I hate side curtains!

by
Abingdon Rough Riders
Oakland, CA

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TA 2839 at Lafayette

My first MG was a TD that I drove for 3 years at LSU. That was in 1957. I drove it from my home town of Kentwood, LA to Baton Rough, LA nearly every weekend. During winter it rained a lot and I had to put the darn things on to keep semi dry. I have vivid memories of splashing my way to and fro working the windshield wipers by hand, listening to Jack Benny on the radio and cursing the side curtains. Next MG was a MGA Coupe, whee, no side curtains! Then along came a TC but now I was in Pittsburgh, PA and the TC was only driven from Spring to Fall, again no side curtains.

Years later I bought a 1938 MG TA to restore, that took 4 years and then it came time to put a hood on it and deal with the side curtains. Consulting with my trimmer who had lots of MG experience, we decided to make a hood and a tonneau in such a way that no side curtains would be needed. Here is how we did it.

First is a tonneau with 3 zippers, one down the middle as usual and two on the sides so that the tonneau had built in kidney warmers! Its chilly here in the SF Bay Area. The following photos will give you an idea of its design.

Then knowing that many prewar MG had the hood fastened to the back rail with lift-a-dot fasterners, we designed the hood and the tonneau to fasten to the back rail with extra long lift-a-dot studs. That way both tonneau and hood can be on the car at the same time. It looks like this:

You snap the tonneau on first, then the hood with the front rail loose, then stretch the fabric and bows down to meet the front rail. Then you snap on the kidney warmers and you have the makings of a cockpit

I never did restore the side curtains and don’t carry them. We’ve driven the TA in driving rains and we get no wetter than we would with leaky side curtains and certainly its more comfortable not being hemmed in by them. This on cycle wings which throw off lots of water!! Some RainX on the windshield and you are in business!! The material is StayFast. Highly recommended as it doesn’t shrink nor leak.