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 Midget and Sprite Technical - Bonnet Won't Shut

This has got me foxed. I lined up the hinge/bonnet connections to the exact positions of my masking tape, and although the bonnet/scuttle gap is quite small, it lifts and lowers without hitting anything.
But the two cones at the front are just too far forward to fit into their holes.
The bonnet has spent two months sitting on its back end - froglamps facing the ceiling - which shouldn't allow it to change shape that way . . . should it?

(I started a new thread because I need help soon)
Nick and Cherry Scoop

Nick, when I was fettling my frogeye, and when it was in primer/ filler stage, before paint, I fitted and removed the bonnet numerous times over a period of weeks. And almost every time the fit seemed to change between one attempt and the next. I came to the conclusion that these bonnets are pretty flimsy and do alter very readily when stored off the car.

If yours has been standing up like that for a couple of months I could well imagine the leading nose part ahead of the wheel arches, sagging under its own weight. This would indeed result in a shortening between the hinge plates and those locating pegs.

What to do about it? If they deform that easily then it should relax back to an acceptable fit. I would refit it, perhaps moving forward a bit on the hinge plates. This would give a wider scuttle gap but at least close onto the conical pegs which are also adjustable. Left like that for a few days and I would guess it would settle and stretch forwards a bit
GuyW

Guy

I could imagine the bonnet sagging, as you suggest, but Nick's seems to have gone the other way. Bizarre.
Dave O'Neill 2

Nick, will the pegs not move backwards so they'll fit or are they miles off (they do adjust a little)?
Bill B

Bill, they don't actually adjust, do they? Unfortunately I'm due at the dentist shortly, but I will get straight back to it afterwards.
Overnight, Guy's and Dave's posts have given me a Eureka moment. When I was doing battle with the bonnet hinges, other things intervened, and the bonnet was left hanging with a rope at front centre for a couple of days. Perhaps that's when it stretched, and maybe if I put it up on its struts for a while, the front end will return under its own weight. If not, perhaps I could add a few pounds.
Nick and Cherry Scoop

Nick, I just meant a bit of "wiggle" room if it was only a few mm out. But it sounds like you've identified the problem. They're big hunks of unwieldy metal aren't they. I'm amazed mine fitted after pulling it about.
Bill B

Been bingeing on some of the better (IMO) US car repair programmes and have noticed just how many times they say things like - we need to lift this body of the chassis and get it on a spare support chassis today - it can't be left unsupported over night.

Maybe you do need a frame to hold the Frogeye front when it's off.
Malc Gilliver

Good point, Malc. I'd love to have a spare chassis. They also have quite a lot of spare space in America, don't they?
But it is a good reminder - I ought to have thought more about where and how it was sitting over the last couple of months.
I've got it up on its struts now, though I wonder whether a little bit of packing on top of the inner wheel arch buffers might be a better method. That way, I could get the conical pegs just above their sockets and measure their progress - if any!

PS: it's doubtful whether a frogeye bonnet would fit on a spare chassis, given the manufacturing processes at Abingdon and the 66 years of use.
Nick and Cherry Scoop

Dave, agree it would shorten if stored horizontally, but Nick's was standing up on end I think.
Maybe to shorten again it needs to be supported above the wheel arches, where it would normally close onto the inner wing top buffers.
GuyW

I don't fancy packing on the buffers, because I don't believe they're structural - more for damping the bonnet roughly midway between the fixings.
But I might try piles of coats on the inner wheel arches, to spread the bearing loads.
Nick and Cherry Scoop

Nick, I only meant that I would put the bonnet on some sort of trestle or workmate that supported it where those wheel arch buffers normally rest. And then leave it to rest like that for a couple of days and see if that eased it out a bit.
GuyW

I'm with you, Guy - the packing on the buffers was my idea! But when I went to look, I realised that the bonnet isn't reinforced where it lands on them.

I will arrange something persuasive but gentle (pious hope).
Nick and Cherry Scoop

I had my steel bonnet stood on end in the garage for at least 10 years. I confess that I didn't try fitting it until I had restored it, which involved dismantling by drilling out the spot welds. I had to construct a new radiator duct and framework for the front pegs to mount on, so it may not have been exactly the same as it was before. But it fits OK now. As others have noted, I can't see how sagging in storage would account for the pegs being too far forward.

In this situation I would remove the pegs and see how the bonnet fits. If it looks good, then adjust the pegs, even if it requires a bit of filing of the holes. How far forward are they?

Of course, you also have to get the locking pins to line up with their respective plates, but they are adjustable, again by filing if necessary.
Les Rose

I just remembered that any attempt to change the curvature front to back will stress the wheel arch. A lot of these bonnets have cracks at the top of the arch.
Les Rose

Wait for a sunny day. Put the bonnet out in the sunshine and pack ice cubes around the front chassis rails.
GuyW

The pegs are too far forward according to the OP so the bonnet would need chilling and the chassis legs heated.
David Billington

Oh, I read it as the other way round! So put the bonnet nose down in the chest freezer then.
GuyW

Yes, they are too far forward.
No movement yet, as the bonnet sits on piles of old coats. I'm tempted to release the hinges again and lift and lower the bonnet so that the pegs go home. Then I'll see where the rear edge lands on the padded scuttle. Not sure why.

Or I might leave it hinged, and try forcing the pegs in, at least some way in. Not sure how.

Or, since I believe it was three days held up by a rope front and centre which caused the stretch, I could try three days hanging it by ropes the other way up. Not sure I'm perfectly sane.
Nick and Cherry Scoop

If it's fitted to your masking tape marks at the hinges, and then gently lowered into place, how far out are the pegs from the centre of the locating holes?

Every time I removed mine it seemed to settle back slightly differently. And that was without suspending it from ropes or indeed storing for any time at all on occasions. It just seemed very random. I've given up worrying about it now. I just close the bonnet and wiggle it about a little to get the conical pegs to locate and that's where it's staying!
GuyW

With the tapes correct, the points of the cones were at the very edges of the holes.
I've had to make a slightly bigger gap at the back today, because, after days of lovely clearance, the bonnet has hit and damaged the scuttle. Very annoying, and another confirmation that nothing is ever the same, as our cars' stories continue to be written.
Nick and Cherry Scoop

Sorry about that. I'd just refilled my glass.
Nick and Cherry Scoop

This is so embarrassing.
I have been so baffled and bewildered by this apparently motiveless bonnet-crime for so long, and now it is solved.
Here's the thing:-
While lifting the front of the bonnet at the end of a rope, I slung the rope around a convenient and firmly-anchored handle.

You can guess the rest.
Nick and Cherry Scoop

Oh dear! There's something about ageing. . . . . . cars?

GuyW

I can't believe I invented all those theories, while the locking handle remained horizontal from all the hoisting - its locking pins out, stopping the bonnet short of its proper engagement. I should have thought about that, after Les's post three days ago.
Once the penny dropped, I gave the handle a quarter turn, and the pegs dropped into their seats.
Nick and Cherry Scoop

This thread was discussed between 08/09/2026 and 13/09/2026

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

This thread is from the archives. Join the live MG Midget and Sprite Technical BBS now