I hate side curtains!

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I hate side curtains!
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TA 2839
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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 Kenwood, 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.
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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.
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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. I dont have a picture
of the TA with just the tonneau but I think the
following photos will give you an idea of its
design.
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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
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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.
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If there is no passenger, you zip up the near
side kidney warmer and the center zipper and now
you have a real cockpit
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I never did restore the side curtains and dont
carry them. Weve 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
doesnt shrink nor leak.
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TA Terry Sanders
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Abingdon Rough Riders
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Oakland, CA TATerry_at_aol.com