Front Wing Mud-Trap - Have YOU checked for build-up?

My last trip of the summer involved many back lanes, which had a lot of mud and other muck. I normally use sticky-backed plastic to prevent mud building up here:

Unfortunately, a recent night-time trip returning from an MGCC meet, resulted in being forced through a flooded nearside, which had forced the plastic loose.

If you have never removed the wheel-arch liner on your F or TF, I suggest that you should. I was amazed how much muck had built-up in a journey of no more than about 30miles.

My suggestion for preventing mud from running down the liner and building-up is shown below. The critical bit IMO is getting a good seal at the top edge, to intercept water etc. from getting behind this plastic.


Crucial top edge: :

When the plastic is in-situ and working, this is the result (same roads, but a bit less mud, because it was the offside)

I think I’m right in saying that on early cars, possibly up until the Mk2 f there was an edge protector strip (CLB10002) that ran around the wheel arch. They had departed on mine by the time it arrived in my drive & as someone at MG deemed it necessary to have them initially I replaced them. After all they would have been omitted given half a chance had the bean counters noticed. They are nothing special, just metal reenforce plastic edging off eBay, on the EPC they are shown on the rear but it’s so inexpensive I did front also.
To fit these the wheel arch liners had to come out & the two things impressing me most were the condition under there & the amount of grot I had to remove to find that out. A good clean with the pressure washer & it all went back together & forgotten about or a couple of years of enthusiastic driving, until another big job broke out & the liners had to come off.
There was a fraction of the amount of dirt behind there & bear in mind I live in a farming village on the West Pennine Moors where every form of detritus can be collected at any season of year.
I might have been fortunate in my road positioning & avoided the excitement left after horse/cow/sheep/tractor etc have left their little festivals of shit in the road or those edge strips might just be worth tracking down.
M

Airportable wrote:

I think I’m right in saying that on early cars, possibly up until the Mk2 f there was an edge protector strip (CLB10002) that ran around the wheel arch. They had departed on mine by the time it arrived in my drive & as someone at MG deemed it necessary to have them initially I replaced them.
M

On Mk1 Fs, the edge protector on the front wings is different from the rear. The front edge protector, CLB100110, has an extra bulge, which seals against the inner wheel well liner.

Thanks Mark, stuff like this is all part of the infor-go-round on tbar. One person forwards an idea, an other contributed & by adding their nuggets ultimately the entire picture emerges.
I didn’t know about these protectors until I looked at the EPC years ago, I didn’t even register two part numbers for front & rear nor any difference other than one pair being longer, but all that didn’t matter as I made my own.
So now with the help of Mark the picture is complete & if you are inspired enough to make a set eBay is your friend (most of the time).
M

If you are putting it away for the winter (and even if not) it's worth spraying waxoil or similar around the hidden edges of the wings and behind the wheel arch liner where it screws to the end of the sill, it's well worth giving the subframes a coating as well. Although I have no experience of either using it or its effectiveness Lanoguard looks very promising in one video that I have seen. Using a trigger type sprayer it produced a mist of wax. The £467 TF that I bought is totally free of any rust where the black wax coating was applied, shame that they didn't do under the front wings.

I’m fairly sure the precursors of Lanoguard are byproducts of the wool industry, where the lanolin is recovered after fleece washing.
Even though I haven’t tried it, I’m fairly sure it’ll be effective. The only rust free parts of an ancient & abandoned Bamford bailer are the parts where the sheep gather when the weather is inclement, which at the moment is pretty well constant
I believe it originates in Australian (conformation required) where sheep are plentiful & my guess is they will have a lot of it.
It’s also very good for keeping your hands soft which is a bit disconcerting when shaking hands with a shearer. Your hand will still be crushed but you will be left with flesh on it, instead of it being ripped away after being greeted by an outback fencer.
M

Airportable wrote:

I think I’m right in saying that on early cars, possibly up until the Mk2 f there was an edge protector strip (CLB10002) that ran around the wheel arch. They had departed on mine by the time it arrived in my drive & as someone at MG deemed it necessary to have them initially I replaced them. After all they would have been omitted given half a chance had the bean counters noticed. They are nothing special, just metal reenforce plastic edging off eBay, on the EPC they are shown on the rear but it’s so inexpensive I did front also.
To fit these the wheel arch liners had to come out & the two things impressing me most were the condition under there & the amount of grot I had to remove to find that out. A good clean with the pressure washer & it all went back together & forgotten about or a couple of years of enthusiastic driving, until another big job broke out & the liners had to come off.
There was a fraction of the amount of dirt behind there & bear in mind I live in a farming village on the West Pennine Moors where every form of detritus can be collected at any season of year.
I might have been fortunate in my road positioning & avoided the excitement left after horse/cow/sheep/tractor etc have left their little festivals of shit in the road or those edge strips might just be worth tracking down.
M

