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MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG TD TF 1500 - TD Floorboard Templates

Thanks to Roy Challberg there's an often-asked-about item on Ttalk. A set of scaled drawings from which one can make a set of floorboards for a TD.
See http://www.ttalk.info/TDFloorboards.htm
Thanks Roy.
Bud Krueger

These drawings are really good, I wish I had them when I replaced my floor, two years ago. I did notice however that there is a cutout missing. it is a V shape notch on the left hand edge, towards the front,of the right hand board, it needs to be there to clear the speedometer cable and drive gear.

John
John Scragg

Roy has provided a revision -
http://www.ttalk.info/TDFloorboards.htm
Bud Krueger

Bud: You and Roy are to be congratulated for your efforts on these. I have no immediate need for them now, but this info is invaluable. Kudos to you both.

Larry
L Karpman

Reactivated thread. This seems to be the thread that promises the sort of detail I require to check the floorboards that I've reproduced for my TD. There are two issues. I don't seem to be able to get these drawings up using the links above & even if I could my guess is they are for LHD cars. Anybody able to point me in the right direction for the RHD equivalent? In an attempt to improve on "perfection" I made mine without allowing clearance for the front quarter panel around the roll bar. Obviously it's essential to be able to remove the floor without removing this piece of trim, as well as the trim under & to the rear of the door. I've attached a couple of pics of an old TD floor, possibly an original, but by no means certain. It seems to show just two captive nuts for each of the seats. Is this correct? The two captive nuts for the gearbox filler cover screws seem to suggest that they may be original. Any other comments on these panels would be welcomed. Detailed drawings for RHD floor panels would of course be greatly appreciated. TYIA. Cheers
Peter TD 5801


P Hehir

Pic 2


P Hehir

Pic 3


P Hehir

Pic 4


P Hehir

"Captive nuts" is not the right term, but as the correct terminology for these machine screw jobbies escapes me at the moment, I guess you know what I mean. (It's late on Saturday night & I've just shared a 12 year old bottle of red & some great Japanese food!) Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

"T" Nuts.... are what they are called here.
C.R. Tyrell

Peter-
It must have been the Sushi that caused the problems. I'm not sure why you can't open the links above.

In picture 1 you show the floorboards from the bottom view not the top. I assume the board with the hole must be on the right side to be a view from above.

This brings up a good point. The sketches all show LHD boards with the cutout for the sheet metal foot well and do not show a hole for checking the master cylinder fluid. I've never worked on a TD that was quite that old. They all had foot wells. I would think the only difference between a RHD and LHD set would be the "V" notch for the speedometer cable and maybe a few other minor differences. In an earlier post I believe someone was going to check the differences and list them.

Yes, there are only two "T" nuts for the seats.

I've always said the best way was to use an original floorboard set as a pattern but that's not always possible. If you can provide the differences between the RHD and LHD I would be glad to "flop" the sketches and show a new revision with both right and left hand drive versions.

Cheers,
Roy
Roy Challberg

Peter, see http://www.ttalk.info/MGTDFloorboards5.htm for the latest version. Bud
Bud Krueger

Peter -

I used my old floorboards to lay out my new floorboards onto 3/8" marine plywood. They turned out OK, but if I could do it again I would make a masonite template using Roy's excellant plans. Then fine tune the fit of the template to the car. My original floorboards might help to locate cutouts. Then I would use the template to pattern-route the final floorboards. You could probably make some simple modifications to the plans or template for your RHD TD.

I made a couple of clamp-on templates to route the cutouts for bolt heads; and for the partially routed areas for bolt heads and speedo gear.

Regarding the "T-nuts" -
Mine showed the effects of time and water, but they were still usable. I didn't have them replated. Instead, I filled the threaded opening with candle wax for protection, then sandblasted and painted them. Chipped out the wax and ran a hot bolt through them. I cleaned up the threads with a thread chaser or tap if necessary. I secured them with carpet tacks. I gave up trying to clench them over. Chamfer the hole to allow the base to fully seat onto the wood.

Hardware requirements -
Click on this link for the hardware and sources that I used to secure the floorboards into my LHD TF. Open the link to view, or click on the "download" icon near the top center of the screen (a downward pointing arrow with a bar across the tip) to save and print.
> Link:
http://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxisXBEpc-IWa25XaHc4akNPd28/view?usp=sharing

FWIW - my 1955 TF had Phillips head bolts. Your TD may have slotted. (??)

Lonnie
TF7211
LM Cook

Thanks CR. Yes Roy the view is taken from underneath the RHD floorboards as the bottom of the two T nuts for the seat are visible. In nearly all respects my old borrowed boards seem to tally with your terrific LHD drawings however there are a few notable differences. These are detailed as follows:

At the top of both of my boards there are two holes that line up with the D shaped captive nuts at the bottom of the lower part of the bulkhead/footrest. These are not shown on your drawings. I suspect the final position of these holes will be driven by the location of the D nuts. The pic below came from Matthew Majilton showing one of the D nuts in situ. I believe they are available from Doug at FTFU. I had also not been aware that the top of the boards were champhered. This is a very useful detail.

