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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Doors

Thinking of removing the doors to ease access for interior jobs. Apart from noting the alignment at the mounting hinges, anything to watch out for here?
Oggers

pinging the paint off the A panel :( Don't do that...

I've had success with taking the check strap off, then threading a bit of pipe lagging down the front edge of the door. This gets you about 90 degrees opening, sufficient for most stuff.
Rob Armstrong

....but Rob, as the thing is tight in the garage, I can only open the doors about 30 deg...and I am not going to push it outside and work in minus 3!
Oggers

Use a bright marker of some type and trace around the hinge mounting on the A post

When you go to reinstall the door just place the hinge directly lined up with the trace marks and it should go back exactly as it was with no fiddling alignment involved..

You want to keep that trace Mark as close and crisp to the hinge as possiable... I use a small thin tipped silver colored Sharpe. To get it right next to the hinge face and the A post

If you can't open the doors NOW more then 30 DEGREES

then dress warm and take them off outside...otherwise it will be a fight for both space and access... Anand it's only 6 bolts per door
1 Paper

As you cannot open the doors to get access to the hinge-to-A post screws, take the door card off and undo the 4 bolts that fasten the hinges to the door. Same tip as Prop describes - mark the positions first! As its an out of sight area the quick way is to give the hinge fastenings inside the door a quick blast from a rattle can
GuyW

Long time since I did this, but I seem to remember the hinge to pillar are pozidrive screws which were corroded on the inside ends and took an impact driver to loosen so that may be another reason to go with Guy's suggestion.

Also, do you have somewhere safe to store the doors once off?

Or if your floor is reasonably flat you could get some of those hydraulic skates that showrooms use to position vehicles for display, putting one under each wheel and then push the car to one side of the garage and get either door open more.

AdrianR

Get the right screwdriver for the 4 hinge screws. They will be tight, and are easy to wreck. Only one of mine came quietly, and I took it down to the tool shop and tried several before buying exactly the right screwdriver.
Nick and Cherry Scoop

I agree with above posts. When I stripped the Frogeye the screws fastening hinges to A pillars needed an impact driver to remove but less drama with the hinge to door screws, bearing in mind Nick's comments though. I've now removed and re-fitted the doors to the new shell countless times and it's easier (imv) to re-fit using the hinge to door screws than the hinge to pillar screws but be careful with alignment. If the door is too far forward the front edge will catch the A pillar.
Bill Bretherton

This thread was discussed between 18/11/2017 and 19/11/2017

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