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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 Midget and Sprite General - AHA8098 Sprite grill wanted.

I've got the top one --(Midget grill with missing trim), and I want the bottom one, a correct Sprite Grill AHA8098.

Anybody wanna swap me? I don't fancy paying 130 quid for a bit of Ally.

Lawrence Slater

My previous Spridget originally had a black grille and I wanted the grille you want, at a show I saw a Midget with a Sprite grille so I asked if he wanted to swap and he did, he went off to unscreww his grille mine just pulled out as it was a force fit

anyway -

I expect this is still well outside your budget but just to let you know it's available - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MG-MIDGET-AUSTIN-HEALEY-SPRITE-STAINLESS-FRONT-GRILLE-/290653297704?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item43ac495c28



Nigel Atkins

Hi Nigel.

Yep already seen that one. I Don't like it.

I'd pay 66 squid for the correct one, but not a honeycombe. I could pretty much make that for myself by altering my own.

Crazy that the correct grills that are available, are so bloody pricey. Guess I'll just have to live with my wrong un.:(
Lawrence Slater

no I'm not that sure about it but original style new are so pricey

s/h and eBay searches for you then

or I'm surprised you bother yours look good enough to me
Nigel Atkins

I don't mind it being battered as long as it belongs. My grill is a midget grill, the car is a Sprite.

My grill isn't perfect, but I'd rather have a correct worse battered one than a perfect incorrect one. But I'm only bothered upto a price. lol.

I have been looking on Ebay, and elsewhere for ages. They never seem to come up.

I think I'm getting nostalgia. I think I should see a dentaltherapist. LOL. The same thining lies behind my desire to go back to pressed steel wheels rather than the ubiquitous minilites I have on temporarily.

Here's a question.
Were there fewer Sprites made than Midgets, and have more Sprites been scrapped than Midgets? Is that why I can't find a 2nd hand Sprite grill?
Lawrence Slater

Sprites finished in 71 didn't they? Many tens of thousands more Midgets were built between then and 1980.
David Smith

Yep thanks David. I suppose that's the answer I should have known :)
Lawrence Slater

Your grill could just as easily be a Sprite grill. They were identical from face-lift until end of Sprite production.
Dave O'Neill2

your forgetting the Midget 1500 was a different grille so that’s out of the equation and the Spridget grilles became the same, bar badge, from late 1969

the Sprite grille you’re after featured on the car from the start of the Mk2 in 1961 until facelift model of the Mk4

if we accept the figures given in Terry Horler’s excellent book - Original Sprite & Midget The Restorer’s Guide by Terry Horler –
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1906133336
- then we have:-

RHD Home market (source as above pages 66, 83 and 111)

Sprite – 13,858

Midget – 21,857

how many whole cars left of each from the specific time period would be very difficult to actually calculate with much accuracy and this wouldn’t cover the original grilles anyway as they could have been replaced or available as seperately as a s/h part :)
Nigel Atkins

Lawrence,

Anita had quite a bit of trouble finding a 'mint' one for her '67 Sprite a few years ago, but persistence and Ebay saw her finding one eventually.

The ratio of Sprites to Midgets weigh very heavily in favour of the Sprite here in Aus so I guess finding one here may be easier, just shipping back to the UK may be the costly bit.

I'll make some enquiries for you..

Mark.
M T Boldry

Thanks Mark.
Lawrence Slater

grille doesn't weigh much at all - I could bring one back in March if you find a spare one
David Smith

Wow, that'd be great if possible. Thanks.

Why more Sprites in Aus than over here then?
Lawrence Slater

Lawrence,
Richards motor spares is advertiseing a sprite, not frogeye grill in the midget & sprite classifieds...this could be what you need.

Alan.
Alan cotterill

Thanks Alan, I'll take a peek.
Lawrence Slater

Is this the type you want?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190624777256?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

I'm not suggesting that you spend £2250 on a grille, but maybe the seller could be persuaded to do a deal, seeing as the car is a rubber-to-chrome conversion and he is selling it anyway.

