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MG MGA - Carpet question

I'm making the spare tyre cover, but just the front bit to seal out the trunk. Does it fasten to the inside of the trunk, held in place with the gasket and rivets? In other words, only the rivet heads will show in the cockpit?
Art Pearse

Yes that's right, although strictly speaking it is the rivet tail that is in the cockpit, the head and washer is in the boot/trunk...
Neil MG

I took apart my old spare wheel carpet cover into it's three separate pieces and found there was a slight peculiarity in the dimensions. The top and bottom half moon pieces were not identical in size which, at first, I thought strange. I took a picture of these pieces after I had cut them from new carpet (see pic.).

You can see that the top piece is a bit smaller than the bottom one and I believe the reason is that the plane of the spare wheel is not at 90 deg. to the bulkhead panel. The consequence is that the top of the wheel that's protruding into the cockpit is less in length than the bottom part hence the non-symmetry of the carpet pieces........................Mike



m.j. moore

Mike - OK, that explains the trapezoidal shape of the otherwise rectangular bit!
Art Pearse

So, I've made the templates and cut the carpet. Now the corners have to fit inside the radiused edges of the cutout. I guess this means that the seams at the corners need to overlap a bit more, to pull them in, compared to a "square box" design.
Art Pearse

Art, I remember it was a bit tricky at the corners but, I think, more to do with the fact that at the corner joins there are four thicknesses of carpet to get under the hardboard surround inside the boot. I cut away most of the excess carpet but kept the stitching intact. Maybe it would be easier to cut away the stitching for a half inch. I don't know how the manufacturers coped with it because by this time I had already dismantled the cover. Fortunately the hardboard surround is flexible and can just about manage the bulges.
At the time I couldn't manage the carpet sewing in my machine because of the thickness; I later found that the machine could be adjusted! So instead of machine sewing I used an awl...............................Mike
m.j. moore

From memory, the carpet is not trapped behind the board, there is a vinyl strip that is stitched in the joint between cardboard and hardura that supports the cover. I just had the original carpet left on my roadster before it was restored (the hardura had been removed) and I think I still have it. I will try and find it and see how it was attached.
Neil MG

Neil, yes, at the top, the front carpet turs down and is sewn to the vinyl strip and the rear cover is sewn separately to the strip. the other 3 sides form flanges under the "hardura". I think I will use nuts and bolts instead of rivets so I don't dent the gasket.
Art Pearse

This is a sketch I did at the time of the surround.................Mike


m.j. moore

Art, not sure if you are going for a concours finish but if you are not it might be a good time to consider allowing for a larger opening in the panel to accept a slightly larger tyre. I recently increased the opening height by 15mm to accept 185/65/15 tyres (tires).
Mike
Mike Ellsmore

This thread was discussed between 13/09/2014 and 15/09/2014

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