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MG MGB Technical - Door too far back?

I am currently rebuilding an MGB GT. I have replaced the floor and the inner sill, castle section and centre membrane. I have a Heritage door and Heritage wing to go on along with an outer sill cover.

I am now at the stage where I am trying to get the outer cover, door and wing to fit together so I can weld the outer sill cover on and have everything line up with reasonable panel gaps. I braced the door gap while the old sill was off and only cut the brace out when the inner sill and castle section were fitted and welded.

The door is now too far back. When I fit the hinge, the door has a tight gap at the back (2-3mm) and a big gap at the front. With no hinges, the door sits comfortably with good gaps front and rear. When the door is on the hinges, the captive nuts and the hinge bars are at the back of the pockets in the door frame.

As I see it, I have two alternatives: I can move the A-pillar forward (cut and bend or a big block of wood and an even bigger hammer) or I can shorten the hinge by a quarter to half an inch or so.

Has anyone had this experience before?
Mike Standring

Before you take any drastic action I'd be inclined to offer up the front wing and see what the gap between the door and the wing is like. That way you will see if the door needs to come forward before you start moving the A post. It looks like to me that shortening one end of the captive plates might correct things but you really need to try the wing first to see if anything has moved
Iain MacKintosh

Mike,
don't touch the hinges!!!
I tried that and made things worse. The door/wing alignment relies in the hinge length to get the required movement that prevents them binding when you open the door. On a GT I'd be very surprised if the A post has moved back if the dash side panel and roof are intact.
My guess is the door is at fault, specifically the alignment of the carcase in the skin. It won't be easy to fix the position of the captive nuts without fitting a new skin to the door.

Best of...
MGmike
M McAndrew

After having worked on two Heritage shells as well as replacing several wings doors and sills with heritage items, safe to say all were incredibly inaccurate!! So not surprised you are having problems.
If you are happy with the door gaps, i.e., they are both the same. Don't butcher the A post. My guess would be the hinge pockets in the door are incorrect. The last Heritage shell I worked on had so many misplaced captive nuts, locating holes, etc.. I lost count of the number of remedial modifications I had to make. Check the threaded bars contained in the doors are in the right way, they may not be symmetrical.
Allan Reeling

Mike.
Had this on a new door recently.
The door fits on the hinges by 3 screws top and bottom into a tapped plate in the door frame.
If you look inside the door the tapped plate is held in a cage.
You can put a screwdriver in the end of the cage and bend it out so the tapped plate can be removed.
Once removed grind a bit off of the end of the tapped plate.
With the tapped plate removed open up the holes in the cage.
Put the tapped plate back in making sure it is the correct way round.
This will then allow you to move the door forward more as you now have more movement front to back.
Ste
s p brown

The last 2 comments are spot on. I've home restored both a GT & Roadster. You have to make the doors fit by fettling the door itself. In this case modify the cages that the hinge bars float in to give more adjustment. Dont touch the A pillar!!
G Britnell

I go back to my original comments in that you really need to fit the wing to see exactly where the door should lie. I have restored both a GT and Roadster and with the GT I fitted Heritage doors which both fitted perfectly apart from having to be twisted to get a good shut. However on the roadster I re skinned both doors using Steelcraft skins and whilst the drivers door was perfect the LH door had terribly wide gaps. Eventually I re skinned the door again with a Heritage skin and suddenly the gaps were perfect. It is however important to have the wing fitted so that you know exactly where in the gap between the front and back wings the door must fit
Iain MacKintosh

Both my door problems were with passenger doors, one a roadster the other a GT. The outer skins were right but the inner frames were too big. The worst was 10mm over size. The result was, with the striker plates on, the door wouldn't shut. This was with the hinge bars fully in their pockets too, Wings and bonnet on and lining up perfectly with even, left and right, openings. I am still working on a GT V8 RE-SHELL. We spent, in excess, of 120 hours preparing it for painting. Most of this was spent doing remedial work. Cutting out the bulkhead steering 'UJ cone panel because it was 1 1/2" out of alignment, the rear hatch hinges had to be cut and re-welded, the column bracket was in the wrong place, the rear light units wouldn't fit, the heater box slot was too small, I could name many more niggling items of shoddy assembly. I know we are lucky to have heritage panels and shells, but if they are being made why can't they be as accurately made as, should be, possible!
Heritage really are rubbish!
Allan Reeling

My shell came back with 2 used doors, the passenger door went in with lots of fettling...about 12 hours worth & is 'ok' but will never be concours. The drivers door did not fit. I had to elongate the A post holes in order to get the vertical alignment correct, and then twist the door to get it to fit the aperture. Even then the top profile was incorrect & the top of the door was striking the B post with a 1/2 inch gap at the bottom. I had to split the door skin above the latch, widen & reweld to get the profile right. I also had to knock back the rear quarter panel in order to get a reasonable shut line. It now fits and closes but will never be a good fit. Having got the car back fully sprayed I will probably need a respray when I've finished re-aasembly!!
P M Gregory

Thanks for all the tips and experience, I am going to try the original door to see how it measures up. It is a bit ratty but the worst thing is that at some time in the past, the window runners were fastened with self tappers. The door frame has acted as a sacrificial anode and kept the self tapping screws nice and clean and as good as new. There is no door frame left to hold the runner brackets! So I am stuck with the new door.

I too cannot imagine that the A-post has moved in any direction!

I have decided the easiest thing to do is to shorten the hinges. This will have the same effect as taking the ends off the pockets and my nice new Rover door will not need to be "modified". Second hand hinges are much less valuable than original doors.

Back to the garage!
Mike Standring

I'm not quite sure what you mean by shortening the hinges, unless you mean cut and shut them between the A-post and the door. Possible, but the welds would need to be very nearly as strong as the original metal, or if the wind takes the door and throws it open they are going to bend or even snap. I would have though modifying the captive plates and/or door pockets was preferable, albeit more of a fiddle.

An alternative might be to drill and tap the hinges to allow the captive plates to sit more towards the front of the pockets. Or maybe that is what you meant in the first place.
Paul Hunt

This thread was discussed between 21/01/2015 and 25/01/2015

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