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MG MGB Technical - Door hinges

1972 Roadster. Does anyone have ideas or experience of how to refurbish door hinges. The hinge on a couple of mine have enough wear to allow the hinge arm to rock several millimetres. Fortunately the problem is not enough to prevent the doors being hung ok. The hinge pins appear to be only drifted in so I was wondering if there are new ones about or if someone else has solved the problem another way. As a by the way, one of the pins has enlarged one of its support holes, probably when the hinge was almost siezed at some point in its life, so if your doors are a bit stiff check the pin lubrication! The enlarged hole just adds to the overall movement of the hinge/door.
Regards
Richard
Richard Coombs

I'm pretty sure there aren't any new hinges, but there will be dozens of used sets available from all the usual sources. In my long experience with MGBs, hinge pin wear has never been a problem so you should be able to get good replacements. Ring Andy Jennings or MGB Hive or anyone else who breaks MGBs.
Mike Howlett

Years ago when my 74.5 G.T. V-8 had 225,000 miles on her, I pulled her apart to go to the paint shop & I showed Pops the slop I had in my door hinges & he said to get a good used pair for him to take with him. 2 days later he shows up with them & he said to try & wear these out, I looked & he had drilled & taped in a grease fitting through the arm, were it makes the bend to the pin. I grease the henges 2 or 3 times a year & the door closes like NEW! Oh the car now has 490,000 miles on her this week. Thank to my good friend Ted Wallace 1902 to 1991, the best teacher I ever had & we never cracked open a book. I am sure you can drill out the old pin holes & put in a over size pin.
Glenn Towery

Thank you both.
Mike, new hinges are available at over £66 each from Moss, hence the exploration of a cheaper, maybe secondhand, route.
Glenn, I was wondering about putting in a larger pin. Thanks for the tip.
Richard Coombs

Richard when I restored my B the hinges where pretty loose. I pulled them apart and took then to a machine shop. They drilled out the holes the pin goes through and made a new pin to be a perfect fit. I put a little bit of oil on the pins, droped them in and welded the end to the bracket. They now swing freeley and there is NO up, down play at all. They're probably better than new ones!
MD Johnson

Because of the forces involved the upper and lower hinges should wear in different places. I have often wondered if simply swapping them over (only RH and LH alternatives are listed in the Parts Catalogue, not upper and lower) would give double the life.

This is a bit like the wiper wheel boxes, which have a full 360 degree gear wheel, but less than half of it is used. You can turn these round 180 degrees to get a new lease of life also.
Paul Hunt

This thread was discussed between 12/09/2008 and 13/09/2008

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