and see what the difference is. If it is within about 1 cm then I suspect your body is OK.

Then you will need to take the square and lay it on the top of the scuttle and determine if your windshield side brackets are bent. Measure the top distance from the square when placed at the same location side to side.

This will be a good starting point to see if you can determine where the deviations are. Then you can decide if you can fixt it (them) or just live with it.
Christopher Couper

Chris, I've already performed such measurements to say it is shifted about 3 cm.
Can somebody answer the question please ?

Laurent.

LC Laurent31

I just fitted a new hood this (so called) summer and there is also a noticeable difference between left and right tub length. It worked out fine.
Preparational steps:
Align doors properly (should have been doing this long ago…)
Adjust front screen angle, this involved thin bushings to compensate for worn out pivot points and small screws to push the screen to the right angle (parallel to the front of the sidescreen frames.
Adjust the side screen frames so that they are aligned properly, sufficiently bent inwards and have the right distance to the front frame (involved some heavy bending, some people even have to re-weld the frames to get them aligned properly)
Position hood frame properly (filled up all the various old holes and drilled new ones).
Then start fitting the fabric according to the various instructions out there…

Rgds, Mike
Mike Fritsch

So I can give an answer. The answer is from a professional upholsterer.
He thinks that this 3 cm shift might be too much to fit a standard hood.

Laurent.
LC Laurent31

This thread was discussed between 03/10/2021 and 17/10/2021

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