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MG MGA - door seals

I recently put my 58 1500 back together after a full repaint. I was installing some of the finishing touches and ordered furflex door seals. These are high quality seals, supposedly designed to allow the doors to close without binding. The passenger door is fine, the driver door binds against the seal fron the corner of the sill (hinge side) to about 4" from the corner. The door closes, but requires extra force. I am concerned that this is putting stress on the hinges. ALso, the vertical gap between the leading edge of the door and the front wing is substantially wider than the passenger side at 1/4". I have tried ajusting the hinge, and the door striker plate with no improvement.

I had to replace one door hinge on the driver's side during repaint. A new hinge was purchased from MOSS and although it mounts up fine, it was a different style than the original. The hinge had a sllght bend near the pin, unlike the original. I presume this is to allow the door to open wider. I know that Barney has information on his site about different hinges made during production years. The door closes fine without the door seal, however the vertical gap is still an issue. Could this odd hinge create the gap and binding issue?

Fran
F Valenzano

Fran,
The door hinge could definitely be causing the gap problem but I doubt the closing problem. Make sure the door and fender are flush with each other at the corner with the bind. If they are you may have to bend the flange that the seal attaches in order to gain more clearance. If you have excessive gap top to bottom on your door you can shim the hinges or move the fender up or down to adjust the gap. The setting of door gaps in a roadster is an exercise in compromise. Have a good day!

John
John Progess

Nothing against your choice of seal but the only ones of the many styles that I have tried on my roadster that actually fit and let the doors operate properly are those sold by Todd Clarke of Clarke Spares. They are patterned after the original style and unlike many of the aftermarket types do not trap air inside the rubber of the seal which resists door closure. I fought my doors for a long time until Todd came to the rescue.
Keith Lowman

Fran, I second what Keith says. What are your seals like, where did you get them? Are your doors closing ok without the seals? If so, you could have the wrong seals.
Lindsay Sampford

Lindsey,

The seals were purchased from Moss, and were not inexpensive at $150.00. See link here

http://www.mossmotors.com/Shop/ViewProducts.aspx?PlateIndexID=51663&SortOrder=1


My doors do close OK without the seals installed. Looks like I will be contacting Todd Clarke to buy a set of their door seals.
F Valenzano

Fran,
The Moss product is not correct and will 'fight' proper closure of the door. I used Todd's seals and they are perfect.
regards
Colin
C Manley

http://www.clarkespares.com/doorseals.html
g c pugh

I second the use of Todd Clarke's parts also.
R J Brown

Thank you for the heads up on the Clarke spares door seals. I will let you know the result once I install them.

Cheers
F Valenzano

I will go against the grain here. The Todd Clarke seals are not nearly as good as the ones that Bob West sells, and are VASTLY more expensive. Having had one set of the Todd Clarke ones which were destroyed by the breakdown removal driver, I couldn't justify the cost of a new set against the price that Bob offered. The doors close well with the seals from Bob, and if he can profess to them being correct, I am not going to argue. They were about 15% of the cost of the seals from Todd.
dominic clancy

Got a picture of the Bob West seals?
Barney Gaylord

This thread was discussed between 27/02/2011 and 05/03/2011

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