Anyone ever aligned the bottom of door doing this? : MGB & GT Forum : The MG Experience

Anyone ever aligned the bottom of door doing this? #1
max71 Gary Alpern Portland, OR, USA Sign in to contact 1971 MG MGB "Max"	Topic Creator (OP) Mar 31, 2015 11:22 AM Joined 18 years ago 4,023 Posts

Saw this in search for fixes. A member told me about something like this and showed me his B has the same issues. Has anyone ever tried it? Door bottom adjustment

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Re: Anyone ever aligned the bottom of door doing this? #2
mdubash Manek Dubash Lewes, East Sussex, UK Sign in to contact 1968 MG MGB "Odysseus"	Mar 31, 2015 11:55 AM Joined 11 years ago 1,548 Posts

Haven't tried it - but I'm tempted...

- If duct tape doesn't fix it - you haven't used enough duct tape

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Re: Anyone ever aligned the bottom of door doing this? #3
Chalky David White Coventry, Warwickshire, UK Sign in to contact 1979 MG MGB GT	Mar 31, 2015 12:04 PM Joined 9 years ago 1,442 Posts

Yes. I've seen it done several times. The last was about 20 years ago at a vehicle manufacturing plant that's now closed. Bit brutal but it does work. Can break the paint where the door skin and inner panel meet.
Won't work on my doors. When I fitted the new outer panel I put an air dry seam sealer into the space before I folded the flange over. I bent it all to shape and left it for a few days to cure. The door is rigid and the seam will never get water into it again. The method is used to build a lot of modern car doors.

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Re: Anyone ever aligned the bottom of door doing this? #4
max71 Gary Alpern Portland, OR, USA Sign in to contact 1971 MG MGB "Max"	Topic Creator (OP) Mar 31, 2015 12:07 PM Joined 18 years ago 4,023 Posts

Thanks for the brilliant education. I don't want to damage the paint on the door. It was just painted a few years back. Had no idea this was a tested method on many cars.

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Re: Anyone ever aligned the bottom of door doing this? #5
dipstick Kenny Snyder (RIP) La Center, WA, USA Sign in to contact 1941 Ford N-Series 1958 MG MGA 1500 Coupe "Rosie" 1970 MG MGB GT "Pat's GT" 1971 MG MGB "Gifted To Me" & more	Mar 31, 2015 12:17 PM Top Contributor Joined 15 years ago 7,564 Posts

FWIW the body & paint fellow had a variety of plastic handled screwdrivers that he would place in either the upper or lower door hinge and push the door toward closed bending/adjusting the hinge alignment.

Be safe out there.
Kenny

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Re: Anyone ever aligned the bottom of door doing this? #6
max71 Gary Alpern Portland, OR, USA Sign in to contact 1971 MG MGB "Max"	Topic Creator (OP) Mar 31, 2015 12:19 PM Joined 18 years ago 4,023 Posts

That's interesting. I wonder if one could use a wrench to carefully adjust the hinge tongue? Or is that idiotic?

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Re: Anyone ever aligned the bottom of door doing this? #7
stockli Ryan P ft collins, CO, USA Sign in to contact 1977 MG MGB	Mar 31, 2015 12:28 PM Joined 9 years ago 35 Posts

That is how Jeep dealers used to adjust the door on Cherokees. I have done it to my jeep but have not tried on the B.

White, 1977 MGB

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Re: Anyone ever aligned the bottom of door doing this? #8
mgbanthony Anthony Henderson Eastern Thousand Islands, ON, Canada Sign in to contact 1962 MG MGB 1974 MG MGB	Mar 31, 2015 12:32 PM Top Contributor Joined 18 years ago 13,241 Posts

That's one way....best done prior to painting.

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Re: Anyone ever aligned the bottom of door doing this? #9
max71 Gary Alpern Portland, OR, USA Sign in to contact 1971 MG MGB "Max"	Topic Creator (OP) Mar 31, 2015 12:38 PM Joined 18 years ago 4,023 Posts

Thanks for all the great advice.

