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MG MGB Technical - Drivers door

I have considerable rust along the bottom of my 1972 MGB drivers door, too much to patch. I was thinking of a new door skin, but am nervous about bending the lip over, welding it out of wack or plain bending, creasing, or messing up. I wondered if the B door is universal through the years (this has a door mounted mirror but new holes can be drilled)? as i see doors from various years advertised every now and then.
G.L Lodge

The '68 thru '80 will fit. Ray
RAY

I believe there are some differences in the strikers and latches from year to year. However, I can't give details.

You might be interested in this link concerning door replacement.

http://www.chicagolandmgclub.com/photos/b_doors/

John in Music City

John Lifsey

To the best of my knowledge the strickers and plates are the same for all years. There are some differances in the door opening and window winder locations. Cars 67 and earlier are different. The door panels might be a bit different but I believe that as Ray mentioned all doors from 68 to 80 should fit your car, with perhaps some differance in the panels and shape of the handels.

HTH
Ron
Ron Smith

They will fit the car but internal door hardware will not interchange with doing some modifying of the inside panel. The big difference is the arm rests and door pull screw holes are in different positions.

Clifton
Clifton Gordon

Fitting a doorskin is not a difficult job if taken slowly.Your big problem would be the state of the frame which may have also rusted badly.If your alternative is a replacement ;what have you to lose?I have seen several people make great jobs at their first attempt.
Peter Jones

I have two new door panels still in there bubble rap from I guess Moss, they came with the car, a 79 B bought 6 months ago. I'll gladly send pictures. They are just in the way. "cheap"
Gary L. Emes
gary emes

I second Peter's comment - fitting a doorskin is not a difficult job if taken slowly.
I chewed my fingernails to the knuckles worrying about it before biting the bullet instead of nails, then found it quite simple.
Have a look at http://www.chicagolandmgclub.com/photos/door04/

David
David Overington

At the very least you must continually check the width of the new panel against the size of the door aperture whilst bending over the flange. If the bend starts moving in towards the middle of the panel you can end up with a very large gap when closed as the frame will move. I've heard of people having to weld a flange down the outer edge of the new skin it was so big.
Paul Hunt 2

I fitted a newer door to my 69 GT. I got around the hardware problem by fitting captive nuts in the new door - there are actually holes where the older hardware should go, but they're empty. Aside from that, older cars don't have the receiver for newer doors' anti-burst pin, so that came off. Everything else fit fine.

Adam
Adam Birnbaum

I too have fitted new doorskins and have not found them difficult. If I remember correctly, two or three tack welds are recommended, but I did more than that. ' Wish I could remember how I assured that the alignment would be correct, but I do remember that the gaps came out very well when I was done. I vaguely remember that I followed instructions as per Lindsay Porter.

Just checking the Moss USA catalog now, I note that the window regulators and door latches are the same from 1968 to 1980. Only the door pulls change. And 1972 is unique in that regard. Moss shows different part numbers for 1965-68 push-button doors, 69-72 doors and 73-on doors. I suspect that the differences have mostly to do with bracing to reduce side-impact damage and that otherwise they're interchangeable, with the possible exception of captive hardware for the door pulls.

FWIW,
Allen
Allen Bachelder

This thread was discussed between 23/02/2007 and 05/03/2007

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