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Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG TD TF 1500 - Parts to Avoid

The following parts have caused more than a few owners here & overseas unnecessary frustration, much wasted time & considerable expense. They all came from the same large supplier in the States.

1. Windscreen chromed R & L top corner, post incorrectly located
2. Windscreen chromed R & L top corner pre drilled & tapped, as above
3. Interleaf spring rubbers too thick increasing camber destroys rear guard & apron
4. Non BA fuel tank sender unit screws destroys original tank threads
5. Sender unit float incompatible with ethanol fuels
6. Pump to float chamber fuel lines incompatible with ethanol fuels
7. Oversized chrome dashboard trim
8. Short, overly stiff fan belt destroys water pump bearings & generator rear bush
9. SU upper jet washers incorrect & unable to be fitted
10. TC/ TD/ TF cowl to bonnet rubber incorrect profile
11. TF rear apron incorrect size
12. TF running boards incorrect size
13. Distributor cap defective
14. Rotor button defective
15. Running board long bolts too short
16. Front suspension seals poor quality rubber
17. Rear shackle poor quality rubber
18. Rear front leaf spring poor quality rubber
19. Tie rod covers poor quality rubber
20. Steering gaiters poor quality rubber
21. Wiper motor wires incorrect colour & well below automotive rating
22. Hood & side curtain instructions inaccurate rewrite promised 2006
23. Hidem binding incorrect width 5/8” not 1/2”
24. Tan & biscuit incorrect interior colours not original for TD
25. Interior trim backing oversize leaving ugly inconsistent gap hidem to panel edge
26. Front & rear side curtain frames missing circular recess
27. Glove box incorrect shape & construction method
28. Ignition switch incorrectly wired internally & also has caused fires
29. Front & rear bumpers incorrect shape
30. Condensers fail many straight from the box
31. Timing chain disintegrates
32. Running board rubbers incompatible with original aluminium strips
33. Threshold aluminium strips wrong shape, design & screw hole location
34. Pedal boot rubber tears on installation
35. Glued brake linings from China undersized shoe thickness
36. Grommet sets incorrect sizes
37. Brake line clips legs not offset
38. Classic Gold warning lights
39. Crank handle pin defective
40. Choke knob operation incorrect
41. Choke & starter knobs pull off in your hand

This is not a complete list by any means. I would advise caution if planning to purchase any of the above as you bear all of the shipping costs & no responsibility is taken by the supplier for any damage caused by the use of these parts. Cheers
Peter TD 5801

P Hehir

Maybe so, but who else makes them. Both Moss and AS buy a lot of stuff from the same supplier, can be a pain but my experience is Moss makes things right if at all possible. I have not dealt with AS since Jerry died but prior to that, they took back parts that they sold years before but were never used that were wrong. We have to support all our suppliers to keep our cars alive otherwise we will be spending Jaeguar money on cars that do not reach those kind of collectible money.
TRM Maine

I agree that we need our parts suppliers and that they should be supported, but these suppliers are not giving the parts away for free and they should be held accountable for the many poor quality, over-priced items that they foist on us as quality spares. Some parts are being improved, but others have been - and remain - crap replacements.

I feel we have an obligation to support suppliers who make good faith efforts to supply accurate, quality parts for reasonable prices.

I feel no obligation to (and have little appreciation for) a firm that knowingly, and continuously, supplies inferior products.

I wish the small quality manufacturers like Declan and others were making all of the parts we need!
DLD

"30. Condensers fail many straight from the box"

You can go to almost any parts outlet and the capacitors (condensers) what you get will fail out of the box or shortly there after. let's face it, how many cars on the road today use points style ignition and electronic ignitions don't use a capacitor. Moss has recently found a source high quality ignition capacitors, but their representative warned that they are expensive at $15 USD.