Jonathan
Jonathan Severn

I've had a sort out and found 2 sprite grilles, however, they both need some attention.

John

John Collins

Yep, that's the one Jonathan.

John, I'd be interested :), you'll have email shortly. Thanks

Lawrence Slater

ps.

I take it the poor beast under the grills is dead, and needs burying.
Lawrence Slater

Lawrence,

I'll take some more pics of the grille for you and email them later,

heres the one under the grilles though, lots of useful bits, however, theres no floor or spring hangers left at all!

John

John Collins

And heres the other sprite that I have at the minute

Also lots of useful bits here.



John Collins

Thanks John.

Always people looking for a works hardtop.
Lawrence Slater

Need to have a tidy up though in my garden

John Collins

You are something of a collector then John? LOL.
Lawrence Slater

Hi John,

Is the one on the trailer, the new one from the arts centre. It has the wipers the wrong way around.
Gary & Gaps

Oi John

Isn't that Austin's car?

I'll tell him, you know...


:)
Bill1

Well my hunt is still on for a Sprite grill. Australia may be the key then, if they are more plentiful there, since I hope too they will command lower price.

The one in the classified section, is VERY nice, looking near perfect in the picture I received. But beyond my allocated budget for one.

And I don't know if a repair of the red one below is possible. But thanks for sending me the extra pics John. Much appreciated.

Lawrence Slater

Funny, you can get Sprite grill surrounds new pretty cheap. Just not the grill. :(

http://tinyurl.com/7hswb4y
Lawrence Slater

I emailed the supplier of the trim surround, and got this reply.

"Hello. We are the manufacturer/supplier and we supply MGOC, Moss Europe etc. We are currently in the process of making the tooling for the grille at the moment but it is a time consuming job and they probably won't be in production until the summer. Keep an eye on our Ebay shop as they will be for sale on there when they are ready. Many thanks"

So, if I can't get a reasonable one 2nd hand, at a reasonable price, I'll just await the launch of these.
Lawrence Slater

Lawrence,
report back at the time remind me please as I might need a new grille after last years bird collision, cheers
Nigel Atkins

Righty-ho Nigel.

Hope you got the birds insurance details. Was she nice looking? :)
Lawrence Slater

Thanks

that would have been more like an attack

it would have been better for the grille and a lot better for the bird if they hadn't meet

they normally out run me in the Midget but this one was so heavy it couldn't get high enough quick enough
Nigel Atkins

You just jogged my memory Nigel.

About 15 years or so ago, I was blatting down the Tonbridge bypass near me, and hit a crow or other bloody great blackbird in my BM.

That made a mess of my grille too. Blood all over the rad. Very messy. I was pulling bits out for a week. :)
Lawrence Slater

whilst finishing a tour in North Yorkshire I hit the tiniest young bird it was just two feathers and one of those was left sticking out from the indicator set in the front bumper of my Capri

got home that night just walked pasted the front of the car to go in home and the indicator hesitated then fell back into its recess as if it had got me home so could admit its injury

the bird must have only been a few grams how could it do such damage
Nigel Atkins

Mass at speed Nigel.

Physics. Kinetic energy.

So crudely put, when the bird impacts at speed with your indicator, it gives up it's kinetic energy, and destroys your car. lol

Lawrence Slater

that's the point Lawrence there was no mass to this tiny young bird and I was only doing about 10-15 mph at the time

I saw the bird at the n/s side of the road and it flew up across the front of the car so in effect it was car momentum into a static hanging tiny object

similar thing with my latest bird collision, three birds at o/s edge of road, I was doing 30 mph, one bird flew across in front of the car but this bird had mass, probably why its take off was so slow, and has distorted one side of the grille luckily it only impacted at the very edge
Nigel Atkins

I got a pheasant the other day. No visible damage oddly enough apart from the feathers. Should have stopped and picked it up for the pot.......
Matt1275Bucks

Message for Steve Pack, re: grille. You have mail. Thanks
Lawrence Slater

This thread was discussed between 04/01/2012 and 17/01/2012

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