Hey All,

I'm having issues trying to fit the new stainless mini spares mustache and grille to my Mini K 1969.

The holes don't line up on the moustache and grille and the new grill is just to far down.
Has anyone managed to get this right ?

The part numbers are below for what I have bought :
Grille : 24A2158
Moustache : 17A7781

Also there is a 5mm gap between the moustache and panel which I have made brass spacers to fit .

Ive spent hours on this. If anyone can please share some knowledge on this .

Your part number for the Moustache doesn't show up on MS site. Is it 14A7781 - "Grill surround mould"?
If so,I had the same issues with my '66S a few years ago. See:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=96184&hilit=grill+surround

Some people don't have problems - maybe they get the panel beater to do the worrying.
Some of the pieces were a hopeless fit and just too short. None of them followed the contour of the panel. A friend gave me a bag of good used ones to try but they were not much better. The best one was rusty and the plater said was too thin to buff and plate again.
Ended up buying a 3rd new one from MS UK. It wasn't an easy fit but I used long self-tapping screws and spacers to gradually walk it into place by tensioning each screw differently. Had to repaint the front panel after all this, too!
Not as easy as the original ones which you could pop rivet all way round and they fitted neatly and lined up with the little extensions.

With the grill I use those quick-fit buttons so the grill can be positioned where you want it before drilling holes.

Hello,
I live down on the Gold Coast.
You are welcome to borrow a spare grill and moustache I have here if you want to compare them to determine where they are different.
Regards,
Glen

I also had the same issues pos7box.

I bought the same part number 14A7781 as Bill and spent a few hours getting it to fit. At the same time, I also fitted the wiskers (part numbers 14A7782 and 83) and they didn't fit real well either.
On the moustache, the return bits where you put the screws through aren't long enough and they don't come anywhere near close to the body. Like you and Bill, I made up spacers to get them to fit and had to drill new holes in the body so that the moustache sat in the correct position. To give me some adjustment with the spacing arrangement, I used 32mm long ss nuts and bolts rather than a self taper with a spacer between the grill and body. Got them at Autopro in those little plastic packets.
I put the bolt through the moustache and then put a nut on to hold the bolt tight. Then I put another nut on and wound it up to the first nut but just finger tight. Then fitted the moustache to the body and adjusted that 2nd nut until it contacted the body when the moustache was in the right position. Once that was right, I then put another nut on the end of the bolt and tightened that up. So for each bolt, I used 3 nuts. Hope that makes sense. I drilled new holes in the body where I wanted the studs to go so that the moustache was in the right position. I basically made the moustache roughly follow the contours of the grill and made the gaps around the edges similar on each side and ok to look at.
At the top of the moustache, the return brackets sit nicely against the body and are held in place with self tapers. By the time you get to the bottom of the moustache, the return brackets sit about 6mm out of the passenger side and about 8mm on the driver side. That's of course with the moustache sitting correctly on the body.
I have seen that they make a "retro" moustache that has longer return legs that may have been better but I don't think they are on the shelf here.
With the wiskers, I had to gently bend them to get them to sit ok. Used the same ss bolts for them as well.

With my grill (a 1963 850), I had one re-chromed but the job was dodgy and I can't find one good enough to use so I'm going to fit an Austin Cooper part number 24A198 which I haven't yet got due to travel restrictions with covid. Given dubious quality of stuff these days, I actually want to eyeball the grill before I buy it to make sure it's not damaged or scratched. I'm hoping that the new grill is similar to my old one outside dimension wise but if not, I'll need to adjust my moustache again to fit.
I'm going to use self tapers and spacers between the grill and the body when I fit it and drill new holes as needed. I figure I'll get it looking ok cosmetically from a few feet away and not worry too much about getting it to fit hard up against the body.

If you're working on an already painted car, some good masking tape (maybe 2 layers) might help protect the paintwork while you're mucking around.

Cheers, Rocky

I can recall buying a new moustache in 1997. It was totally the wrong profile for the front of the car. It didnt sit flush up against the body. I sent it back and purchased from a different supplier.

_________________

http://www.youtube.com/user/Hanras

Thanks everyone for the help and clarification on the new aftermarket parts.
I finally managed to get the grille and moustache fitted but it was a terrible job of fitting machining and cutting .

I ended up making 4mm brass spacers on the lathe that took the already installed rivet nuts from 5mm to 3mm with a 4mm spacing.
This , plus a bit of bending of the moustache and I had it installed flush with the body (2 days later) .
There were a few spots that had to be touched up as I took your advice and masked the area first.

The Grill was a bit easier to fit , although I had to Dremel new slots for where the moustache bolts hit the sides of the grill.
As expected , the older holes did not match on the top screws to I ended up making the existing 5mm previous owner attempts into a 3mm rivet and that worked perfectly.

Everything now lines up .

Well done. You can spend a lot of time working and worrying on that.

A lot of frustration and time , especially if you want it spot on
Your information helped me hugely.