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MG MG Y Type - Windscreen outer seal fault.

Not looking to jump on the "bad replacement parts" bandwagon, but have a look at what I was sold (and stupidly fitted without double-checking) as the windscreen outer seal. The old seal section is on top in the photo; sadly too brittle to salvage.
If the main sealing part of the replacement profile is pointing the same way, the "foot" and "belly" are pointing in the opposite direction. It's impossible to get the seal to conform around the screen corners and offer any sort of seal.
I'm sure my usual UK supplier would gladly refund or credit - but I'm in the antipodes, and am just looking for a product that actually matches the original. Has anyone found a replacement seal that fits and actually seals?? It might well be that over in the UK a non-MG seal has been found to be the same as the original Y seal. Am willing to pay big money.
Thanks all.
John.


J P Hall

Dont know who your supplier was but only last month I ordered and received a seal from NTG for a YB I am restoring and the seal slid in with no issues and is fine. I used a small amount of lanolin spray to help ease it in.
Paul Barrow

Thank you Paul - SO: looking at my not-very-good photo, is the profile of your new seal the same as my old one, on the top in my photo, or the different profile in the lower example? It seems to me that the top example, that came with Y3348 (a 1980s item, now decayed) has an almost opposite profile to the ones now being sold. As I said above, the new seal, from a normally excellent supplier in the UK, just doesn't seal in the recess around the screen frame. I'm almost tempted to reverse it (easy enough), to see if that's any better. But ultimately I just want to source the seal that fellow Y Typers say works well.
John.
J P Hall

Hi John
Got mine from Pete at Octagon , went in a treat and seals well . Don't forget to give it 24 hours to settle before you do the bottom join .

John B
J K Bowman

I think that's where I'll go, JB, but I'll be interested in Paul's input on the profile of his new seal from NTG. It's a mystery - and such an innocuous but important part.
John.
J P Hall

It's hard to show in a photo, but this is how I had fitted my seal, having carefully marked the old seal for orientation inside and outside. The concave face is on the outside. The seal doesn't fit well anywhere. From feedback on the Y Type facebook site, it seems that as well as the profile of the current offerings being different, it's possible that the p/o back in the early 80s has put his windscreen seal on inside out! So the feedback from Paul will be especially interesting, plus any other experience from others. John.


J P Hall

Nothing more from Paul Barrow yet, but - encouraged by feedback from (the other) Paul at NTG, I took my newer seal out today and flipped it over, so that the "belly" sits on the outside and, unlike my very old seal, the convex profile is visible outside. The result is a waay better seal along the top edge and, because the rubber lips over the metal at the bottom, an impenetrable water barrier there. That only leaves the 2 vertical sections of the screen - from the outside, a much better appearance, BUT I think I'm with Neil Cairns on this - it still looks vulnerable to water ingress because the rubber doesn't reach over the metalwork, it just sits "close". Every car will of course differ slightly - in my case a 25mm seal would fix the problem because it would "lip over" the metalwork all the way round. Oh well.
I realise this may be of little interest to many owners, but there might be a few who don't like to be beaten! John.





J P Hall

John

I put my new rubber seal in such that the bevel curled towards the body if that helps you. The bevel should always go to the body of the car. From you photo you would therefore have the lower seal upside down.

Paul
Paul Barrow

Thank you Paul - I think you're referring to the lower seal profile in my first picture? - in which case the lower seal is the profile currently supplied by vendors such as NTG, Woolies and, I believe (awaiting confirmation) the Octagon CC shop. Certainly when the outer edge of the seal curls toward the body (opposite to how my old seal had been fitted), the overall fit and seal is better - though I still have work to do.
Tony S has advised (archives) that it's best to offer up the windscreen c/w seal before fitting the headlining. This is certainly true, as I've found out. I'm actually thinking of unpicking the front headlining under the wooden trim strip - this should enable me to re-adjust the hinges to make sure the screen frame sits down inside the windscreen recess all the way round; only then can I achieve the best possible fit and water seal - whatever "best possible" is!
FWIW, we took the Y on a spirited 150 mile club run yesterday, in the company of much more powerful machinery. She performed beautifully ... and it didn't rain, so I didn't need the duct tape.
John.
J P Hall

This thread was discussed between 20/09/2023 and 24/09/2023

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