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MG MGB Technical - Dimensions needed for tonneau flap pegs

Can anyone give me the dimensions measured from the center of the car for the chrome pegs that the tonneau flap "lift the dot" fasteners connect to on the rear backboard behind the seats. My tonneau does not have the flap stitched on with the "lift the dot" fasteners, so I need to take it to an upholsterer and have one added. I also need to know how far down they are from the top of the backboard.

Many thanks

Andy
67 B Roadster
Andy Preston

Don't you have either pegs or the flaps? What about the three fastenings at the front?

Mine are 267mm centres for the inner pair, 983mm centres for the outer pair, and about 20mm down from the top of the shelf.

Tonneau covers vary considerably. The one that came with my roadster fastened to both, but was a bit tight fastening over the folded hood without tonneau sticks, there was no way it would fasten with tonneau sticks fitted. In fact it didn't fasten at all until I modified the hood frame slightly so it dropped right down into the space behind the seats. Since then I've noticed folded hoods in both positions, on various years, it seems almost random. That cover didn't have headrest pockets, whereas my seats have headrests, so I had to fold the passenger seat forward and remove my headrest to be able to use it - a bit of a pain. It also wouldn't fasten to the front centre post, which was pretty-well exactly in the middle of the dash, but so was the zip with the socket to one side. When I recovered the dash I swung the post through 180 degrees on one of its screws and drilled a new hole for the second screw, which brought it just about in line with the socket. I bought a used cover that had headrest pockets, but that only has two lift-the-dot sockets for the inner pegs. In use it doesn't seem to make much difference to appearance. This one fastens very neatly over the tonneau sticks (which I don't use anyway), but has press-studs at the two front corners to fasten to the base of the screen uprights instead of the pegs on the dash I have, so I cut two of the sockets and a bit of flap from the old cover and sewed it onto the new. The centre socket lined up with the post that I had moved for the previous cover.

I'd fit the posts first, then decide whether you are going to use sticks or not, drape it over the folded hood and decide how tight you want it to determine where the flaps should be sewn. Remember the flap is stitched to the top of the cover, not the underneath, so the excess cover is stowed neatly on the shelf under the folded hood when the tonneau is used as a hood cover.

Paul Hunt 2010

Paul many thanks for your reply. I have the pegs but not the flaps on the tonneau. I removed the pegs several years ago when I replaced the carpets in the car and never reinstalled them. So the tonneau has always been loosely folded behind the seats and not very neatly. I recently saw a B with a nice tight fit on the tonneay behind the seats and decided to get some flaps sewn on mine, but needed the peg dimensions first so I can reinstall those before having the flaps so on.

thanks

Andy
Andy Preston

Andy. Two things. First, if the pegs were in place and removed, the holes should still be there. Should be possible to go in from the underside, locate the holes, and push upholster's pins through to locate where the lift the dot pegs should be located.

Second, if there are no holes left (filled with bondo) and you are going to have an upholstery shop install the flaps, let them install the pegs to where they find best.

One thought, however, comes to mind. My new Robbins tonneau does not have the flaps to attach to the area behind the seats. Nor, does it have a zipper which would allow the tonneau flaps to be folded as the factory one was and use the pegs. Many of the tonneau covers sold today are not exact duplicates of the original factory cover and may require a significant investment in time and money to be set up like a factory tonneau. The Robbins top is made of significantly thicker material which will not fold as well, nor as easily, as the factory tonneau did.

Les
Les Bengtson

I need to replace these pegs on mine too. I haven't put them back since I installed the carpet. As Les says I was going to get under the car and poke pins through to see where the existing holes are. About 20mm down from the edge sounds about right from memory.

I think though, as Paul mentions, with the pegs in those original positions my tonneau won't fit if I have the hockey sticks installed. I think it will be too short or at least a very tight fit. I will probably just not use the sticks.

Simon
Simon Jansen

Andy: Is there a reason you don't want to just install the LTD pegs, and then put in the single tonneau bar and the tonneau cover and stretch it to see where things line up?

Les: What do you do with the tonneau cover when you're driving the car? Are there no breaks in the sides? I've got a Prestige tonneau. It doesn't have zippers, but it does have a pair of snaps (the side breaks are only just long enough to clear the tonneau bar, but it's sufficient for the purpose at hand; I think the original zippered side break was much longer).

Andy: It's probably best to figure out what you need for your car rather than using someone else's measurements. My tonneau came with the tabs and LTD fasteners and they are in the correct position to give proper tautness, but they are slightly off toward the center. I must leave the zipper slightly undone if both sides are behind the seats. Custom fitting yourself will prevent this sort of thing.
Dave McCann

Les and Simon, I went under the car on a lift and there is a double steel panel just under the top of the shelf which extends down about 2". That makes it impossible to locate the holes from behind which was my first idea.

