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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Frogeye Interior panels

I need a set of interior panels for my Frogeye. I plan to make them myself, but I am not 100% sure what a full set should consist of. I have some, but almost certainly not all, of the original hardboard pieces to use as templates.

The bits I do have are in poor condition but consist of:
4 pieces that make up the vertical sides of the two footwells
An inverted U piece to go over the gearbosx housing.
2 shaped door pocket pieces.


I am guessing that I also need:
2 pieces to go against the iner sills.
2 pieces to cover the inner face of the B-posts.

Does that make up the full list?

GuyW

Guy you are correct. That's it.
Simon Wood

Thanks Simon.
Next thing will be to work out how much Vinyl I need to buy. In addition to covering those pieces, I will need to cover the dash and allow a little extra to make up some flap strips where two of the covered hardboard panels abut one another.
I also wondered about making up a vinyl covering to go in the boot floor - or maybe even making this up as a shallow box shape that can be removed for cleaning and recovery of lost items from the cavern!
GuyW

Don't forget the door pockets
Simon Wood

Lay all the boards and dash out on the floor. Juggle them around a bit to get them in a nice rectangle with one edge a little smaller than the width of the vinyl and you will then know how much to buy
Simon Wood

Let me know if you need the B-post shapes, Guy.

Are you also going to bother with the boot sides?
Nick and Cherry Scoop

I think there were boot sides made of grey cardboard - as noted in Horler. So I will probably make something but it may not be of cardboard.

I don't actually need to be making up interior trim panels just yet but l do want to do the dashboard and need to buy enough Vinyl in one go to do it all.
GuyW

The boot panels are relatively cheap from Moss. They are not cardboard but some composite material and have the light grey face which makes the boot a bit lighter.The door pockets have a cardboard filler beneath the vinyl to provide a relief pattern on the front.
The dash is an easy cover as its mostly flat. But use a heat gun to soften the vinyl to go round the curved edges at the two ends of the dash. The front header rail is also covered in vinyl I guess to prevent glare. You should also consider the door straps which have the same vinyl covering. The original cars did not have a padded vinyl. I found the usual spray contact adhesive was not strong enough. I used automotive contact adhesive. Bit more expensive but far superior.
Bob Beaumont

Screwfix no-nonsense contact adhesive for me. A lot cheaper than spray-on stuff, strong and readily available
Simon Wood

Don't forget that the door pockets have metal edges on the top, and are curved. I have often seen them replaced with flat ones, which is not correct. These allow more space for the usual crap. You can get them from Moss etc (if you don't have them) but they come flat and have to be bent to shape. They also fit better to the screw holes in the door than just the hardboard.

The panels on the outer footwell sides butt up against the door seal on the A post, and are secured at the top by small nuts and bolts. The B post panels go back into the boot - you should find a screw hole in the metalwork where it is secured. The fiddly bit is fitting it round the hood stick socket.

For the boot floor I used a piece of sound deadening felt, which has a bituminous seal on one side so it doesn't shed fibres.

Les
L B Rose

Les, they also put the top edge where you want it for comfortable elbow-resting. That is, under the arm rather than under the elbow bones.

As you can see in this poor picture, the PO capped it with a soft clip-on thing. Luxury.

Nick and Cherry Scoop

Is that vinyl on your rear deck rather than carpet, Nick?
I know carpets weren't originally supplied, but assumed any carpet kit sold for a Frogeye would include that piece, as they do on later cars?
GuyW

It is vinyl, Guy. With underlay bonded to it. And similar in red in the boot.
Carpet kits for Frogeyes do not include anything to the rear of the floor and tunnel carpets, not even going up the bulkhead panel behind the seats. You have to buy a boot set separately.
Nick and Cherry Scoop

Thanks Nick. I may allow for making those too then. Vinyl is cheap at around £12 / lin metre @54" width. I can also then make up the boot tray rather than just a flat liner.
- no, not that sort of flat liner!
GuyW

The frogeye boot set is hardura which is a vinyl covered thick felt. Its the same as the material covering the inner rear wheel arches. There are two main pieces, One covers the area behind the seats angoes just over the rear axle arch. Its held in place with clips similar to those used for securing carpet. The other piece covers the entire boot floor and is only secured the the same two carpet clips at the top of the rear axle arch. Horler shows it quite well.

Bob Beaumont

Bob, I saw that in Horler (p26?) but thought it was just vinyl. Hardura from Woolies is £30 a metre so the savings from buying a ready-made set wouldn't be as great.

I see its only 1/8" thick as well. I had expected rather more. But it would look OK in the door linings in place of decayed ribbed rubber. Woolies even do a ribbed version of the Hardura which doesn't look so different.
GuyW

Some isolation behind the hardboard can sometimes be confortable in the south of the UK. It looks great if you can find the same vinyl for interior panels and chairs.

