MGB & GT Forum

I bought a good condition newer top 70-80 (I think) How much work is it to adapt it to my early (67 roadster) car. I know I won't be able to use the brackets. I have a pack up frame and thought about welding the taps that go into the brackets on the new style frame. Also thought about just bolting the newer frame on where the chrome brackets go? Any thoughts? What about at the windscreen? Same or different?

AFAIK, all three top frames are readily interchangeable between all year cars. You will need to remove the brackets for your stow-away and the Michelotti should fit just fine in the three screw holes on each side that secure your stow-away brackets. Also, to the best of my knowledge the two header rail hooks at the top of the windscreen are the same.

Many folks put the Michelotti frame on early cars as it's often regarded as the easiest of the three to put up and take down. Others like the stow-away due to the greater head room vs. the other two.

I have the "gray scissor folding frame"(yes, I believe it is original to my 1970) and consider putting it up and down a seasonal operation, or maybe something I do every couple of weeks at most. It's been down now for probably a month(I use the full tonneau) and I doubt it goes back up until a week or two in November at the earliest. I tend to drive my car regularly as long as there's not snow on the ground, and it's rare that we have snow/salt for more than a week or two at a time. Granted we also have the "false alarms" that result in a corrosive mess of salt in the rain that ends of falling so I should say I drive in the winter on dry roads.

You don't have to remove the stowable frame mounts. They're the same as used for the tonneau bars. You just need the long machine screws that go with the later frame. Everything is interchangeable.

By top do you mean the material or the bows?

If you mean the bows then the attachment points at the top of the B pillars are the same; just remove the chrome sockets and screw in using a countersunk screw otherwise on lowering the bows they will foul on protruding heads. The side rails of the bows just screw into the holes on the header rail that are superfluous when using a packaway.

If you are referring to the top itself - there are many topics here about matching the top to the bows. That said the top which goes with the packaway is slightly larger because the packaway bows sit slightly higher than the foldaway. In theory it should fit the foldaway albeit not as tight as a foldaway top on foldaway bows. Conversely the later top will not fit a packaway bows as it's too short/small.

As I have no experience with the "folding grey" frame I can't comment other than to note that that frame may well have been the same as the deluxe frame offered as an alternative (at added cost) to the packaway so perhaps it used the same top as the packaway. I assume Anthony knows.

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Mk1: CKD 11/66 first registered 8/5/67; owned since 3/77. 18GB +40 balanced. Peter Burgess BVFR head. Piper 285. 123. FidanzaFW. 4synch c/r box. Lots more as I did a nut and bolt rebuild; finished 2015. Tartan Red.

GT: December '78. VW Golf guards, flush fit front and rear valances. Torana XU1 vents, frenched indicators & Mk1 rear lights. 'Worked' Rover V8 with Monsoon ECU for EFI. GM4L60E, Lokar tiptronic & Quick4 controller. Vintage Air A/C. FC IFS. CCE 4 link rear. Salisbury with Quaife. Jaguar Storm.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-10-16 06:55 PM by MGB567.

I've been told that the the "gray scissor folding frame" and Michelotti frame use the same top. Moss breaks them down as a separate part, but I seem to recall that when I got the box it was marked for the later frame. The guy who put mine on has done a whole bunch of them on both style frames and confirmed that they were the same.