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MG MGA - replacing door skins

At some point in the near future im going to replace the door skins of my A,I have the skins witch I bought them from bob west so hopefully they will be a good fit, im wondering if i need to apply any sort of sealer to the inside edges before i dress over the flanges,I would be greatfull for any advice
V Rafter

Does anyone know the thickness of the aluminum used for the door skins?
Thanks, George.
G Goeppner

VR, you need to make sure that there is no metal/metal contact. You can use special paints (probably ordinary paints too) and a seam sealer is not a bad idea. You may also have to anneal the aluminium, I think there is some stuff in the archives on this.
Neil McGurk

Neil, thanks very much for your comments do you think that the ally will need annealing even though it is new and not being reworked,
V Rafter

Neil: I was interested in your comment about ensuring no electrical contact between the aluminium and steel thinking that this might be difficult to achieve in practice so I got out my meter and checked continuity between the two metals on four doors, a boot lid and a bonnet. All these had been paint stripped For all four doors (two 1957 and two 1960 both original) the aluminium and steel were in contact i.e. resistance much less than 1Ù. However for the boot lid it was around 2kÙ and for the bonnet 80Ù. So there may have been some attempt originally to isolate these last two. For all six items there was no sign of the familiar aluminium corrosion so I reckon it probably doesn't matter going to the trouble of keeping the two isolated when reskinning.
I agree though it would be a good idea to paint the edges and to seam seal to keep out any moisture/salts.

George: I checked the Al thickness on the boot lid which was 55 thou (around 17 gauge) but couldn't manage it for the doors. Mike
m.j. moore

VR,
You probably do not have to worry about annealing a new skin. If you make an error and have to undo a bend and redo it you will notice the aluminum gets harder to bend. If it is really hard and shows signs of cracking, it would be a good idea to anneal the section, not a difficult process. It would be a good idea to paint the mating surfaces with at least a primer more for protecting the steel part from rusting. It would also be a good idea to have both fenders attached to the car so you can check if the skin fits the opening and adjust where necessary. I replaced a skin when I did my roadster in 1997. What are the new skins going for now if I may ask? Hope this helps and have a good day!

John
John Progess

Hello John, thank you for your advise it will be put to good use,as for the skins, ive had them for almost a year but I think I paid about £100 each for them, I dont know what that works out at in usd, kind regards,

vin
V Rafter

This thread was discussed between 12/05/2009 and 13/05/2009

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