Dave, I just wanted to get the original location of the pegs or close to it before having the flaps installed. I'm trying to keep my blue car as close to factory as possible. See you at MGs by the Bay.

many thanks

Andy
Andy Preston

Andy: You want the factory location of the pegs, or the flaps? I can understand you wanting to put the pegs back in the original location, but I still think you should then have the flaps done to the location of the pegs. I might be able to get peg locations off my '70 'B tomorrow. Don't know if someone else might be able to get that info sooner.
Dave McCann

Hmmm, will need to have a look under my car next time it is up on stands. I was sure that heel board was easily reachable from underneath. Been a while since I looked though! Have to do some tidying in the garage tonight after work so will take a look.
Simon Jansen

The majority of the heelboard is as I have battery cut-off switches in both my cars mounted there. However I do know there is a double-skin across the panel right at the top as the stud for the clip that holds the joining cable for the two batteries is in it. Fitted a new armoured cable recently and wondered how that nut would undo as it almost certainly hadn't been touched since the car was built. Came off sweet as a, well, nut!
Paul Hunt 2010

Andy: My '70 'B only has the inner pair of LTD pegs. They are 10.5 inches apart and centered. They are also ~.5 inches down from the 'corner' of the package shelf and the heel-board. This corner is more complex than just a single junction, on this car. Also, access to the backside of the peg mounting location is easily accessible via the battery access holes. I didn't think to feel around to see if I could locate the outboard peg locations. The roll-bar mounts conflict with those pegs and they (the pegs) are long gone.

Sorry I couldn't help more.

Paul: What year car are you seeing this double-skin. I'm not seeing anything like that on the '70.
Dave McCann

Thanks Dave, my car is a 67 and has the double skin box at the top corner of the battery shelf. It measures approx, 2" deep x 1" wide.

Andy
Andy Preston

Dave - mines a 73. Can't remember how far across it goes, but it is definitely in the centre over the prop-shaft.
Paul Hunt 2010

Andy,

I know your car is a '67. Besides, you say so at the end of the first post.

I've got nothing in the way of access to the sharp ends of the screws holding the two inner LTD pegs. I'll go later today and see if I can get any additional info.
Dave McCann

Here's a picture of the left inner LTD peg screw tips

Dave McCann

Here's a picture of the right inner LTD peg screw tips.

As I said before, the outer pegs are not present and the rollbar mounts cover their location. There isn't access from the battery boxes to the backside of those locations and I didn't have the equipment to get under the car. I looked in the left rear wheel well, and confirmed there is no access that way either. That means there is some small space that is only accessible from underneath between the wheel well and the side of the battery box. I'm figuring that it's about 3" wide, but that's a guess based on the battery box being 15" wide.

Ultimately, if you put 15" between the two pairs of pegs and 10.5" between the inner ones of each pair (you follow that, right?) you should be pretty close to original. It also looks like the pegs are all about X down from the corner (where X is 1.25 times the screw to screw distance; I should have measured that also but, alas, I have trouble keeping more than one thought in my head at a time).

Dave McCann

I haven't had a chance to look under mine yet. Too busy trying to weight it!

I somewhat dislike the idea of having screws through the metal like that. If you happen to be under the car and run your hand across the back of one of those sharp points you can give yourself a nasty, dirty cut (yes, learned from experience). If I can get to the back side of them I might use short bolts and nylock nuts on mine.
Simon Jansen

Andy,
I had to locate the pegs on my '69. I simply pulled the carpet back, located the original holes, poked holes through the carpet to attach the pegs.
Joe G.
J. E. Guthrie

I did mine yesterday. The double skin part is in between the two battery boxes just where the transmission tunnel is (or one battery box and the strengthening webs on the other side on 1 x 12v cars). One mine the inboard pegs are easily accessible from the back. The outer ones aren't as they screw into the inner part of the rear sill where it flairs up into the heel board.

I had terrible trouble fitting my outer ones and ended up shearing off a screw. Those were not very good stainless screws. I replaced with normal screws and that worked much better. They are high enough up that the sharp points through the metal aren't a big problem.

With the tonneau bows in place the cover fits very tightly and it actually looks really nice and tidy so it was definitely worth fitting them.

Now they are in place will go measure them later.
Simon Jansen

Here is a pic of the cover fitted. The distance between the middle two is 270mm. The distance across the flaps is 365mm. And one one side the peg is 120mm from the side of the car and 115mm on the other. As mentioned they are about 20mm down from the top of the heel board. That's a bit tricky to measure as that corner is rounded so I put a straight edge across the parcel shelf and measured down from that.


Simon Jansen

From underneath you can see where the inboard holes are just above the ribbing in the middle of the picture. The outboard ones are somewhere under where the sill runs so you can't see them. You can see the double skin that runs in the middle above the tunnel but the pegs should be well outside that area.

Simon Jansen

Many thanks for all your replies. Based on your measurements I installed the pegs recently and they look correct. Now I'm off the the upholsterer to have him sew on 2 flaps and install the LTD fasteners.

thanks

Andy
Andy Preston

This thread was discussed between 27/03/2010 and 06/04/2010

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