interior colour Light Tan and wood

[Tomcatciller]

Hello from Germany.

I have some questions related to interior colours of MG-F / TF Cars.

Recently I upgraded my 99 Mk1 with a MG-TF "light tan" interior.

My main idea is to make a complete beige interior with accent of wood. My interior parts are coloured in "Light Tan" (part numbers end with SBA). There are no foot room facias or tunnel console stowage in the right colour. (only available in interior colour "walnut"- part numbers end with SAV).

My question is; does somebody know the right beige RAL Code of MGTF "Light Tan" interior colour?

Or I am better with purchasing these RB Parts in "walnut" instead of trying to respray black parts with RAL colours?

Another big black part in the car is the carpet. There is an interesting option at RB with new moulded biscuit carpets. This carpet is a little bit expensive, but the only way to get the car beige. It is advertised as "modified to improve the fit". Has anybody experience with such parts (fitting accuracy) and how well does this biscuit colour fit to the "Light Tan" colour of my car?

Last but not least, I want to increase the wooden area in the center console. Especially the area around the heater control and the switches. The best way to get all these parts in wooden colour is hydro-dipping which is very expensive in Germany. So I look after cheaper solutions and found these trim kits on Ebay. My question is, will these "stickers" fit to the wood colour of my original TF wooden middle console? I just want to use the part 6 and 7 (watch Ebay picture 2). Has anybody experience with that?

I hope you can understand my bad English.

Greets form Germany.

TCC

[adrianclifford]

Hi TCC, I have done all of that year's ago in my F. The carpet set came from Newton Commercials, the walnut came from Mike Satur and the Walnut Dash Company in Colchester, Essex.

My car was used for the make up of the MGF MK2 kit.

The carpet fit from Newton's was excellent, I'll put up a picture later today for you to see.

The areas not available in walnut I had trimmed in cream leather as you will see in the pictures.

[Tomcatciller]

Thanks, I am looking forward to see the pictures.

I want to match the "light tan" surround colour from the dashboard and the tunnel. The doorcards in my MGF have the number EJB003700QCL. According to EPC the inlay have "alpaca" colour. My old Mk1 seats have "cream" colour. It seems that "alpaca" and "cream" are very close to each other.

I have these MG TF Seats form the car we scraped for the interior parts.

But I dont like these two colour design and want to stay with my Mk1 ones or buy such ones in the future:


But alpaca or cream is far away from "light tan" as you can see at the door cards. I am able to compare "walnut" and "light tan" because I accidental bought a new "walnut" tunnel from ebay.

Bad quality, but may be you can see the "walnut" and "light tan" tunnel right to each other. "Walnut" is darker and more grey compared to "light tan".

Greets from Germany

TCC

[LeRich]

A walnut-effect heater surround panel from a Rover 25 can be adapted to fit your MGF.

[Tomcatciller]

Thanks for the reply. You mean this item?



looks very similar to the MGF Mk1 part. But I upgraded to Mk2 design. So the adoption is pretty much like adopting a Mk1 part to a Mk2 console?

[Tomcatciller]

Hm, I took the old MK1 heater fascia and try to fit on a MK2 heater control unit. It don´t fit, even if you cut the lower part. The design is too different.



May be there is a way to glue the panel to the heater control unit, but then there are no removing options for installation.

So how to modify these part to fit on a Mk2 / TF heater control unit?

[adrianclifford]

Here's a picture I've used before that shows the finished interior. The gear lever surround, from Mike Satur is one of only two made as far as I know (Andy Phillips has the other). The rest is as listed earlier ;

[Tomcatciller]

Ah thanks. I know the car from some other photos I found via google.

The colour of the dashboard and tunnel look like "walnut". The carpet seem to be more bright than "walnut" and may fit perfect to my "light tan" interior.

Still I need to find the right beige Spray for "light tan" painting. I will order some paint and report later what colour matches. Where did you get these floor mats with red MG logo?

[adrianclifford]

They came with the carpet set, you order them as an extra if you wish.

