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MG MGA - Door top trim

Do I have to join the wood and metal trim pieces before covering with vinyl, or are they covered separately?
Also, how are the ends finished, ie how to tuck away the vinyl in the best way. Were there metal end caps? There is a little recess in the sides, as if there should be a fitting.

Art Pearse

Join the two together first and then use body filler to even out any imperfections or roughness in the joint. Then cover the two as a single piece. I am sure Barney has a wonderful page on doing this.

The rear rail is covered as three separate pieces
dominic clancy

Art

Those trim pieces on top of the doors were leather, not vinyl, as were the 2 small curved rear quarter panels. The dashboard facia trim and the central piece across the back were the Vynide leather cloth.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Ok thanks. I have enough hide to do it in leather.
Car is BRG, seats will be tan hide, carpets black and the trim in vinyl as near as I could get to the hide.
So, how to finish the leather at the ends?
Art Pearse

Great choice Art, same as mine except my trim is a creamier shade of tan - magnolia I think it is called. Do you have a copy of Clausager? If not it is back in print and worth getting. Some of the guys say it is not 100% in every detail but nevertheless a very good reference. That's where I picked up the detail on the trim.

Steve
Steve Gyles

I really enjoyed covering the door tops with leather. I soaked the leather in hot water for 10-20 minutes before applying. It stretches beautifully around the curves of the metal pieces and it shrinks during drying so any creases disappear. The end result was excellent.

But I found covering the front and rear pieces with vinyl more difficult. First time I tried I couldn't get rid of wrinkles and concluded it was the vinyl I was using which had very little stretch so I got a different type with more stretch and this was better. Trouble is you can't soak vinyl to make it stretch; you can use a hot air blower but by the time you are ready to tack it on the back it has cooled down. I uncovered the factory original rear rail and found that they had used adhesive to glue the vinyl but only on the back face. I think if you use adhesive on the front side it may appear lumpy as it's virtually impossible to get a uniform layer of glue.

The recesses in the sides at the door trim ends are for the three layers of leather formed when folding and finishing the material at the ends. The rear cockpit wood doesn't have the recesses and instead the ends are finished with three triangular pieces folded over and stapled down onto the ends. As the rear curved metal pieces butt against the rear wood you can't see the staple(s).

I think it is generally thought that leather was used on the door trim because of the wear it gets when opening/closing the door but I wouldn't mind betting that the upholsterers chose leather because it is so easy to fit and get a good result around the pronounced curves of the metal trim pieces. I would hate to have to cover those with vinyl.

If I were doing mine again I would hang the expense and cover the front and back wood pieces with leather also. In this way you would avoid the oddity of the different appearances between the vinyl and hide..................Mike
m.j. moore

Mike, my hide was not quite big enough to do the backs of the seat backs, so they will be vinyl, but it means I will have leather for the front and back cockpit trim as well. Thx for the tip about soaking.
Art Pearse

This thread was discussed between 02/04/2013 and 03/04/2013

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