Flip
Flip Brühl

To be fair the Moss kit is well made and fits quite well. The boot section is correctly doubled over at the end beneath the rear lights. Not so good around the bumperette brackets though. Looks thicker than 1/8" too. The kit also includes the inner wheel arches.
I did trace the ribbed rubber somewhere. I'll see what I can dig out
Bob Beaumont

I've been thinking about this too. I dug out my Hardura boot piece, and it does look thicker than 1/8". This is probably the original one, so although the doubling over and hemming looks good, maybe they were never good around the bumperette stiffeners and filler tube.

Nick and Cherry Scoop

Detail.

Nick and Cherry Scoop

And another thing:- Woolies don't show the red vynide that I will need. I'm wondering where Moss, for example, get the coverings for their trim kits.

What's your trim colour, Guy? Bill?
Nick and Cherry Scoop

Mine is red as my frog like yours Nick is also cherry red It pretty well matched the old original stuff I took out. The inner wheel arch pieces were very good in fact. The red vynide is harder to match. I got lucky and bought a roll of the original stuff many moons ago. I may be wrong but I don't think vynide is made any more. The vinyl has a less pronounced pattern and is more stretchy. I remade my trim panels from 2mm hardboard the same as the original. Its the same material used in picture frames to back up the picture. My local picture framer supplied a few sheets for me (he had a TR3). Hardboard from timber merchants is 3mm and too thick.
Bob Beaumont

Bob,
Woolies list Vynide as well as vinyl, although I don't see it in red.
http://tinyurl.com/y9px4sxy
So it is clearly still in production.

Useful tip about the hardboard thickness for panels.
GuyW

Thanks for the tip about thickness, Bob. Woolies have stretch (expanded vinyl) and non-stretch (vynide), but not good reds. I've noticed that the suppliers do a lot of colours for Jaguars, so there must be good money to be made there.

I've found M Segal, who supply something like vynide, and their Old Red Jaguar (Jag 14) looks good for me. As it stands I've got at least three different reds on my panels, so I'm looking to be consistent on the new sill and B-post panels, the footwell panels (very good condition) are in the dark anyway, and the dash (good) will have to grin and bear it.
Nick and Cherry Scoop

Guy, Clearly vynide is still in production! The red vynide I have is similar to the jaguar vinyl in looks and the colour seems about right. Its not a 'bright red' more of a cherry colour.
Bob Beaumont

I got a metre of AH Spares' red vynide today (it was hiding in the Big Healey trim section). Mistake. It's more of a chinese red, and it's thick stretchy stuff. Great for lots of applications, but not for trim panels in my car.
Nick and Cherry Scoop

I didn't know the thick stretchy stuff was called vynide, I thought it was vinyl!
Bob Beaumont

I think you're right, Bob. My mistake. I'm thinking of using it to make a leatherette furnishing accessory for the home.
Nick and Cherry Scoop

After "loosing it" - literally I thought I would reattach this question to where it should be!

The dashboard covering will be replaced with material to match the other interior trim panels which I am also making myself.

There has been some recent discussion on Frogeye trim (which I now cannot find!) so I am now confused. Should I be ordering stretchy vinyl, non stretchy vinyl or Vinide? I think the latter is also sold as Rexine.

The answer seems to be to use Vinide, still sold as Rexine for lining out trim panels. And to ideally use picture framer's 2mm hardboard as the standard hardboard at 3.2mm is too thick to look right. Alternatively, to use MDF which is available in 2mm as well, though the local B&Q doesn't stock it.
GuyW

Guy
Non stretchy. I think its Rexine or Vinide. The pattern quite nicely matches the original. I used 2mm hardboard for the panels which were the same thickness as the originals. 3.2mm hardboard is usually stocked by DIY shops, the 2mm variety is used in picture frames. I got mine from a local framer but it must be available on the net I don't know about MDF.
Bob Beaumont

Just reactivating this thread from 2 years ago as I have finally finished** the interior trimming of my Frogeye. I haven't actually taken 2 years to do it - honestly! But its a job done in stages for different elements plus working in a cluttered (too much STUFF) garage meant dealing with one side at a time.

Interior panels made and covered myself, using 2mm picture backing hardboard as recommended by Bob, and vinyl to match my dark blue seat covers. Panels attached with SS screws and cup washers. This is as they should be, but initial reaction is that black ones would look better against the dark blue panels. Jury still out on that one! Modified lay flat cable along drivers door sill.

Boot side panels from upcycled VW van rear interior panels. They are a sort of thin hardboard like material with a light grey wipe-down coating. They look good and are stiff enough to spring into position without needing any fixings. I got them from a firm that refit vans for campervan conversions so chuck out all of the old liner panels.

