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MG MGB Technical - Poor Door fitting

I have a 1975 roadster and have replaced the doors with rust free later doors from the States.
The doors are in very good shape but do not fit correctly.
On the drivers side I have a gap tapering up to 10mm wide at the rear of the door and the profile of the door aperture is not the same as the door. However I adjust it there is a gap somewhere.
The Passenger door is better but not good at the front. The rear gap is nice and even but the front gap tapers.

I have removed and refitted the wings and adjusted the doors as much as possible, but to no avail.

I am about to have the body resprayed so I am trying to tidy up the panel fits.
The car has had a multitude of "new" panels fitted over the years and they are definitely not as original. I have large seam joins in the sills that I will fill.

My only option seems to be to build up the pillars to reduce the gaps.
This seems a bodge option.
Are there better ways to sort this problem

Any help appreciated.
Regards
Dave


D M Tetlow

Have you checked the information on Paul Hunt's web site? http://www.mgb-stuff.org.uk/hammerframe.htm
Look under body, then doors. Maybe his information on door hanging will help.

Clifton
Clifton Gordon

Dave,

I restored my MG bodywork some time ago and had the same problem after reskinning the doors and fitting a new boot lid. I bought a new bootlid with Heritage description and found a gap of 13mm on the side of the hood. By weldig i made the lip approx 9 mm longer and then had an even gap of 4 mm. Its a lot of work and you have to weld slowly not to deform the doors or boodlid. Then to make it smooth, use an angle grinder and bodyfile to get a neat finish. My doors were not as bad as the boodlid but i used the same method and now i have perfect gaps all over my car.
Regards
Peter
Peter

Hi Pete
I don't have the skill or time to build up the gap by welding, so I intend to do the same with filler on the body.
Regards
Dave
D M Tetlow

Dave,

on my GT it was the exactly same situation when i had to renew the wings (repro wings). I also did not want to invest endless time to come to a solution but did some 'corrections' with maritime epoxid filler (International 400). This was 8 years ago and there are no signs of the Filler to be seen up to now.
It even worked well on the light alloy bonnet.

I would go the same way again, if it is my car that i do for myself.

Ralph
Ralph

I don't think door adjustment is ever going to overcome tapering vertical gaps between door and front/rear wings. I've read reports of someone having to weld a fillet (or should that be fill-it?) up one edge of the door to fill a huge gap left over after replacing the door skin, and beating over the lip reduced the width of the finished door. I'd be worried that one tap on an edge built up with filler would crack a chunk off, but doing it on the rear flange of the front wing or the front edge of the door would be safer than doing it on the rear edge of the door.
Paul Hunt 2

Oups...
gereembalry

This thread was discussed between 18/10/2007 and 25/10/2007

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