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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - hood rear bar fittings

Just about to start my frogeye roof project... i have a fibreglass back end that has never had any hood fittings put on it so i am having to start completely from scratch.
I bought the two chrome slotted fittings as per picture below...
Can anyone send me dimensions of where they should fit ?
Need width between them and distance from back of cockpit so i can mark out and drill the holes...

Also, it seems that my windscreen may be in back to front... ? there is the gutter which runs around the glass where the hood bar at the front is supposed to slot in, but this is behind the glass (ie. on the inside of the car) .. from what i have read this should be on the front of the windscreen so that the bar can go in the slot then be tensioned...am i correct ?

Thanks in advance...

Andy

Andy Phillips (frankenfrog)

Andy
I have had a measure up on my frog and attached a sketch hope you can read my writing

And yes the lip on the windscreen should be on the outside

Dave Pratt

many thanks Dave,

windscreen will look strange when i swap it round......
Andy Phillips (frankenfrog)

Andy: have you thought that the back line of your tub may be different to "standard"? If you take the hood position by measuring from the back edge, it doesn't directly relate to the top edge of the windscreen, which is the critical measurement. Wouldn't you be better to fit the hood under the edge of the screen and pull it back, just to double check before drilling any holes?
GraemeW (Kent!)

Hi Graeme,
Yes that would make sense normally, however, i dont actually have a hood yet... i'm going to make one to fit so want to have the rear fitment points as the first datum to work from...

shipping v.expensive to Thailand from UK for a bulky item like a hood, and also.. i made my own rollbar as picture below, so not sure if a std hood will fit.

i have some vinyl that i bought to use on interior but had 2nd thoughts on the colour, so i'm going to use that to experiment with and make a template, then give it to the local car seat recovering shop to make one professionally using better materials (such places still exist here, there are a choice of 3 within 20km of my house).

I bought the two rear slotted fittings, three packets of different sized "lift the dot" and turnbuckle type fixings and some of the brackets that hold the side screens to the doors. These parts fit easily in a large envelope and sent by mail.

Side screens will be made from perspex that i bought from a local signmaker as will the rear window in the hood.

wish me luck... any advice welcome....

Andy Phillips (frankenfrog)

getting a bit of a "show" look about the car now Andy, are you hoping for polishing cloths for Xmas ;-)
Nigel Atkins

just fairy liquid and cold water and a sponge.... oh and a team of people from Meguiar's polishing all the cars that were at the show for free if you agreed to display their logo on your windscreen.... first time she's ever seen polish....
Andy Phillips (frankenfrog)

I bet the Meguiar's lot loved it when you told them you use washing up liquid to clean the car, it's not a good product to use

I actually cleaned my wife's car today, second time this month! (and about third time I've cleaned it this year) I needed to rinse off the underside from when she went away in June, forgot to do it last time, and just got carried away
Nigel Atkins

off topic again I know but

after your thermal readings at carbs previously, when the weather went cooler over here I swapped my electric fan from running with the ignition off to not running with the ignition off

mainly it was because my engine runs so cool and that it soon got cold at pub stops even in the summer, it was only wired the other way as a temporary measure (that lasted a few years)
Nigel Atkins

Nigel,
I don't understand, surely, as the fan is triggered by a thermostatic switch, it only come on when needed so, as it runs "so cool and that it soon got cold at pub stops even in the summer", it wouldn't come on whichever way it was wired.
Ray Rowsell

Ray,
yes the thermoswitch controls when the fan comes on and off but when parked up there's heat build up as you're no longer pushing the rad through cooling air and the water pump isn't circulating the coolant

if the electric fan is running when parked the heat from the rad is sent to the enclosed engine bay and helps to warm it further for a while thus keeping the fan running from the thermoswitch fitted in the top hose where the coolant isn't circulating to cool it, so in effect the fan is making work for itself until the rad cools enough

Nigel Atkins

Nigel,

I understand what you say. However, does that mean the designers of many "moderns" have got it wrong as they allow the fan to work "ignition off"? Indeed, the fan often only operates after stopping when the heat builds up as you described.
Ray Rowsell

Nigel,
I regard my under bonnet temp investigations incomplete, but have not had time to get on with it recently...
my fan is connected to run independent of the ignition, but i also have a battery isolator switch, what i generally do is switch off the engine and let the fan run for a minute or so, then isolate the battery...

Fan used to run for a long time once the engine was switched off, but i drilled some 4mm holes in the thermostat flange and that seems to help the flow due to thermosyphon action once the engine is switched off as the fan works much less now...

I still say the best way is for the fan to pull when the car is in motion, and push when stopped so that the heat when stationary dosent build up in the engine bay.
I actually have it wired that way, and used a microswitch connected to the throttle linkage to switch it but not very happy with that as it means the fan is constantly switching direction when in stop-start traffic, i'll probably just put it on a switch until i can find a better way.

not been active on BBS for a while due to new baby, now 4 months old....meet Austin, due to inherit a frog-spridget-datsun in 18 years time....

hood fitting to electric fan control then to babies in 12 posts ... must be a record thread drift !!

Andy Phillips (frankenfrog)

Andy your 3.7 is being collected today (how's that for even more thread drift!)
David Smith

Cheers Dave.....
Now i just need to buy some stronger half shafts and some other bits then organise them to be put on a boat ......:-)
Andy Phillips (frankenfrog)

Ray,
no I don't think the 'moderns' we've be driving for 30 years have it wrong that's why I didn't rush to change back to with ignition but 'moderns' have much more modern designs cooling than Spridgets

when I had (only) an engine driven fan in summer whilst driving on an open road the temp gauge would be showing well before N and would go to around N or just passed, when parked it would rise to just a bit more passed N

with the electric thermoswicth fan only fitted direct to the battery I have it set for the fan to cut in just before the needle gets to the N but it doesn't switch off until well before the N so when parked up the fan runs on, very noisily, cooling more than necessary only a few feet away from where I sit at home

I tried setting it so the fan cut in and out at higher temp gauge needle readings but having had fibreglass cars that can run very hot (and remain hot for many hours after being parked up) and had at least 5 HGF over various cars I prefer a wider margin to the disaster zone

I don't think either way of wiring makes that much odds on our cars

Andy,
I did remember how far you'd got but as I just put I don't think that degree of sophistication is needed in the UK
Nigel Atkins

Hi Nigel,
Agree....in fact it has been very cool here during the last week... down to 17 deg C... made quite a difference to the car, and on a short trip the fan didnt even come on.
Big difference to normal which is 36 deg ambient and fan cutting in if the car just slows from a higher speed or just stops for a few seconds...

it was so cool that i even found myself wishing i had a choke fitted.....
Andy Phillips (frankenfrog)

Andy,
another reason I changed mine was that the engine would cool so much that sometimes I'd need to use the choke after leaving the pub suggesting we'd been in there a long time (as if!)
Nigel Atkins

This thread was discussed between 20/12/2013 and 24/12/2013

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