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Re: Anyone ever aligned the bottom of door doing this? #10
ErnieY Ernie Y Albatera, Alicante, Spain Sign in to contact 1976 MG MGB GT	Mar 31, 2015 01:13 PM Top Contributor Joined 12 years ago 19,528 Posts

In the write up he says "The door gave a “crack” sound" and realistically that can only have been the skin shifting where it's crimped in the frame which would bother me, at the very least it would crack the paint leading to eventual moisture ingress and corrosion if it wasn't addressed.

If I have a door which needs adjusting (and it's depressingly common even on professionally restored cars) I use the angle grinder cut a slot in the frame all the way from the catch down and along the bottom, the skin plus frame can now be positioned - either in or out as required - and the slot then welded up using a patch inside if the skin has been moved out and the width of the slot is too much to bridge, a skim of filler and a squirt of paint later and you'd never know the surgery had been performed thumbs up

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Re: Anyone ever aligned the bottom of door doing this? #11
ozieagle Herb Adler Geelong Victoria, Australia Sign in to contact 1958 Wolseley 1500 "Wooly" 1966 MG MGB "Bl**dy B" 1995 Toyota Highlander "Hi Ace Van" 2022 MG ZS	Mar 31, 2015 04:22 PM Top Contributor Joined 13 years ago 15,856 Posts

Hi,

That was me, a few years back. I had researched how to adjust the door, and found a reference to the factory way, which was with a special big bar, in the manner shown in my article.

Note that doing it the way the photo shows is problematic, because the A post flexes a bit. Open the door to about 90 deg and do it. A post much stiffer that way.

Herb

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Re: Anyone ever aligned the bottom of door doing this? #12
Simon Austin Surrey, BC, Canada Sign in to contact 1968 Ford Torino 1977 MG MGB V8 Conversion	Mar 31, 2015 06:54 PM Top Contributor Joined 19 years ago 15,076 Posts

That's pretty cool. I'm sure if we could have seen how the assembly line techs made adjustments back in the day, we'd all cringe and/or close our eyes....

Somehow, they made it work.

"Speed costs........how fast you want to spend?"

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Re: Anyone ever aligned the bottom of door doing this? #13
DrewM Drew Maddock 74 MGB roadster, Southern California, USA Sign in to contact	Mar 31, 2015 07:33 PM Top Contributor Joined 18 years ago 8,133 Posts

I've seen videos of factory repairs on misaligned hoods (bonnets) and doors being doing with mallets and hammers and even hands to adjust them before the cars were sent to dealers. At the factory, it paid to fix things quickly and if you screwed it up, they'd pull it out of line and try repairing it another way. At home, if you screw it up, you might need a body shop. So I suppose it can and does work, but I'd hate to pull (or hit) too hard!

Drew Maddock, So. Calif. USofA

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Re: Anyone ever aligned the bottom of door doing this? #14
MG David David Witham Warwick, UK Sign in to contact	Apr 1, 2015 08:53 AM Joined 12 years ago 524 Posts

I used that method after re-skinning the LH door. Before painting the door I fitted it to the car, adjusted as well as I could for level and alignment to the front wing. Then I used a long piece of angle clamped to the inner face of the door to "adjust" it so to align with the rear wing. The door was then removed for painting. When refitted it still aligned both back and front which was a great relief.

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Re: Anyone ever aligned the bottom of door doing this? #15
ErnieY Ernie Y Albatera, Alicante, Spain Sign in to contact 1976 MG MGB GT	Apr 1, 2015 09:45 AM Top Contributor Joined 12 years ago 19,528 Posts

If working with a bare door shell if necessary you can cut through the top where the 1/4 light fits after which the door becomes very easy to twist and manipulate, weld the cut shut when finished.

IMG_5334.JPG 39.8 KB

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