I would suggest that when you replace the points in you cars, you inspect the contacts on the old points. If there is no material transfer from one contact to the other, don't replace the capacitor. Capacitors don't wear out - case in point, we purchased our TD in 1974 and up until I installed a pertronix ignition some 10 years ago, I never changed the capacitor in the distributor (it is still on the plate that I carry in case Pertronix fail on me. Cheers - Dave
DW DuBois

I suggest starting a T-series parts supply company. Get the original drawings, and make everything perfectly just like the factory did. Then try to sell for a slight profit. Virtually nothing is manufactured in the USA anymore due to draconian governmental regulations, taxes, insurance expenses, etc. Companies send specs and get prototypes back from overseas which are nice, and then the batch of parts that comes back is junk. BTW, for those of you that keep griping about price of T-series parts, they are one of the cheapest hobby cars (or even new cars) in existence. Price a factory headlight for a '07 Mazda 6- factory (ie perfect originals) are $300-600 depending on type, the aftermarket ones which are cheaply made, don't fit as well and don't put out as good light are much less. A turn signal switch for my 280Z is $640! I remember being so thrilled when Moss reproduced the original choke cables for TDs and TFs, yes they had a few knobs come off, but they exchanged for free. As I've said before, all of our parts are aftermarket. If you want prefect bolt-on stuff, find NOS somewhere, make or have your own made, or buy something you can go down to the dealer and get a perfect part. No excuse for the rotting rubber or also posi-drive headed screws after all these years however! George
George Butz

I hate to disagree, George; but nothing is made in the USA anymore thanks to Chinese Communist controlled slave labor at $1/hr. Their government subsizides (or provides free) housing, utilities, medical costs, travel, food and shipping on top of that. If we stripped out every govt regulation, wage law, insurance cost and removed OSHA and the unions, we still couldn't begin to compete.
What ever happened to good old fashioned American Anti-Communism? We've been sold out boys - and every single candidate running for office to day will continue to sell us out. Get used to it.
Geoffrey M Baker

Geoff, one of the great things about this site has been the members' avoidance of political, racial, etc., issues. Please knock it off. Bud
Bud Krueger

Bud, my statement was entirely apolitical, in that it was a critique of all of them equally, so no group was singled out. So I think it's fair. But I won't say more, because I agree that politics as a rule has no place here.
Geoffrey M Baker

I think the main issues of concern is not so much the quality of the parts, since most supplies don't make their own parts and really have little control over quality. I think the major issue is, will the supplier make good on a defective part? I've found that Moss is very good at replacing parts that break easily, are defective or don't fit as advertised. So a list of problematic parts is helpful, but I'm more interested in the suppliers commitment to making things right when I have a problem with their products. Perhaps a list of suppliers that are reluctant or refuse to resolve parts related issues would be more helpful.

Tim
TD12524
TW Burchfield

Sounds like somebody has a list of parts to make to perfection for the rest of us to buy and complain about.

I have been restoring cars since 1970 (I was 14, a '30 Ford, still own it). Back then you had to send $5.00 for a paper catalog, then based on a short text description send a check and wait 2-3 weeks for re-pop parts - IF they had them in stock. Nuts and bolts, go to the hardware store.

In HS I restored a '64 XKE and had to make the rockers from scratch. Do today's repops fit? Kind of, but who cares because an hour spent re-fitting is better than a day spent fabricating.

THESE are the good-old-days, boys. Tens of thousands of parts at a mouse-click.

MAndrus

Mandrus, you got that right.
Quality is always a concern though because (except for specialty products) they are made in very small lots all over the world. Even a part made in England may be of very poor quality because they only make 10 at a time and there simply isn't enough profit to throw more engineering at it...
Geoffrey M Baker

The only comment I will say on this subject is, I'm damned glad we have folks like Moss, B&G, Abingdon Spares and other suppliers of the parts we need to get these 60 plus year old cars on the road. Some of the new parts are not perfect and some have to be tweaked a little and some sent back, but I haven't had any complaints in that department, especially with Moss, who have replaced items for me without complaint. At times they don't even want the damaged item back. The prices we pay for these parts is cheap in comparison to modern day cars, I'm just glad there available. I prefer restoring an original part rather than new anyway, but not always possible. PJ
Paul161

A number of items in that list are old problems that have been corrected.
Gene Gillam

I think we can add all rubber components sourced from Moss and its off shoots to this list. My first port of call would be Tom,Declan and Doug Pelton.