Carpets from a kit, took a lot of alteration to get them to look right. They simply didn't fit as supplied. Whilst I expected to cut and trim pieces that needed glueing down I thought the removable mats should fit, but they didn't! Several pieces were too large to fit neatly and lie flat. I got an old Singer sewing machine (1904 model) from Freecycle - not allowed to use Her expensive modern electric one for heavy materials like this. Quite nice using the well engineered Singer and after a bit of restoration of the machine and a lot of practice on scrap pieces, I managed to make a reasonable job of cutting the carpet pieces down to a better fit and sewing on the new edge bindings.

Sound deadening is a mix of modern closed cell/ aluminium skin sound and heat insulation over the transmission tunnel and in the footwells and carpet underlay on floors and rear shelf.

**I thought trimming was finished but I see that the door pockets still need doing. And the seat backs!
GuyW

We'd love to see some photos!
L B Rose

Ok Les, I will take some. Later though.
GuyW

yes pictures will be good!
On a very small point the boot side panels are held by the inevitable metal tags! Yours may or may not have them. Where the liner butts up against the B post interior panel its also held by a self tapper and cup washer. I didn't use any sound deadening when I restored mine as it didn't have any originally (just rubber mats) and the cars are not leakproof and didn't want the insulation holding water. The seats have come out twice already to dry off the carpets! Carpets for the footwells and under the seats are held by the push on clips supplied.
Bob Beaumont

Bob, there are no discernable tags for securing the boot side panels. Presumably they should have attached from the wing seam. Since I welded the wings to a new rear deck along those seams I should have added tags then, but I didn't know about them! The panels fit quite snugly though, - I don't think they will rattle.

A couple of interior photos. Both of the main carpet pieces under where the seats go were about 30mm too wide. They didn't match to the shaped section of the transmission tunnel and the notched bit around the spring hanger support on the heel board was much too narrow.

The over tunnel carpets fitted poorly as well. The angle at the rear of the fixed piece was wrong and the side flaps of the front removable piece didn't sit properly over the floor cross member.





GuyW

2 more




GuyW

Guy Looking very good well done

Yes my replacement carpets didn't fit either in the same places ! I did find the carpets under the seats were not too big once the seats were bolted in and they wrapped around the floor stregthener.
The rear wings,boot floor and over the rear axle/heel panel is covered with Hardura which is a vinyl covered hessian material. The usual suspects supply it in a range of colours.
Bob Beaumont

Yes Bob, I do remember the discussion about Hardura being the correct material for the boot area. I decided to go for carpet. The car is a long way from original in all sorts of areas!
GuyW

Wow, nice job Guy :-)
One small question - is the gear lever gaiter the right way up?
;-)
David Smith

I wasn't going to mention it.

I did the same in my Sprite. It shouldn't really make any difference, but may put unnecessary strain on the gear lever, depending on how stiff the rubber is - i.e. trying to pull it out of gear.
Dave O'Neill 2

Oh I don't know. It just looked like it should go that way up, but it hasn't had much attention. It could explain why the centre hole is a little slack on the gear lever as the latter tapers upwards.

Turret needs painting - either black or body colour? I forget which. I think the gear lever should be chrome as well, as should be the brake lever.
GuyW

After looking through archive a while back the consensus was that earlier car turrets are in body colour, later in black. Not sure what woukd look best. Gear lever and handbrake are chrome originally.
Bill Bretherton

Gear lever was missing, so this (ribcase) is a replacement until I can find something better. Same with the handbrake. The chrome had largely disappeared so I painted it. There are plenty of replacements available, but almost all of the shorter variety. This will do for now.

For the turret, to me its a decision about what will look right, rather than what is historically right. There are too many other amendments from original to be worrying too much about that.
GuyW

Personally I think the turret looks better in body colour. Black always looks out of place to me unless the cars black of course.

Trev
T Mason

Body colour will look so much better and classier and will go well with the blue carpet and dash.

Black for the gear lever, its rubber gaiter and lever knob and handbrake are all good.
Nigel Atkins

Well body colour for the turret is the way I was thinking as well so thanks for the confirmation. (Trev and Nigel). With the car in Iris Blue (or Irish Blue as my paint supplier insists on labelling the tins) I think this colour on the turret will brighten the interior and tie in with the paint on the inside of the doors and the light blue piping on the seats. Should look nice!
GuyW

But Guy, why not put in a 5 speedbox like in your Sprite?
you dont think youll mis it when driving the frog?
A de Best

I will Arie, but the whole point is to have something different!

(But I do have a spare 5" speed just in case I fancy an upgrade!)
GuyW

This thread was discussed between 29/03/2018 and 29/06/2020

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