MGF and TF
Tips

If you have any tips you want me to include then Email me. Address below	Cleaning Tips & Products
Armor All Protectant Low Gloss Cleans, protects & beautifies Vinyl, Rubber, Plastic	THIS IS A MUST. Excellent for cleaning the dash, plastic door panels, plastic mudflaps, rubber seals. make sure you get the Low Gloss unless you want the darker wet look finish that the high gloss gives. Price around £3.69 for 300ml from Halfords. Removes all those finger print and scuff type marks you get on the door panels. Do an entire panel section at a time. You will be impressed!
Auto Glym Instant Tyre Dressing	Gives your tyres that new look sheen. Price around £4.99 for 325ml from Halfords
Auto Glym Clean Wheels	For cleaning your alloy wheels. Spray on and rinse off after one minute. Rapidly dissolves brake dust and traffic film. Price £4.99 for 500ml at Halfords. This stuff really does work. But a bucket of hot water and car shampoo(I use Turtle wax - never use washing up liquid) applied with a sponge works just as well with a bit of elbow grease.
Turtle Wax car shampoo	NEVER USE WASHING UP LIQUID to wash the car with. It will remove any wax polish that is protecting the paintwork. A bucket of hot water with a dollop of car shampoo and a sponge is all you need to clean the outside of the car.
Hood Care	My hood gets very dusty at work so I use a hoover extention to suck the dust off. Bird lime can be blasted off with a hose pipe. A re-proofing and treatment pack is available from BMW which is apparently good. Cost around £45.
Polish	AutoGlym high resin polish works well. I've also tried the coloured TurtleWax polish which is supposed to hide any hairline scratches in the paintwork - but the effect is minimal.
	Click image to enlarge. This brush is ideal for cleaning the inside surfaces of your alloys. £4.50 from the MG show at Stoneleigh. Any big MG show will have them on the trade stands. I borrowed Steve Slivinski's brush to clean my wheels at the Stoneleigh show and was so impressed I had to buy one!
Rear screen cloudy and scratched?	The MG Car Club sell greygate polish for cleaning/polishing the rear plastic screen on the MGF. It is Nato approved and is used by the military on aircraft and also by the Navy. Needless to say it works! £5 a bottle plus £1 post and packing. To order, contact the MGF register.
Tyre Wear	From: Roger Parker Tamworth roger.parker@virgin.net on 25/10/1998 Cars and light vans have to have a MINIMUM of 1.6mm depth of tread in an uninterupted band for the full circumference of the tyre. This band must cover the 'central three quarters' of the tread. In simplistic terms this means that if the tread width is 6" (measured shoulder to shoulder) then the centre position is 3" in. Either side of that centre line must be 2.25" of the tread width with the minimum depth of tread. The remaining 3/4" on either side does not have to have any visible tread left, but must not show wear down to the understructure of the tyre. Motorcycles, large goods vehicles and large passener carrying vehicles (lorries, bus and coaches) have different rules. (the old rules actually) They must have at least 1mm of tread depth for at least 3/4s of the tread width. This 3/4 can be achieved in many ways, from one side or the other, or accumulated through two bands either side of a worn centre. Unlike the other regs the remaining tread area HAS to show visible tread even though it is below 1mm. The above conditions have to apply to the whole circumference of the tyre. The anomoly was created when the 1.6mm tread law was introduced as the legislators either forgot, or planned other legislation which has not arrived. This means we have two completely different rules for different types of vehicle. Whilst this affects those who have cars and bikes I would point out that anyone who has reached these sorts of tread depths is way beyond the point where the tyres performance, especially in the wet, has deteriorated very, very significantly. 3mm should be regarded as the change point for tyres on cars. Rog From: Darren, Northants on 23/10/1998 MGF Tyres have tread wear indicators, too, so you can tell from them if they need replacing.

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