During the years I spent restoring my 1960 MGA, I heard many frightening and cautionary tales about the importance of the hood latch mechanism and the alignment of the hood. Specifically, I was told to make sure the latch was working perfectly before installing the grille; if the hood ever jammed closed, the only way to access the latch would be to cut through my beautiful grille.
This exact thing happened to me soon after I finished the restoration last year — the hood jammed closed. But I refused to damage the grille, so I spent many hours with unlikely tools removing the grille with only minor bending of the slats. If the car had been older and the fasteners tight and rusty, that would have been impossible. I resolved never to let this happen again.
The solution was rather simple, without any modifications to either the body or the grille. Even with the hood closed, I can now remove the grille in about 15 minutes. The solution was to replace the three bolts at the top of the grille with short lengths of brass tubing and some rubber fuel line.
First, reverse the direction of the original bolts that used to go downward through holes in the shroud and into the grille. Screw them upwards through the nuts that are part of the grille. Then get some brass tubing from a hobby shop. The inside diameter should fit the bolts. You’ll also need some rubber hose that fits snugly over this brass tubing. These sections of brass tubing, with the hose sections used to retain them in the original bolt holes, serve simply as locating pins for the top of the grille.
The grille can now be removed by unscrewing the original bottom three bolts behind the valance as usual. Then just pull out the bottom of the grille and slide it downward off the three top pins.
By Bryan Dahlberg
Grille opening
Grille back
Tubing bottom
Tubing top
Removing Grille
'MGA: Easy Grille Removal' have 7 comments
November 7, 2014 @ 9:05 am Bill Chandler
Great idea! I am going to put some WD 40 on my hood release mechanism right now. Mine stuck once after I was painting some things inside under the hood and it terrified me as to what to do. Fortunately with a very strong pull on the release lever it came loose.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Bill
November 15, 2014 @ 1:25 pm bobshea2001@yahoo.ca
5206 MACNEILL COURT
Peachland, B.C. Canada.
What a great idea, I am going to do the modification to my 58 today. Every time I opened and closed the hood I always wandered if it would open again. Thanks for sharing that idea.
December 16, 2014 @ 11:08 am Brad
Great idea, I’d like to ask how did you get the grill piping to fit so conformily around the grill edges? I have two, a “56 & ’59 & i’ve had hassles with both, as I replaced the original slats with the mesh grill & the piping on both wavers. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
December 19, 2014 @ 8:17 am Carly - Moss Motoring
Brad,
A great resource for information on MGAs is mgaguru.com. For grille and grille piping information look to the following links (it’s a two-part article):
http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/body/bd102.htm
http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/body/bd102a.htm
You may find your answer in the second article, in the May 2010 addendum: “I discovered a trick that should save you those six packs of beer when installing grill piping. Brush a thin bead of automotive contact cement onto the circumference of the thin EDGE of the grill. Using a small jewelers screwdriver wipe a small bead of cement into the recess between the two pipes. Let the glue set, then with the grille face down on the bench start with the mid point of the piping and begin gluing at the top center of the grille cutting the piping at the bottom center. If there is any cement showing after installation it is easily removed with a wad of dried contact cement”.
Hope this helps. Please let us know if you have any other questions!
January 9, 2018 @ 2:24 pm Don
Nice solution… I resolved this issue on my MGB… I simply added a second T-handled hood release cable (Moss # 406-030) from my junk bin, shortened…routed out the back side of the headlight bucket, and reachable under the fender. Cheap and easy. Not that familiar with geography of MGA under fender… but might be worth a look. Took about 15 minutes.
May 25, 2020 @ 5:33 pm Thomas LeRose
Hi : I own a 1958 mga roadster for over 28 years. A few weeks ago my trunk release was making a grinding noise; Being a person who puts off things till the last moment I now cannot get into the trunks tol release the lock set and i have now way to get into the trunk…. I want to order all new parts but I don’t know now how to get the trunk open for inspection and repairs…. Could you explain how i can release the trunk without damage to the paint ? Thanks: Any info would be a great help…. Thanks again ,,, Tom
June 10, 2022 @ 7:34 am David Roberts
Like everyone else, had the same problem. Thanks for great solution. Quick question, after doing the above, how did you apply the bolts at the bottom (that secure the bottom of the grille to the body) so that you can later remove them easily without having to access the head of the bolt (or the hex nut, if the bolts are intentionally inverted) through the grille?
David