I was severely burnt by the TC gearbox mounts supplied by Moss once I fitted Dougs equivalent parts problem solved.

The web is a powerful weapon it is marvelous what you can source that will be a direct replacements to purchases from the recognised MG Parts Suppliers.

G Evans

Thanks Peter H. for the list. I've printed a copy for my shop notes. Being able to return parts isn't a big help to me (in Newfoundland) -- shipping is a significant factor -- and I suspect it's the same in New South Wales. So it grates when something is sold as "original style" etc but hardly fits, let alone matches original. But the problem is much bigger than the parts for our cars. There is a lot of junk on hardware shelves everywhere. Sometimes the junk works OK, once it's redrilled, polished, whatever. But otherwise, all you can do is try to avoid the junk and be willing to pay for quality (when you can find it). Besides the top o' the line artisan suppliers like Tom Lange, Bob Grunau, Craig Seabrook, Dave Dubois etc I find FTFU (Doug Pelton)'s parts quality as advertised... with a clear indication in the catalog if the part in question is an approximation. (Hope he continues to expand his TD items.) Maybe the new owners of Abingdon Spares can adopt this idea, as they re-develop their online catalog. Paying for a knock-off approximate part, if you already know the situation, leaves you feeling OK about the dealer, even if uneasy about the bigger picture. Anyway, it's being scammed which gets me down. --Peter
Peter Pope

Generally I restore most original parts and put back on the car.
However, I have purchased parts with success from Anglo Parts(Belgium() and NTG Services in UK. Very good quality and reliably
contactible.

No financial interest.
Cheers

Rob Grantham
TF3719("Aramis"),TF9177("Athos").
R GRANTHAM

It's the rubber parts that really fail.
Mike Hart

"It's the rubber parts that really fail."
Declan is working on those as we speak. Cheers - Dave
DW DuBois

So what is the latest on the Moss rubber stuff? I know for awhile they really made some poor rubber bits, but I read where they acknowledged that and pledged to improve. Anyone have recent experience?

I've got a 40 year old Moss rubber kit and all that stuff is in excellent condition-- no cracks, still very flexible, so it appears they were doing things right then. On the other hand, I bought some stuff in the late 80's and early 90's that deteriorated pretty quickly.
David Littlefield

I am not aware of any actual improvements in the rubber products from Moss, only a failed pledge to improve. Rubber from Abingdon Spares will have "ASL" cast in to the rubber, and it lasts.
When you think of the amount of labor to replace swivel pin seals, trunion seals, tail light bezels, pedal boots and body grommets it is not acceptable to have parts that fail in a few weeks.
I do not want to jump on the bash Moss parade, but this one really bothers me. They have known about their inferior rubber products for years, I noticed it twenty years ago.
David
D. Sander

