And now for a bit of trivia, and originality:

On 01 October 2009 at 12:25:49 UK time, Steve Gyles in the UK wrote:
>>"Current piping for seats and trims usually has a plastic 'wire' insert. I thought you may be interested in the attached image of the original type of insert that was used pre war and probably post war for a while. It is actually made of compressed twisted paper! My Father-in-Law ran a business providing this type of material to the motor trade. I have a box full of patents covering the machinery used to produce it".

>>"It measures 2.84mm or 0.103 inches in old money. I just measured a surplus plastic piece of my MGA door top trim and it is 2.95mm, so it's pretty close.
>>
>>I wonder what the early MGAs used, plastic or the paper? If the latter, would marks get knocked off in concours events for the use of plastic"?

On 01 October 2009 at 21:26:39 UK time, Neil McGurk in the UK wrote:
>>"I think all the MGAs used paper in the seats. Anyway the originals I have all did, they tended to be frayed on the top corners. The piping for the crash pads (optimistic term) was a black rubber tube if I remember correctly. I think I still have a few odd bits left".
>>
>>Beware concours judges carrying sharp blades"!