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MG TD TF 1500 - TD wheelwell upholstery?

Well I'm trying to get back into working on my car. I've been reading the interior section of Horst Schach's book and am really stumbling on this. He states that the wheelwell upholstery is stapled to the outer rear floor panels yet I see absolutely no evidence of that on my known original panels (I'm speaking of the three differential inspection panels behind the seat). There is no evidence of staples tacks or glue on them. Do they really staple onto the plywood as stated or are they tucked in behind the panels and sandwiched betweenthe tub framework when they are secured into place? Seems the later makes more sense so that you wouldn't be tearing up the upholstery should you need to pull the panels. Thoughts? Anyone have a bonified original unmolested interior that could check this for me? The kit I have doesn't seem to supply near enough of that edging material. Just enough to finish the back side of the side curtain door. Also how thick should the matting be under the upholstery ?

Cheers

Bill Chasser jr
TD4834
W. A. Chasser Jr

Bill check out Chris Couper's site. There are tons of pics of original installations in the gallery. Horst's use of padding is not original & I plan to use felt about 1/8" thick glued to the wheel well. This produces a more original & a better looking job. I also think it strange that the wheel well vinyl should sit on top of the left & right rear floor but that is apparently how it was done back in the day. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Bill, I just had a look at my original interior. The inner sides (flat surfaces facing into the well) have no padding, the arched surfaces (top) do have minimal padding. I found no tack holes nor tacks, it looks like the edge of the vinyl has been tucked behind the edge of the plywood since new.

.....
MAndrus

I had a lot of trouble getting the wheel well covering to be wrinkle free until on of our members posted a picture, showing that his padding did NOT extend to the outer edges of the wheel well.

When applying the covering leave about 1" of the metal bare. This is where you apply the contact cement, ONLY in this area. Do this both on the wheel wells and the covering.


In the first frame in the attached picture you can see the wrinkles. Try as I might I could not get rid of them.
In the second frame arrows show where I removed the padding.
The last frame shows the final results.

I did not tack to the floor boards.




Jim B in NJ

Thanks guys but that seems to have opened up a discussion on which would or could be correct.

Mitchell Seems there needs to be a bit of padding on the sides of the wheel wells to help cushion the fabric from abrasion and cuts. Idk as my rear side panels and the wheel coverings were absent from TD4834 when it arrived in my care.

Peter I have been to The Original MGTD website and looked through pics but the detail I want to see is covered by carpeting which I believe wasn't original affixed to the TD. At least dad seemed to think so in one of our discussions. I would like to hear from others With Known original interiors...survivor cars as well.

Jim Thank you for the pics of your install. The padding as your final fitting certainly smoothed the wrinkles out and looks good.

Hears another question along the same lines...When securing the leading edge to the front tack strip was the material doubled under to make a clean line? Again Horst states that the black edging is used on top to finish this part?

Just want to insure I do this right and not ruin a interior kit in the process

Cheers

Bill Chasser Jr
TD4834
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td4834 when it arrived in my care.
W. A. Chasser Jr

Quote

Hears another question along the same lines...When securing the leading edge to the front tack strip was the material doubled under to make a clean line? Again Horst states that the black edging is used on top to finish this part?

Just want to insure I do this right and not ruin a interior kit in the process

End Quote

Bill

In those areas where the door latches live, you do not want to do anything except cut the Hidem off as close to the latch as possible.

I have a few pieces of what I believe is my original interior. (See Picture)

Around the door latches the Hidem is neatly and closely trimmed. You will not see the edges and folding the Hidem under will create bulk and tilt the latches so that proper mating will be difficult.

ASK ME HOW I KNOW.

The first frame (Top Left)is my original skin that goes under the dash and around the A pillar. There is no fold under. Since this would fold on the top of the latch casting you could fold after removing the beading, just at the edges, without a problem. The second (upper right) and third (Lower Left) frames show the actual original door skins around the door part of latch area.
The Hidem appears to be trimmed just at the edge of the chrome latch cover.

I did not do it this way on my replacement. I should have, I read too much of others work and did not look at the remains I had.

The forth picture shows my (I now know it to be incorrect) approach.

Both the Hidem and the edging are folded under.
If you look at latch opening you will see a yellow piece. Its about 1/8 " thick. This is a shim I had to make to level out the latch so the plunger would engage the hole in the latch. I also had to trim the skin opening since the fold over closed the opening too much for the striker to smoothly insert into the door latch.

On the other door I had to cut the fold off the leather trim to get things to work.

As you move away from the latches you can tuck the ends under if the spot is showing. I did this where the skin that goes under the door meets the skin that goes over the wheel wells.

If there was any edging I have no remains but after banging around for 47 years and traveling from FL to MA to PA to WI to NJ it could have been lost.

Jim B.


Jim B in NJ

This thread was discussed between 04/08/2015 and 05/08/2015

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