Moss Motors, Ltd

I purchased a replacement chrome grill assembly for my B.

 

I had two MGB body shells. I had a late year 1965 B and I have a early 1963 B.  Both were terribly rusted, so I decided to buy a chrome bumpered era replacement body shell from British Motor Heritage and do a bottoms up rebuild.  I am having an installation problem with the replacement grill I purchased (Moss p/n 454-140). Both of the grills from my old shells fit the new shell, but the replacement is a little too big. Albeit the old grills are a very tight fit, but the new one just doesn't.  I notice that the sheet metal on the new grill has no taper on it. It leaves the front face at 90 degrees, all the way back. On my old grills the inside angle is less than 90 degrees where the sheel metal bend away from the view side of the grill, which allow the grill to fit into the grill hole easilier.

Does anoyone have experience with this part?  Is the part non-comforming, or is there something I am missing?  I am tempted to use a little persuation to induce the taper I need to fit it, but if I bung it up, then I have a $180.00 paiece of scrap that I can't return.

 

Any advice?

Hi Ditty

Sorry for the delay in an answer. Been playing tech line for the last couple of days.

When the tooling was created for the Moss repro grille surround original samples were used to try to get it just right. What was not anticipated was that the action of creating the tooling resulted in the mold being slightly flared a the back edges. This made removal of the surround blank easier, but resulted in the fit between the fenders sometimes being tight as the rear edges of the shell are slightly wider than the front.

This can really be a problem when doing rubber bumper conversions, as the late shells were never fitted with this style of grille and can be off quite a bit. Earlier cars, arn't usually such a problem, but if the original spacing was tight then the new grille is going to need some help to fit.

The surround is formed from soft brass sheet and then plated, so there is no problem with corrosion if you need to tap the rear edges in slightly to tighten up the width. The material is soft enough that it will move pretty easily with a little gentle persuasion. I'm pretty sure you can do a good job of fitting without "bunging" it up. It is a bit of a pain, though. The overall quality of the finish and detail work on the badge and slats I hope make up for this inconvenience.

Tooling for a product of this type is a very time consuming and expensive process. When it is done, you want to do everything possible to get it just right. The reality is that sometimes you could have gotten it better. In this case, when the tooling needs to be redone, we will make sure that the rear clearance is a bit greater to reduce the incidence of fitment problems and save our customers, tech people and owners from tearing their hair out.

 

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Kelvin Dodd
Global Sourcing Engineer
Moss Motors, Ltd.
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Disclaimer: Working on automobiles is inherently dangerous. Moss Motors, Ltd. is not liable for injury or damage due to incorrect installation or use of their products. All products are sold with the understanding that the safe and proper installation and use of the products is the customer’s responsibility. Follow factory workshop manual procedures and instructions, but use current shop safety standards and common sense. Some tasks will require professional advice or services which Moss Motors cannot provide.

Thanks for the reply.

OK...so at least returning the part I have is not a solution. I think if I were to loosen and refit the fenders that would help and it would lessen the amount of "persuasion" I need to put on it.

 

Dittybag

Don't suppose you're selling either of your old grills????