The MGA With An Attitude
Picture here shows the door internal brace packing. The material is rubberized horsehair strip which is common to many joints in the MGA body. It was also used in similar fashion in the bonnet and boot lid, in between front and rear top body cowlings and their internal braces, and between the back edge of the boot floor and the rear body valance. These packing pieces serve to stabilize the outer skin to resist bending, denting, and vibration that could produce audible noise (drumming of the outer skin). For back edge of the boot floor it also resists road splash water getting into the boot.
In many "restored" MGA these horsehair packing pieces are missing. They are commonly removed for cleaning and painting of the panels, and very often never reinstalled. I happen to like a tight and quiet car, so I will reinstall this packing whenever possible (like always). If you can buy this stuff in strips 1-1/2" to 2" wide, figure it will need about 30 feet of the stuff to pack the noted joints. This is entirely separate from the felt strips originally used to pack (seal, so to speak) the floor boards and frame panels. |