Every supplier of a product or service has both & moral & legal obligation to ensure that what is offered for sale is fit for purpose. They also have a duty of care. This is universally recognized in all civilized countries. If a complaint is made, suppliers here are investigated by the Department of Fair Trading & if they fail to meet their obligations the penalties can be & often are very severe.
Apologists for retailers of parts that don’t fit the bill say we should all be grateful that we can even buy parts at all, implying, even stating that ANY part is better than none. But is it? What’s the good of a part that ALMOST fits? Especially so, if no amount of tweaking can make it work. The result is just hours wasted on a fool’s errand & what’s more you get to pay for the privilege. No matter how you cut it an apple is never going to be an orange.
The apologists also state that if you’re not happy, just send it back & the item will be replaced. Sounds simple, but again is it? Shipping costs often are well in excess of the cost of the item with some suppliers making huge profits on the shipping. A $3 ignition key from the UK that would cost me a staggering $47 to ship to Australia, simply can’t be justified. And who pays for the shipping? The purchaser of course. Not once, or twice but three times! First on the initial purchase, then to return it & again to receive the replacement. And to really rub salt into the wounds the replacement is often as useless as the initial item!
The apologists are quick to point out that if the retailer tested every part to ensure it was fit for purpose the added cost would make the item far too expensive to be worth their while. This is a specious argument. The supplier simply has to do what every reputable retailer does & that is insist that the manufacturer is able to demonstrate that the item actually does what they claim. If it doesn’t then it is excluded from the inventory. The onus is on the manufacturer to satisfy the supplier. There is no cost to the retailer. It’s as simple as that. A duty of care. This protects both the retailer & the purchaser. Before Chris Couper mentions any item on his site he ensures that it’s not only fit for purpose but at least as good, if not better than what is currently available. He actually tests the item to ensure this. Declan Burns does the same.
The really galling practice however is to knowingly continue to sell items that have been shown to be defective, damaging or unfit for purpose. There is absolutely NO excuse for this particularly offensive way of doing business. The purpose of my post was not to bag the supplier concerned but simply to alert prospective TD/TF owners that these parts need to be approached with caution. I’m not just whingeing into the wind, having taken the trouble to speak to the CEO of the company in question almost 2 years ago. I was promised an investigation & that he’d get back to me. Yeah right… I’m still waiting for a reply.
We have a collective voice. If we don’t use it then we deserve the parts listed above. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

off topic

It's a conspiracy!

The chinese deliver as long scrap until we become crazy. Then they will send us their doctors and nurses.
Bela

I give a lot of credit to all out there that are willing and able to restore these cars from the ground up. It takes a lot of skill and learning to make it happen. Buying the parts is sometimes the only way to get the job done, but the chap that can make his own is becoming a lost art. Our young people don't seem to be interested in learning these skills. It's so true that we need to support those that are trying to get it right. I've shopped and found I can buy new or used original parts within reason and have not experienced the quality issues that others have. Cheers!
RERosa

I retired from a career of parts procurement and material control after 30+ years. Today it is called logistics.

Even with today's computer assisted design, there are still "variances" in the fitting of manufactured parts. This is why you have shims, washers, grommets,etc. There is also the variances in materials used in manufacturing. A production change can occur due to availability of certain materials, and "upgraded" design changes. Some of these changes are due to supply, quality, and cost issues. What fit on an early production car will not fit a later production car.

Many items such as interiors are no longer manufactured due to flammability issues. The same goes for plastics.

Consider this. Not many of us are the original owners of our classic cars, so we do not know what modifications have been made to our cars. So when we order an item, it may not fit due to prior mods by previous owners.

As far as ignition items, condensers have been known to fail right out of the box as long as I turned wrenches. That's been since the 60's.

The global economy has been a blessing as well as a curse. BTDT

Cheers

Gary
79 MGB
gary hansen

I suspect every maker is also looking for a 2-for-1 deal. If a part from a MG is close enough to a part from a later car, why not use an in-between design which can fit both badly? Costs down, sales up profits up who cares what the customer thinks?
Geoffrey M Baker

As if running a parts house for obscure, antique cars that no one wants to manufacture parts for on a limited run is easy. Yes, a part that "almost" fits is better than no replacement part at all.