My borrowed boards also show two T nuts at the cover for the gearbox filler cap, one for the securing machine screw & the other for the screw that acts as a stop.

There is also no passenger foot well. I don't think they were ever fitted on RHD TD's (but I may be wrong.) There was originally a wedge shaped metal footrest on the passenger side of RHD TD's which was secured to the floor & the lower bulkhead. If the T nuts for the gearbox filler cover are original it makes me wonder if the footrest floorboard fixings weren't also T nuts?

My boards also don't show the 4" x 1 1/2" cut out at the rear. Could this be a later mod?

Prior to painting with the black semigloss I treated my boards with a water based construction membrane called Emmerproof which should help to significantly prolong the life of the timber. Once the details above are resolved/confirmed by other owners you may then have enough info to be able to show the layout for RHD cars.

I found your compound curve drawing to be particularly useful as it confirms the finished shape of the front quarter panel trim around the scuttle hoop. This is occasionally seen wrapped tightly around the hoop & is a detail that just didn't look right to me. This is the part of my replacement flooring that I incorrectly modified years ago & can now rectify.

Lonnie I have replacement T nuts for the seats & new slotted BSF screws for the floor stashed away somewhere. Thanks to all for your help. Cheers
Peter TD 5801


P Hehir

An original footrest


P Hehir

Peter, those cutouts go around the raised portions on the rear cross brace, just above the frame rails. Bud



Bud Krueger

Yeah Bud my car has those also. I'd cut them out on the floor that I'd made a while back but as they weren't there on the borrowed floor in the pics above I just wondered if they were a later mod? Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Those 'borrowed' floorboards looked suspecious to me. Are they rotary cut mahogany or some sort of plain sliced pine? The pine ones would be fake.

Also do others have those routed out circles on their floorboards? I have not seen those before either. The originals had routed areas for some of the bolts that the floorboards covered, but I have not seen those circles like that.
Christopher Couper

CR seems to show the routed areas on his drawings. As to whether they are the original routing or type of ply I have no idea, as I've never seen an original pair of floorboards. They didn't show the champher at the top or the two cutouts so I'm now thinking they probably aren't. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

I used 1/2" Baltic Birch. Very solid with no knots.
Mike
Mike Hart

Peter: The attached picture shows an example of what a routed out piece would look like. Note they basically left the top layer of the plywood while routing out the rest. These were used in places where bolts existed before being covered by the floorboards.

One example is a bolt on the drive-shaft tunnel cover as shown.


Christopher Couper

Here is a picture of the routing on my, drivers side, front floor board. This was at the start of my REPAIR.
I am certain it is original.

I cut off the broken part and grafted on a piece of Baltic birch.

The original thickness was 3/8"

Jim B.


JA Benjamin

The routing depth tallies with CR's drawing & is designed to fit over existing tub to chassis bolts as Chris says. Whether square or round really makes little difference just as long as they clear however I would guess it would be a case of "less is more". Any opinions on the remaining points of difference I raised above including locations of all original T nuts? Pics of original RHD boards would also be particularly helpful. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Thanks for posting this. I used the diagram years ago when I redid the drivers side. Someday soon I'll need to do the passenger side too..
Geoffrey M Baker

Reactivated thread. Roy I had occasion to revisit your drawings to provide details to another restorer here on the location of the seat anchor bolts & noted that there is no figured dimension for the distance measured from the rear of the floorboards to the 2 holes for the seat anchor bolts. On the RHD boards that I borrowed this distance measured as follows:

Passenger.

The T nuts are 257 mm apart centre to centre.
The inboard T nut is 85 mm in from the edge to the centre of the T nut.
The T nuts are 677 mm (inboard) & 674 mm (outboard) respectively from the rear of the floorboard to T nut centre.

Drivers.

The T nuts are 260 mm apart centre to centre.
The inboard T nut is 100 mm in from the edge to centre of T nut.
The T nuts are 677 mm (inboard) & 675 mm (outboard) respectively from the rear of the floorboard to T nut centre.

No idea why there is a difference with the 85 mm & the 100 mm measurement. Perhaps if others with original boards could confirm these measurements (& the detail of the brake cylinder "T" nuts shown above), they could then be added to your drawings, along with a RHD set. Cheers
Peter TD 5801

P Hehir

I think there are variations to every single MG car. For anybody doing this I suggest firstly using a cardboard template to make sure the shape is ok, and then getting under the car with a small artists brush and daubs of paint and marking where the ACTUAL holes are onto the sheet.
As Michael Biehn said to Sigourney Weaver as they decided to nuke the alien planet... "It's the only way to be sure"...
Geoffrey M Baker

That approach doesn't help with the seat location though Geoff. Roy's template is valuable when the originals are long gone. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

This thread was discussed between 27/11/2006 and 16/12/2015

MG TD TF 1500 index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG TD TF 1500 BBS is active now.