[Tomcatciller]

Hm. I just checked the Newton Website. Floor mats in matching colour are not avialable anymore (just black and grey). So ordering a 5 piece set dont make sense. But thanks for the information about the manufactor. It is a bit cheaper to order there instand at RB.

Greets

Tcc

[Rob Bell]

Thanks for the reply. You mean this item?



looks very similar to the MGF Mk1 part. But I upgraded to Mk2 design. So the adoption is pretty much like adopting a Mk1 part to a Mk2 console?

That's the part.

I think you should be able to swap this for a Mk1 heater unit fascia panel (although you'll need to swap over the graphics from one to the other).

To make it suit a later car with the Mk2 centre console, you need to space the heater box outward about 10mm... I am sure I had worked out how to make a suitable bracket, but can't find it right now... Let me know if you need it!

[Steffi]

If you're not happy with the two-tone seats you have to hunt for Oxford leather seats as are fitted in speedsgood's TF from the MG board. Ask him if he's got a picture for you.
You will love them

[Tomcatciller]

Thank you for the information. I have plenty of pictures of "Oxford" leather seats on my pc. Although I don´t know if these seats have perforated leather. I like the perforated leather from my TF seats as much as I dislike the 2 tone design.

Also I like the black edges on my MK1 seats and the MG logo on the head-rests.

Another point is the very good condition of my four seats. I just refurbished my Mk1 seats with help of "Lederzentrum" products. Also the beige interior parts and seats came from a MG TF with only ~42.000 km (26.000 Miles). So all seats are in a very good condition. A trade against Oxford Seats in not so good condition would be a bad idea.

Well, I need to think more about the final seat solution. May be the best way is to go to a saddler to combine all my ideas. But this would be expensive.

Greets

TCC

[Tomcatciller]

@ Rob Bell:

Sry, I forgot to answer to your post.

The idea of placing the heater unit 10 mm forward is a good option. I had to replace some holes for the braket of the alarm ecu to fit the Mk2 switches into the mk2 center console.

But overall I think the Rover 25 part would be not a good option for me. Even if I am able to fit it into my car, there are more areas I want to cover in wood design. For example the lower switch area; the bar between the radio and heater control and even the 1 DIN radio surround.

The idea of using this Ebay Trim kit was just for the fast way to get started. In the end I need to use hydro-dipping. That will be the only way.

But such a solution will be expensive like this auction on ebay shows.

Just a question related to this. Are there a matt black version of the Mk2/TF center console. I only know the technical grey and coloured ones. A matt black console would be the best starting point for hydro dipping.

Greets

TCC

[Mykel]

150 quid and it looks AWFUL!
I wouldn’t go near this guy, there’s many scratches and the top coat is very bad as well. Maybe this is because it was a first try, but why anyone would publish this to advertise his craftsmanship is beyond me.

[LeRich]

@Are there a matt black version of the Mk2/TF center console. I only know the technical grey and coloured ones. A matt black console would be the best starting point for hydro dipping.

Yes, the centre console and dial surround in the 115 models are plain black.

[stuart]

The interior colour code for the light tan of a TF is "SUR"- only 94 cars made with that trim code- definitely lighter than the F tan.

I've been after a SUR tan binnacle cover- rarer than hens teeth.

[Tomcatciller]

Thanks for the information. 94 cars global? So a LHD is an even more rare thing?

I googled for this information. You have any link to that?

[adrianclifford]

It's in the Registrar's data.

This is one of the reasons I ask everybody to register their cars details with us so we can help Club members in years to come.

[ErikB]

Just went through the thread and I am trying to follow
- IMHO: MGF mk1 light tan seats (Herritage) is quite close to cream
- a car interior upholstery company must be able to source the perfect match in leather .... It's not OEM, but the result might turnout better than OEM
- Interior decoration shops or DIY stores often have small cards with the paint color samples available. It could be usefull to get a perfect matching sample card and have it send to the companies your dealing with.
- More diffidult will be matching wood effect. Try to limit the number of sources for your wooden parts as they will all look different.