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Trunk Seal
#1
  This topic is about my 1959 MG MGA 1600
joerberg Avatar
joerberg Joe A
Hoosick Falls, NY, USA   USA
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1954 MG TF
1959 MG MGA 1600
1963 MG MGB
1965 MG MGB    & more
I dug into the history of this subject and read everything from the forum, Barney, etc. I have one of the new style Moss seals that is hollow. I was hoping to see it lift the edges of the trunk a little as they sat a bit low without the seal. Well, it lifted them alright. They were as much at 3/16" high in places and I could barely get the latch to catch even at its' most extreme adjustment. The seal seemed to be not only too high but too wide also and when it was stuffed into the channel it stuck up like a sausage. I figured I didn't have anything to lose and decided to "trim" it. I set up two pieces of wood on my small band saw to guide the seal through and take a thin cut off the bottom. It worked like a charm. The modified seal sits nicely in the channel raising up the edges just enough and to "pop" the trunk perfectly.


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Re: Trunk Seal
#2
Blueosprey90 Avatar
Blueosprey90 Silver Member Jeff Sienkiewicz
New Milford, CT, USA   USA
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1957 Volvo PV444
1959 MG MGA
2004 Honda S2000
Joe, Did you cut off the bottom completely? Mine had the same problem, but I just gave up!

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Re: Trunk Seal
#3
joerberg Avatar
joerberg Joe A
Hoosick Falls, NY, USA   USA
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1954 MG TF
1959 MG MGA 1600
1963 MG MGB
1965 MG MGB    & more
Jeff,

I did cut it off completely. I figured if there were any places where I needed a bit more compression I could cut a strip of the bottom and tuck it underneath the modified seal but I didn't need to. If you want, mail me your seal and I'll cut it for you while I still everything set up.

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Re: Trunk Seal
#4
bikermga Avatar
bikermga Peter Tilbury
Surrey, BC, Canada   CAN
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1956 MG MGA
1958 MG MGA coupe
I have two boot seals from McGregor in Ontario. Both fitted without modification and work well. Bit expensive though.

Peter.

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Re: Trunk Seal
#5
dominic-ch Dominic Clancy
zurich, zurich, Switzerland   CHE
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Todd Clarke's seal fits well too

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Re: Trunk Seal
#6
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bobs77vet bob K.
northern Va, VA, USA   USA
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very nice.....what blade did you use ? a metal blade

impressive !!!

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Re: Trunk Seal
#7
JRSCA Avatar
JRSCA Silver Member John Smith
Woodstock, ON, Canada   CAN
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1960 MG MGA
1961 MG MGA 1600
Joe:

Do you think you might want to fill the gap in the molding with some of the material that you cut off? Structurally, I wonder how well that rubber will stand up over time without the bottom section.

John

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Re: Trunk Seal
#8
barneymg Avatar
barneymg Barney Gaylord
Somewhere in North America, Throw a dart., USA   USA
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1958 MG MGA "MGA With An Attitude"
Definitely do NOT fill the gap inside the seal. The seal needs to be super soft and very flexible, like depress it with gentle touch of our pinkie finger. See details here: http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/body/bd116a.htm


Barney Gaylord - 1958 MGA with an attitude - http://MGAguru.com - barneymg@mgaguru.com - Ph: 630-946-3841
(Please email me direct, do not leave a PM on the public server).

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Re: Trunk Seal
#9
joerberg Avatar
joerberg Joe A
Hoosick Falls, NY, USA   USA
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1954 MG TF
1959 MG MGA 1600
1963 MG MGB
1965 MG MGB    & more
Bob,

Just a wood blade - 7 tpi. I did feed it slowly though.

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Re: Trunk Seal
#10
JRSCA Avatar
JRSCA Silver Member John Smith
Woodstock, ON, Canada   CAN
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1960 MG MGA
1961 MG MGA 1600
In reply to # 3432228 by barneymg Definitely do NOT fill the gap inside the seal. The seal needs to be super soft and very flexible, like depress it with gentle touch of our pinkie finger. See details here: http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/body/bd116a.htm

You could be risking having the seal be too soft. Those legs, with no bottom support, don't look all that robust to me. The seal I installed 35 years ago (probably from Moss) was solid core and it has worked perfectly.

John

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Re: Trunk Seal
#11
Rob Z Avatar
Rob Z Silver Member Rob Zucca
Camarillo, CA, USA   USA
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1948 MG TC
1960 MG MGA
It's about how well the two "legs" of the seal are attached. Be sure the trough is clean and both legs are firmly attached at the bottom of the trough. I used a permatex black weatherstrip adhesive. Stuck my hollow seal very well. With the two legs, it might be better to use a contact adhesive and apply to both the bottom of the trough and the two legs. It might give more working time in case it gets fiddly. The Permatex I used skins over very quickly. Sticks like crazy though.


"Time flies like an arrow......Fruit flies like a banana"

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Re: Trunk Seal
#12
Blueosprey90 Avatar
Blueosprey90 Silver Member Jeff Sienkiewicz
New Milford, CT, USA   USA
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1957 Volvo PV444
1959 MG MGA
2004 Honda S2000
Joe, thank you for the offer. But I'll pass. I'm OK running without the seal. I mostly wanted it just to pop the boot lid, but I have an alternate means of accomplishing that without too much trouble. Now that I know what you did, I can do the same if (when) the mood strikes me.

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Re: Trunk Seal
#13
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60mgacoupe John D
Cataldo, ID, USA   USA
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I hope the sellers of these poor seals listen to these comments, I cut the bottom off mine too, still could be better.
I am looking for a generic replacement.

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Re: Trunk Seal
#14
AlanWiedie Silver Member Alan Wiedie
Bolton, CT, USA   USA
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1964 Jaguar 3.8S
1966 Jaguar E-Type Coupe
I used a seal supplied by Steele Rubber Products - http://www.steelerubber.com/peel-n-stick-large-hollow-rectangular. And, it passes Barney's "pinky test". A 10' piece will do the job. The self-stick tape has no problem going around the corners. I had tried the Moss seal and found it too stiff and almost too wide to fit in the channel, particularly in areas where one side of the channel leaned in, like at the corners. I cut a section of the tape away where the seal passes over the two latch screws.

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about 2 weeks and 1 day later...
Re: Trunk Seal
#15
Spitfire Dave Avatar
Spitfire Dave Dave B
Castle Rock, CO, USA   USA
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If there is no trunk seal, would it cause the trunk not to "pop" up when you pull the release cable? My trunk doesn't pop, but I also don't have a seal. Until now I was assuming there was something wrong with the latch, but now I'm wondering if it's because there isn't any seal to push the lid up. Thoughts?


Dave
1960 MGA 1600

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