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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - door gaps

I am going to fit my old doors on my replacement shell is there a minimum door gap or do you just do them so they look ok.Can they be too small .
mark heyworth

Just beware of getting the front leading edge of the door gap too small or it will chip the paint as the door opens. Take care!
GuyW

As Guy says you need to set the gaps based on the leading edge of the door, then get the height right, and then fine tune the trailing edge gap.
Chris Madge

It may, of course, be challenging fitting original doors to a (presumably) new supplied shell. My doors had to be modified (without my agreement by the shell supplier, who I'd trusted to test fit them) I.e. one had the rear edge ground and the other had weld added to the lower edge.
Bill Bretherton

It may also be worthwhile fitting the seal before bolting everything up tight as that can/does make a difference to the final outcome.
Jeremy MkIII

I agree about the front edge of the door. What a pain that is on both the midget and the MGB. Why did the door have to come outside of the wing when almost every other car you ever see has the door going inside the wing?
Mike Howlett

When I bought my car in 1978 I found that some genius has welded on new sills, got them too high, and had ground the door bottoms to fit. Hence the skin was separated from the frame. Those sills are still on the car so I welded all round the door edges and ground them again. I don't know what the factory tolerances were, probably quite variable, but I have settled on 4mm front and 2mm back. Bigger at the front because of catching the A post on opening, as mentioned above.

When fitting doors it's also important to check for water leaks. My car admitted rain at the top of the A post, because the rubber seal had a gap. I had replaced the posts on both sides and the new ones were not quite right. I have recently modified the posts with additional steel, to get the rubber seal to fit.
Les Rose

This thread was discussed between 12/10/2021 and 15/10/2021

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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