Thanks for this Airportable. I WAS aware of the seals fitted to (I assumed) all Fs but no TFs. I believe the seal you mean is this:
in this area:

I can see that this seal will stop water & grot going sideways & getting onto the metal lip inside the wing, but I think the main problem is muck & water running down the surface of the wheel-arch liner, then being trapped between the liner and the steel in this area:



Is that seal section still available? Last time I looked, it was made of "Unobtainium".

That contribution from Mark goes back to 2011 & although unaware of this, it backs up my impressions from a few years later.
Unobtainium might be synthesised if you are careful with your precursors & inventive in application.
I’ve never bought anything by the liner yard (or metre if pressed) where every last increment is used & as retaining off cuts is a character flaw, I’ll have some left.
An amount of automotive archeology will have to be undertaken & this might take a bit of time, as the the first used is the first away & it always works it’s way to the back & I have some distant “backs”.
M

I spent a day rolling sheep fleeces a long time ago and I can confirm the effects of lanolin on my hands. I tend to look at advertising with a lot of scepticism, their claim that the Lanoguard creeps under the rust as opposed to just encapsulating it is one that catches my eye. However it does have the advantage of being a natural product though. Whether your MG is a dry weather car only or a daily driver like ours there is a good reason to give your car a regular treatment with a cavity wax. As Ellisojo rightly states that fastening of the wheel arch liner is a mud trap, an annual coat of wax will help prevent any corrosion. We tend to forget that the "waxoil" add says that it "creeps" and during hot weather it can and does creep downwards on vertical surfaces which can lead to the drain holes in the sills blocking with wax.
One thing that always surprises me is that it's the offside front wing that rusts more than the nearside. Woolies have two rubber extrusions that might fit onto the wheel arch lip, one might hold the liner in place as intended, the other might just protect the lip of the arch from stone chips

I have a Mk1 F (September 96 build) and it has the wheel arch rubber trims. replaced them inmate summer with a used set, cheaper than buying new. I previously took off the liners to clean behind and I cleaned all of the metal in the arches, undersealed with wax oil underseal and put liners back.

When I was piddling about with my air scoop I had all the paraphernalia associated with that out, which gave me access to the sill etc. when I had invested a lot of time in repairing the wheel arch I gave everything a generous Schutzing with Schutz goo in my Schutz gun. It’s not a great leap of ingenuity to refill an exhausted canister with Lanoguard & as I have all the cavity extensions & misting sprays for the gun I’ll give it a go as an addition to my off season jobs.
Now let’s see if I can work through Ellisojo’s query on wheel arch edging.
As it’s blowing an 80mph gale up here & as I’ve seen the roof blow off a shipon sending a roost of startled hens cascading across the moors, I’ve no intentions of going out to the garage to hunt for edging, lest the same happens to the garage roof.
It’s pointless looking on my “recent purchases” on eBay as I bought the edging years ago, but I add interesting sellers to my “saved sellers “ list, that’s where I reacquainted with Zukey Auto.
They have a metal reenforced edging strip with a “draft excluder” strip in parallel. I think this is what I used as the additional strip helped seal against the arch liner.
I once managed to add a link to an item on eBay but every other attempt has resulting in failure.
Your on your own, anyway they have other items which may be of interest.
M

I have discovered that the part, CLB10002, is still available, although pricey:
https://mglrparts.co.uk/products/protector-rear-wheelarch-edge-200-mg-genuine-mg-rover-clb10002-austin-rover-group-clb10002-rvr1206

The front protector cross-section is approximately 12mm long, edge thickness ~6mm. The bulb is hard to approximate because it probably is well compressed compared to its original thickness but must be at least 6mm. I think its called trim seal with side bulb. This is close to what the original looks like:
https://mmseals.com/en-ca/collections/side-bulb/products/trim-seal-with-side-bulb-pvc-plastic-trim-with-epdm-rubber-bulb-seal-fits-1-4-edge-3-8-bulb-seal-diameter