Spoke Too Soon

[JoshP]

Argh...if it isn't one thing, it's another. Remember about a week ago when I posted that my interior was finished? Well...so I thought. I had just put the top back on and was ready to take pics; I went to put the top down, and it would go about halfway down and the bow mechanism seemed to just bind up. Mind you, the thing was a pain in the posterior to put on with extra hands in the first place; off it came, and back on with no joy in resolving the issue. I then noticed that the little bracket pieces were attached on the outside, rather than the inside.

Doy...so off comes the top again, and back on it goes with brackets placed correctly this time. While doing so, the thing slipped down and shredded a good piece of each of the rear side panels. Ouch; most of it is hidden by the area where the top bolts up, but add that to future replacement.

After reinstalling the top and tightening up the mounting screws, I tested it out again. It folded back down successfully; I then went to put it back up; lo and behold, two of the rivets (I think they're rivets, maybe bushings) sheared off on the right hand side. The first where a bow meets the three screw hole plate, the other that joins another pair of bows.

Do I have pics? Of course; I have pics of both my new interior (which I absolutely love), and of the offending top bows (which I'm not so big a fan of). They're on the camera right now, only I can't offload them onto Photobucket because my dog seems to have acquired a taste for small USB cables, and decided to chew the one for the camera up.

The top folds down easily; just doesn't stay up quite so well. Ay ay ay. It's been a day and then some. The so called rivets are the ones with a flat black piece on one end, a pair of washers in the middle and what appears to be a rounded end holding the mess together; any ideas on what to do to replace those? I've not seen those in the catalogs as of late; also, while the top was off the car, there was apparently a little latex paint spill that I wasn't made aware of. Some of the splatter got on the vinyl, so I've got some nice small splatters on the top.

I'm starting to wonder if a new top might be in order for me at this point. I'm going to get a new USB cable for the camera tomorrow, so I'll be able to get the pics up then. Whew! Sorry for being so long winded this evening.

 

[jlaird]

Shucks, we like stories.

 

[JoshP]

We've got pics uploaded, at long last!

https://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c46/jrp316/MGB%20Interior/

I'd like to call particular attention to the photo below entitled 'Broken Bow' which is where the two rivets snapped off. The holes in the pic represent where the rivets went; the two topmost holes were joined together by a rivet, and the bottom one was joined by a rivet to the bracket which screws to the body. You can kinda see it behind the camera date there (it's a wee bit off me thinks /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif )

To save some site bandwidth, you can see my new interior at the above Photobucket link; me likes it much, and I hope you think the same.

 

[vping]

How are you going to repair the rivit or are you due for a replacement. I have a broken rivet on my TD top in the same place and I am not sure of how to get it fixed or how I would be able to fit it myself.

 

[JoshP]

Ideally, I would try to go for a replacement rivet piece, like what the other ones have. The assembly seems to be a rivet or a press fit type hinge pin, with a pair of small washers between the contact surfaces. I'm currently looking through the catalogs to see if something like this can be found.

If I had to choose a repair, failing finding a replacement part for it, I would likely go with either a small press fit bushing, a rivet or a very small carriage type bolt, two flat washers, lock washer and nut. Granted, the latter would stick out appearance wise in comparison to the rest of the fittings, but it would at least work for what I needed it for.

In order of preference, I would go for the replacement piece, a press fit bushing, rivet, and lastly the bolt/washer/nut setup.

In regards to a rivet, I'm not even sure where to begin in finding a suitable size rivet for the job...I'm thinking a bushing might be the best option for me

 

[jlaird]

Rivets are available in any size you can think of, but you need to know the size.