Until people are willing to pony up and pay $500 for a door latch like the rest of the automotive world, this is what we will get. If there's a way to produce thousands of perfect parts for cars that required hand fitting of each part, at a price MG owners will pay, then lets hear it!
Steve Simmons

I respectfully disagree Steve. None of the 41 items I mentioned above can be modified in any way to make them fit, except perhaps for item 10. The 7 other suppliers I now deal with are able to provide usable parts so why not Moss? Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Peter. If you have found good quality part suppliers othe than Moss, please share it with us. Again, having spent my career in the parts business, it is tough to get best of all worlds, especially on vehicles that have not been manufactured in over 30+ years

Cheers

Gary
79 MGB
gary hansen

Hi Gary. The suppliers that I've not had any issues with include Brown & Gammons, Cambridge Motor Parts, FTFU, The Whitworth Shop & Abingdon Spares. I have nothing but praise for the quality of the parts & the service from these outlets. Others here in Oz have also recommended NTG & Anglo Parts though I have no personal experience with either of the latter. I did have an issue with a cam shaft bearing purchased from B & G & it was replaced at no further cost to me as B & G bore the cost of shipping the replacement. As it is for Peter Pope, shipping is a major consideration for purchasers here.

I WOULD like to see Moss lift their game & if I lived on the west coast I'd certainly be pressing the issue of sub standard parts with them. Perhaps if some well-respected individual in the TD/TF community in the States were to act as a convener, gathering a comprehensive list of concerned T Type owners worldwide & of items that constantly draw criticism as being unfit, damaging, defective or undesirable, this would be a very useful first step. Once the lists are too large to ignore, the CEO of the Moss West Coast Division in Goleta could then be approached & asked to arrange a seminar, perhaps over a weekend, where these owners are invited to present their concerns in person, with cars & problematic parts in tow. Once the dialogue has been opened, the worst of the items could be removed from sale almost immediately. Replacement & questionable items could subsequently be tested by various members of the group with parts supplied by Moss free of charge, in return for the owner’s feedback. But I can hear the critics & naysayers even now muttering.. "Tell him he's dreamin'..." Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

It wasn't always this way. In the late 70's I restored a 53 TD. This was before Abingdon Spares and Moss was the only source for parts. Many of these parts were NOS or repo's made in the UK or here in the USA. Even then sometimes the part looked different from the part being replaced but usually worked. Keep in mind at that time Moss only supplied parts for MG TC/TD/TF. I know sourcing parts for all the old British cars Moss does today is not easy and I think they do an outstanding job. Try going to your local auto parts store for a part for a 2012 car and see what you get. I am just happy to have Moss and Abingdon Spares selling parts for my 60 year old British car. One additional thing, the amount of parts available today is far greater than in the 70'5. When I have a concern with a part I call the supplier and resolve the issue.
F. Driver

I had a long conversation with Martin MacGregor from MacGregor British Car Parts relating to the issues with current rubber. As many of you know, Martin worked for BL in their trim area and now tries to provide good, accurate replacement parts.

I had called Martin to try and find a wing window rubber seal that would last more than a year or two.

Martin told me that the way rubber parts are currently manufactured is not the same as they used to be. The chemical composition is also different.

He said the current wing window seals are so bad, he refuses to carry them.

I don;t know if this is something Declan might be able to enlighten us on, but it would be interesting to lean more.

Also wonder if Declan can make the wing window gaskets.
Bruce TD4139 Cunha

What Martin says is probably right. All my working life was in the polymer industry, mostly with plastics, but my training was in both plastics and rubber. Back in day all of these parts will have been sulphur cured, i.e. Vulcanised, which gives a fully crosslinked part that can take huge elastic deformation, etc. These days a lot of parts are made from thermoplastic rubber - there is no sulphur cure or true crosslinking. The process is much quicker and cheaper, but physical properties are not so good. In addition rubber can be and is compounded with all sorts of additives, fillers, extenders, etc, etc. The temptation to add more filler and drive the cost down is great. If nobody tests the end product they will get away with what they can. Do Moss have a Material Scientist on their team, and can we even seriously expect them to? I seriously doubt it.
Dave H
Dave Hill

We all have had issues with parts supplied for our cars at one time or another, me included. The issue more often than not is price. Few in our hobby are willing to shell out the additional funds that it would take to ensure that the parts are made to a higher standard. We take Moss to task because they are the major player in the field but quite often any given part from any supplier comes from the same source. I give Moss credit for having the pull to get the parts made in the first place. I have received substandard pats from AS as well as Moss and don't even get me started about parts supplied for the MGB from the other major player in the states for those.

