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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Frogeye Hardtop

I am restoring the hardtop from the frogeye. Its an original one with the glass rear window. It was in a sorry state and I have been carefully sanding off the old paint ready for dealing with the various cracks and stars in the gel coat. Whilst doing this I came across 3 pop rivet heads on the panel just to the rear of the sidescreens. They were on both sides. The rivets are set in a small triangle. There is noting on the inside of the hardtop. I wondered if they originally were fixing for a name plate or badge?? I don't recall ever seeing badges on the works hardtops but could anyone enlighten me??
Bob Beaumont

Hi Bob , sorry can't help you with the rivets but nameplate sounds a likely culprit but I am interested how you are doing the prep of the hsrdtop as I need to do mine. , any pics or advice welcome .
Mike Fairclough

I have a "Dan Dare" style top on my Frog. Suggest that you strip it right back to gel coat and then grind out any cracks or stars in the gel coat. Once this is done, use fibreglass tissue in the repaired areas before you think about putting any sort of filler (conventional or gel-coat), otherwise it will not be long before your cracks return.

Oh and don't be tempted to use any sort of chemical stripper, sand, sand and sand again.

Simon

Simon Wood

Another tip with old fibreglass is that before you paint it make sure that it is completely dry. Bring it indoors for a couple of weeks to really dry it out. Old fibreglass tends to become porous with age and if it's not completely dry you will get microblisters in the paint as the moisture is released. Try and seal the inside too.

Once painted avoid putting a non-breathable cover over the top too as this is known to cause issues with old fibreglass. I speak with the experience of old Lotus cars and the lessons learned by others. I never cover my Elan with anything.

Simon
Simon Wood

Hi Mike

I have pretty much followed Simon's advise. I have sanded off all the old paint. I did not use a DA but did by hand using a block so less risk of damage. Its taken ages and is dusty work. I went through several layers of paint and colour before getting back to the original OE white gel layer. I have ground out the stars and cracks and repaired using fibreglass mat. One or two areas to go. I then plan to take it to the painters to filler and paint.

Useful tip about dampness!!
Bob Beaumont

Bob -

There are pics around of hardtops fitted with a Donald Healey Motor Company 'shield' badge in this position. They're not on the early works cars, and I suspect most are later fitments. But maybe the DH MoCo got more conscious of its 'corporate identity' as the years wore on?

Tom
Tom Coulthard

Thanks for the advice , I couldn't decide whether to remove all the old paint but it has some quite deep gouges through the original black paint through to the white , I presume gel coat. I think I am after a slightly less proffesional finish than you guys , it will show the rest if the car up !
Mike Fairclough

Bob

See: http://westfield-world.com/Fibreglass.pdf

This info is also in Miles's Wilkins excellent fibreglass car bodywork repair manual (Osprey) which you can get as a reprint along with his paintwork book as a single volume from Lotus Books in Germany.

On cracks need to use an 80 grit paper sanding disc on a angle grinder with a pad at a shallow angle to remove the crack to all layers and then build up the grinded out shallow crater with layers of chopped strand mat and polyester resin and then finish with glass tissue and resin, not simply ground out and fill.

Allscot and Glassplies supply grp materials.

Must use a disk mast when grp grinding and gloves when handling grp mat, mixing and applying resin.

Best wishes
Mike
M Wood

The Wilkins books on grp repair and paintwork available from: http://www.lotus-books.com/additions.html

Thanks
Mike
M Wood

Mike

Thanks for the advice and links. Very useful!

Best

Bob
Bob Beaumont

There is a much easier way to rebuild old fiberglasd hard tops and its fast plus cheap, looks great and incredable durable... but not orginal

I did the same as you guys ... stipped it down and sanded sanded sanded patched and all that crap and it still kept looking like sh*t just before wanting to paint it

Then at the suggestion of a friend i took it to a place that does spray on truck bed linners and it turned out perfect had them spray the inside and the outside

The draw backs its a little heavier, the gaskets where harder to put back on and i had to slice down some of the coating for the gaskets seals to fit properly

But the pros are worth it, its more sound proof, it holds the inside temp much more in the winter, becuase there is a light texture in the coating you dont need to do any where near the sanding and detai work and i havent had a single crack come back thur and its 10 years ago and snow and ice dont stick very well to it, and the coating has not faded which is black.. but it can be primed and painted if you want

10 years ago i paid usa $75 to have it sprayed and probably only needed to do maybe an hour to sand it down with a DA manly just to remove the old paint

But look into it i have no regrets and still one of my favorite mods id repeat over and over

Prop



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This thread was discussed between 28/07/2017 and 29/07/2017

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