sill plates TC

[jagman2]

hello
sill plates on MG TC..................did early TC's not have them,.....or were those that had them, were they plain or printed
with mg car co, ltd.

thanks
cheers
stu

[Duncan M]

Original TC sill plates were all plain. No writing.

[jagman2]

thanks for your reply , i am still wondering as i read in Clqusager's book page 41 stating "the sill plates were originally
of this neatly lettered design and plain sill plates were introduced on later TC's".
also in TC's Forever by Sherrell, page 61, stating "at TC/4837 a change in design. this would probably refer to early cars having an exposed wood sill, while later ones were metal covered. On top of the lot went the alloy sill plate. (TC's never had the MG Car Co. sill plates unfortunately, theirs were Plain."
then on page 185, "Note that cars before TC/4837 did not have these sill plates.

[Mark McCombs]

I would call the 'sill plates' 'Scuff Plates' (Sherrell calls it a 'Threshold plate') to differentiate the meanings.

The earlier tc's (pre 4837) had side panels that were bent over the side tub wood by about 1/2", then nailed in place, with the wood that was not covered by this edge exposed.

The next phase was to have an inner sill cover, that slipped under the side panel edge, spot welded every 5" or so, and was then bent over the inside of the side wood and nailed on the inner wood side, thereby completely covering the exposed side wood.

I have a later TC (8126 EXU) and there are still nail holes visible in the original sill cover area that indicates the 'scuff panel' was nailed on top the this later design.

They were plain w/o the 'MG Car Co' lettering.

[jagman2]

thank you mark,

i have a 1946 TC1508 recently acquired which someone had added lettered scuff plates. I shall remove them.
thanks to all for the info.
cheers

[Mark McCombs]

Could you flip them over and switch them side for side for the underside w/o the lettering?

[jagman2]

yes, one could flip them over, however, as i understand it, my car should not have them at all.
cheers
stu

[Duncan M]

Nice to see people making the effort to not "bling" the car with items that are simply incorrect. Scuff plates is a good description, because if a door starts to sag it will start to scuff the plate. I think the TA or TB had writing on their scuff plates, as did the TD?

[stephen stierman]

I have committed the dastardly sin when I built my tub of my early car by adding a strip of metal under the edge of the body sheet metal as it is turned over around the door opening on my early car. I know it should be wood, but felt as the factory did that metal might for some reason be a better choice. I have carried this even further by adding the nice MG printed scuff plates, just because I liked the way they looked. I hope I won't be ostracized for adding excessive "bling" and assure you that chrome wire wheels are not on my wish list.

[jagman2]

steven...............no problem here..........unfortunately my car came with the bling wheels which i would gladly trade for a decent set of painted ones.

[stephen stierman]

I would bet your "bling" wheels are rounder than mine are by this time, which is not a bad thing at all!

[jagman2]

steve

i've had the car since april and haven't had it over 35mph yet. still sorting out bits.
cheers
stu

[Simon Sadubin]

Hi Stu,

I've been wondering about the sill plates as well. I looked them up in the original Factory Specification No 259. They are listed in sheet no 4 (3) - Bought Out Details and it states as follows:

part Nos 19332 & 19333 Door Rocker Tread Plates - L/H & R/H - Aluminium - Lucas Engraved - for the first 4836 bodies.

After this the part numbers change and they are listed as:

part Nos - 21259 & 21260 Door Rocker Tread Plates - Aluminium - After 4836 bodies (no mention of engraving by Lucas)

So I think there was actually a change from engraved to plain. I don't know for sure and this needs to be corroborated, but it seems as with many things TC there was a left over stock of prewar engraved door rocker tread plates which were used up post war on the early cars and then when they ran out rather than getting them engraved as before they opted for plain (cost effective)

My car is TC 2575 which puts it well into the realm of having the engraved plates which I'm considering fitting depending on what other information comes to light.

Maybe Tom Wilson has more info on this ?

regards,

Simon TC2575

[jagman2]

simon

well now, that puts a different light on the subject. interested to see pics of prewar plates and determine the
exact engraving. sounds like a future project possibly to have reproduced if indeed they were originally fitted.
thanks for the info.
cheers
stu

[Tom Wilson]

Sill plates were probably on all TCs. The tub wood under the doors on TC0273 had broken off screws of the correct size and location for sill plates, and TC0279 had them when I acquired it and appeared never to have been removed. They were plain with no engraving.