A few years back I quizzed Kelvin Dodd about the crap rubber bits that were furnished, explaining that the rubber parts that I had purchased for my MGB from them in the early 90's was still in good shape while the just purchased bits for the T were coming apart before I got it out of the shop. Goes back to price...example that he gave was the rubber shackle bushings (which is the first thing I throw in the trash when I get a kit). He explained that the state side supplier that had provided them with a great product was requiring a minimum order which far exceded what they were willing to carry. They found an alternative supplier that would make them in smaller numbers. It keeps the price low. I told him I would pay more for quality. He said most won't and I don't need to question that, I know that it's true. He did say that all of the rubber supplied now should have a number stamping so that they can address the quality issues with the suppliers.

Another example of price over quality...interior kits ... The purest among us have pointed out the flaws in the kits that Moss provides.. in this case Moss makes these in house. I think they provide a pretty good product and I don't find it to be particulary cheap. That said, I read about better quality kits manufactured by the likes of Heritage Trim in North America and others in the UK but at prices far above what Moss asks. Moss still out sells the others by a huge margin. Why? Price.

Andy King advertised a new TF grille shell stamping would be produced a few years back at a cost of 1500 dollars...unchromed. I could use a better one.. But it's not in my budget at that price. I wonder if any were made?

Doug Pelton has built a business on supplying correct parts for the TC but if you look at his catalog you will notice that a large number of them come from Moss. He has a couple of offerings for a water pump. One sourced from Moss at around a hundred bucks. Another with a six vane brass impeller at over 300. I wonder which one he sells more of? I bought two of the higher priced ones for the two T cars that I lasted worked. Are they any better? Only time will tell.

Is there a market for better made products? Maybe but it would take someone willing to have a stab at going into business such as Doug to prove the theory. Just my two pence.

MG LaVerne

LaVerne, I agree totally. A few years ago someone offered to have a batch of correct brass "Mickey Mouse" eared TD air cleaner wingnuts made as original for I think $25. I recall that there were not enough orders so none were made. George
George Butz

Amen, LaVerne. Imagine you have a parts business. And imagine there is a part that is no longer available and you want to take the initiative and have it reproduced. So you call a manufacturer, work with them to design the part at a huge cost to you, and the sample isn't right. So you continue to tweak the design and make samples until you reach the point where you can't put any more money into it because in order to break even, you will already have to more than the market demands.

At this point, do you continue to work at it and lose money? If so, do you raise the price so high that no one will buy it, again losing money? Do you call it quits and just offer a parts that will require some tweaking by the end user to fit? Do you offer that high quality part and pray no one produces a cheap, ill-fitting part that will outsell yours because most people are cheap? Or would it have been better to just not try to reproduce the part and leave your customers to fend for themselves when a critical part no longer exists?

There is a reason why so few try to reproduce parts for these cars. It's really, really hard. And you get more grief for your efforts than praise. I'm amazed anyone does it.
Steve Simmons

Bruce,
What do the wing window gaskets look like? I don't quite follow.

Regards
Declan
Declan Burns

Declan, I think that they are for MGBs. Bud
Bud Krueger

We do get parts at a reasonable price but are high compared to old American iron. A friend just finished a frame off restoration of a 67 Vette and the prices of stainless calipers, cross drilled rotors, aftermarket air conditioner kits, power window kits, etc, was astoundingly low!
Rb Harding

Hi LaVerne,

If you are looking for a new TF radiator shell try Hutsons. I was at their factory about a year ago and they had a pile of them, all nested together. They were made for the Nalor TF replica which has an identical body to the original cars. They are steel stampings rather than brass but with a good triple plating they would be indistinguishable from the original. I suspect they will be reasonably priced.

