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I am looking at a front engined TD. It has a Ford 4 cyl. and automatic trans. I can find no identification on the car. It does have a hood similar to a real MGTD. That is, it splits in the center and has hinged sides. The top bows are a folding 3 bow, and the windshield appears to be a stock MG ie: folddown type. any help?
Dbrock, You say that you are looking at a TD. Is it steel or fiberglass? If it’s steel. it sounds like a MG that has had a Ford engine and trans swapped in to it.
British Coach Works is the only replica with the hood split down the center ,,, Wait a miniute, Seems like I remember seeing a few Classic Roadster Duchess cars with hoods like you describe.I think they were some of the first front engined replicas. I saw one in a 1990 issue of Kit Car Magazine. The later ones had one piece hoods with the side panels attached to the grille and cowl with bolts.
Could you post some pictures,they would help with the identification.
The BCW front engine car was a Chevette based, I think. The hood hinged in the middle but the side piece of the hood stayed put–they weren’t hinged to the top pieces as in the original TD. More like a TF design.
Still don’t know what it is, but I now own it! Hopefully I’ll get some pictures taken and post them soon. Drove it home last night (about 50 miles) and other than one headligt lighting up the tops of trees about 20 feet up on the left side of the road everything seemed to work ok.
It says a 73 Pinto. I also contacted the owner previous to the one I bought it from. He bought it from the original owner who along with his wife is deceased.
As I said before, the top is a very intricate system of articulated bows. It looks like a real 3 bow system. The hood is glass, and the louvers are dummys as in most kit cars, The only thing that even remotely looks like it might have been identification is a round spot on the firewall tthat is about 2 1/2 inches in diameter that has three small holes that could have been where an emblem was once mounted.
Post lots of pics–here and in the new forum, should we need it. I’m very intrigued by this car.
urious as well. Could it be a Daytona Migi II or a Lafer? There is one kit maker that makes the top with three bows. Another possibility is it could be a replacement top and bow assembly from either MG Magic or even Moss Motors. Not like I know a lot about these kits…just thinking out loud.
Allen Caron
VW based 53MGTD - "MoneyPenny"
"If one thing matters, everything matters" - from the book The ShackThe rear spring is full length, not cut in two like most of the kits (on a Ford at least). The headlight mounts are cast aluminum and look tubular. I was under the impression that all Lafers were on a VW chassis, but I may be wrong. I took lots of pictures, but need to figure out how to downsize them and send them. I have the top bows for my MIGI from MG Magic, and they are simular to a bimini top on a boat.
I think that I have answered at least some of my questions, and used our site to do it! If you go to our home page, there is a link to a Daytona MIGI pdf. If you download and scroll through the ads until you get to a front engine version, you will see a grainy picture that shows a hood opening like mine. They also list a folding windshield. The cloth or velour seats also fit. That said, the top mechanism is wrong and they list only a Chevette engine.
Awesome!
Another reason we cannot lose the content we have here!
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
Given the sorts of folks these kits got sold to, I suggest that it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that the previous owner modded the car. I bought a two-bow top frame off ebay a few weeks ago for about $45, with the idea of adapting it to Bridget for a more authentic look. And it just might work!
Hot rodders are always swapping engines in and out. Even stuff like windshields have been modded, altered, swapped. I recall a guy on this board a few years back took an FF car (straight stick windshield) and reworked his cowl for a fold-down type, which he duly fabricated and installed, complete with an overhead wiper motor and TD-like wipers.
These cars are, to borrow a phrase, “like a box of chocolates.”
….”like a box of chocolates” Love it!
That reminds of my wife always sticking her head in the garage and muttering something like “Stupid is as stupid does….”
Just a quick update. As I mentioned in another post I have finally identified the car. It is really not a kit at all. In the early 80’s, members of Kosair Shrine in the Louisville and Southern Indiana area decided to build parade cars. There were initially 20 members. They used a basket case MGTD with a decent body to make molds and proceded over 7-8 years to build cars. They designed and built frames and even made molds and cast aluminum pieces for brackets etc. Eventually 10 were produced, 5 on a VW chassis and a slightly modified version on a cusom frame using Pinto components. Mine is one of the latter. They employed the talents of many of the members. The one (of three) remaining people that I talked to has terminal brain cancer and short term memory loss. I met with him and his wife on Tuesday. There are three Ford based cars that they know of including mine. They still have one. It is a replica to drool over. He made all castings, windshield, radiator cap, hinges, headlight brackets etc out of brass, again all sand cast and polished. They took an MG 3 bow top, disassembled it and replicated it. They even made a matching trailer (much like a motorcycle trailer) I’m told that the molds may still exist with one of the grandsons. So, if you see the picks of my car, at least you know its’ story. By the way, he was thrilled to see my car and was happy that someone still loves his babys.
Love the story dbrock!
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
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