The MGA Restoration Project



Page Eighteen:    In Search of Ice Blue




Hello, I'm Leonard Nimoy, host of In Search Of, the popular cable television show which explores mysterious phenomena. I'm here to tell you about one of the great mysteries of automotive history, the quest for Ice Blue Everflex top material. Hundreds of convertible tops and tonneau covers made in this mysterious color are known to have left the MG factory in Abington in the mid 1950s, but few if any are believed to exist today. This, then, is the story of the search for an Ice Blue top and tonneau cover. A quest to discover whether modern eyes can again gaze in wonder upon this most rare of all MGA top materials.

Throughout the production of the MGA 1500, MG offered a special top and tonneau cover color which was only available on black and Glacier Blue cars: Ice Blue. With the introduction of the model 1600, Ice Blue top fabric was discontinued and hasn't been produced in four decades. Most original Ice Blue tops have long since worn into uselessness, and were replaced in later years with tops made of black material, the most common and therefore most popular color for MGA top fabric, still produced to this day.

With this in mind, many experts believed it would be impossible to find material in the right color to produce an authentic top and tonneau cover for this car. Inquiries made all over the world were fruitless. One manufacturer in England suggested purchasing neutral colored Everflex material and dyeing it with a paint-on vinyl dye which could be mixed to color, "Although that's quite expensive."

Researchers hadn't even seen an Ice Blue top, nor even a photograph of one. But there was a rumor that MGA restoration guru Todd Clarke, owner of Clarke Spares and Restorations, had a new-old-stock tonneau cover made of this elusive material.

Todd Clarke's rumored tonneau cover apparently did exist, but it wasn't for sale. He did, however, agree to submit a small clipping of fabric from a seam on the underside. This precious artifact, like a swatch of fabric from the Shroud of Turin, would provide a tantalizing glipse of what an original Ice Blue top might have looked like. But rather than blue, it appeared to be a shade of grayish green. Researchers were puzzled by the apparent discrepancy between name and appearance. However, when seen next to a spot of Glacier Blue paint (slightly dark in this scan) they do make a plausible match.

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Just when it seemed as if the search for Ice Blue had reached a dead end...

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 THIS IS A BRAND NEW FACTORY ORIGINAL MGA TONNEAU COVER FITS LATE MGA 1500, 1600 AND TWIN CAM AFTER SERIAL NUMBER 977. NEVER USED, MINT CONDITION.ORIGINAL BRASS ZIPPER. NEVER INSTALLED SO ALL SNAPS ARE IN PLACE. NOTE FACTORY SNAPS ALONG FRONT AND REAR EDGE OF TONNEAU. NO SNAPS ON DOOR AREA. COLOR ICE BLUE. I WOULD DISCRIBE AS LIGHT GREY WITH A TINT OF BLUE.THIS IS NOT A REPRODUCTION.THE FABRIC IS BRITISH EVERFLEX ON A LIGHT TAN CANVAS BACKING. VERY UNUSUAL TO FIND A NEW ORIGINAL TONNEAU. FABRIC IS SOFT. HOWEVER I WOULD RECOMMEND LEAVING THIS TONNEAU IN SUN BEFORE INSTALLING SINCE IT HAS BEEN FOLDED FOR OVER 30 YEARS.THANK YOU FOR BIDDING ON THIS UNUSUAL FACTORY PART.
This mysterious ad showed up on Ebay. Could it be that after all this searching, the Holy Grail of tonneau covers shows up on Ebay? In the seller's picture, it even looks very similar in color to the sample provided by Todd Clarke. Fearing that this rare artifact might disappear into the mists of the Internet, a preemptive bid of $500 was made in the last moments of the auction. To our surprise, the tonneau cover was won for a price slightly over the $99 opening bid. For only $110, we would be in posession of the rosetta stone of weatherproof material - an actual Ice Blue tonneau cover.

So, here is what the "new" tonneau cover looks like. As it turns out, it lacks the telltale markings on the back of the fabric which indicate it's an original factory accessory, however it does appear to be a very good aftermarket product made to factory specs at the time the car was in production. And what of the color? The piece of Everflex fabric provided by Todd Clarke has a definite greenish cast to it, whereas the fabric here appears much more bluish, although still with an overall gray cast. This tonneau cover still bears the very well defined creases from sitting folded for decades, and it fills any room it is in with a very rich vinyl fabric smell. So it seems to have been stored in very favorable conditions, perhaps even sealed in an original box or bag, since new. Is Todd Clarke's tonneau cover faded with time, or was this one made in an inauthentic color? Mr. Clarke made no representation as to whether it is new-old-stock or used. However...

This picture, from the "First of a New Line" brochure which announced the introduction of the MGA, shows a black car with an Ice Blue top. Although 1950s-era color lithography is not particularly accurate in color rendition, the color in this picture seems much closer to our tonneau cover than to Mr. Clarke's fabric sample. So far, the information uncovered seems to indicate that this tonneau cover is an accurate example of the "lost" Ice Blue. This is Leonard Nimoy for In Search Of.







History:

This MGA was displayed on its side at the Earls Court Motor Show in England in 1956. The white paint and upholstery were a custom feature.





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