Jan T
J Targosz

I had one of those steel shells once and the holes were punched in the wrong places to fit a factory TF, so make sure they'll fit properly before commiting to chroming one. PJ
Paul161

I manufacturer OEM parts for most of the vehicles on the road, some direct to companies like Ford or Chrysler, many to secondary sources that then provide assemblies to Tesla, Honda, Jaguar, Toyota, etc.

The quality process for making each part is very strict, known as a PPAP
(Preliminary Part Approval Process), which , with and average of 17 documents, covers all aspects of making a quality working part. To avoid liability, I often do the CADs and prints and assign them to the car manufacturer, who accepts them as their own.

My point is that it is just as hard to make a bad part as it is to make a good part. What I suspect is missing is the communication to the manufacturer on exactly what is wrong with the part.

I make a few parts for our MG cars. Fortunately, none on that list are mine. Cost is a factor. I don't make a living selling MG parts, I just cover my costs and wholesale them on to those that do. If you want an exhaust manifold gasket that is not 'graphite' and works, but costs slightly more, it is high tech material that is bought for other modern cars but some 'borrowed' for MG parts, if you get my drift. China can't get many of my material sources. I can't meet China's cheap labor and don't even try.

Reminds me of a Dusey part (copper wrapped exh. gasket) that cost me $6 in materials alone to make. Labor was 'donated' by me for the glory of making a Dusey part. My customer sent one to S. Korea where they duplicated it for 87 cents! It was just as good or better. That's ok, part of doing business, but the design was correct and that is what is missing with many of those parts on the list, the proper final design made clear to the producer of the parts.

The Moss bumpers that go on my 54 TF are not exactly the same profile as the originals on my 55 TF. How did that first sample for approval ever get approved? Someone did not vette the PPAP. The tooling could have been made correctly just as easily as incorrectly.
Is it that big of a deal? Not really. Most folk don't even notice or care and I am happy to get a front and rear bumper set ,including overriders, ready to go on the car for a mere $740 when just the chroming (in the USA) alone would cost around $2000. The difference in cost is , as noted in the thread, due to the many restrictions that I and others in the USA have to follow that chrome shops in China can ignore.

However, coming back to the thread topic, the China source could have made the tooling right in the first place, for the same low cost, and we would be happy. It was the responsibility of whoever sourced the part to assure that it was 'correct'. With CAD design, I suspect that most newer supplied parts are 'right'. Is it worth the added cost to retool bumpers? Not my call, but it does depend on the part.

For example, with respect to the 'profile' on the firewall to bonnet rubber, is it worth correcting? I can make an extrusion tool, run 100 feet of sample product, of the correct buna N (nitrile) material of the proper durometer for around $1000. Figure 6 feet per car, that is 16 units or $60 per unit my cost. Moss sells 6 feet for $35. There's more. The tooling is now mine, but a minimum additional extrusion order is 1000 feet at $1 per foot. That's only $6 per unit for the 'correct' profile, but who, in the USA, is going to commit to $1600 for 176 units, or roughly $10 per car? Selling at $30 per car would take 54 sales to break even, then the rest (125) would be 'gasp' profit, $3,750. How long would those units sit on the shelf? Part of the risk of running a business. At least those extrusions on the shelf would be correct!

If the part really is a prime view item, it should be correct. The TF false nose repros for the radiator medallion were deplorable, now they are no longer offered. Good call. I am sure there are other examples, but just wanted to offer some views on the subject of MG parts and quality, with variables, from a manufacturer's perspective.



Lee Jacobsen

"My point is that it is just as hard to make a bad part as it is to make a good part." Thanks Lee.. I couldn't agree more! Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Lee: Great write-up and that car is looking stellar.
Christopher Couper

This thread was discussed between 05/02/2016 and 21/02/2016

MG TD TF 1500 index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG TD TF 1500 BBS is active now.