7 replies to this topic

[ac427]

 

Sorry for yet another question thread. I have been looking at quite a few Mini pix and was wondering if the larger gap at the top of the door and the leading edge was normal in the pic above?

 

Some pix seems so show the same whilst other show it to be a closer fit.

[sonikk4]

No its not normal for a gap that big.

 

Now its possible the door has been reskinned or bought second hand. Whenever i reskin a door for my self, i fit the carcass in the door frame first to get the best all round gap then add the skin.

[ac427]

No its not normal for a gap that big.

 

Now its possible the door has been reskinned or bought second hand. Whenever i reskin a door for my self, i fit the carcass in the door frame first to get the best all round gap then add the skin.

Could it be through accident damage?

 

The shoulder of the door seems to line up perfectly with the shoulder of the shell.

 

It just seems strange that it fits the bodyshell aperture front ad rear but not on the top or the front diagonal.

 

I just thought of Jaws. Am i going to need a bigger door?

 

Is it repairable?

[sonikk4]

 

No its not normal for a gap that big.

 

Now its possible the door has been reskinned or bought second hand. Whenever i reskin a door for my self, i fit the carcass in the door frame first to get the best all round gap then add the skin.

Could it be through accident damage?

 

The shoulder of the door seems to line up perfectly with the shoulder of the shell.

 

It just seems strange that it fits the bodyshell aperture front ad rear but not on the top or the front diagonal.

 

I just thought of Jaws. Am i going to need a bigger door?

 

Is it repairable?

 

 

Is it repairable, i will say yes as i did something similar on my lads car.

 

When i reskinned his car doors they were pants to coin a phrase. Defo not original to the car and needed major work. Now i did go OTT with his car with regards to panel gaps etc and maybe a tad too much.

 

 

 

 

The other side of the car

 

 

 

 

Finished result

 

Now did i need to go this far, probably not but i was up for it and we were pleased with the result.

 

BUT will the window fit, that is the question but nothing has changed other than the height of the frame. And to be brutally honest i really should have started off with two better doors as like the rest of the car they had been bodged to death and back.

 

Heritage skins by the way as when i tried magnum it was even worse. Now since then having restored a mini Special and my own Clubby, both very extensively restored, the gaps were far far better as they were the original doors that came with the cars. I stll added some welding filler rods to the edges of the door gaps for One Pound Coin gaps but nothing to the frames.

 

So having digressed slightly here, the frames are spot welded to the door carcass and could in theory be split from the carcass and lifted slightly to close the gaps. BUT again a lot of work and i mean a chunk of work. Personally if you are that concerned i would look at removing the skin, repositioning the door carcass in the aperture and then offer up the door skin until im happy with everything.

 

Like this

 

gaps at the top of the door

 

Now i did spend some time tweaking, bending, applying some science where needed with my calibrated 2lb club hammer but finished result

[ac427]

Blimey Neil, That is some great (and a lot of) work. Thanks for the detailed response.

 

I guess if you can DIY it then good but i'm short on the skill, tools and space to perform these sorts of tasks.  I suppose a specialist Mini body shop would be able to do it for a fair 'ol whack.

 

The guy who is selling it, says he wants to reduce his Mini collection. So i guess you would sell the runt of the litter as it were first.

Edited by ac427, 29 November 2023 - 10:43 PM.

[sonikk4]

Ulitmately if the door is not whistling when you are driving along or leaking in water then i would live with it.

 

But looking at your picture i cannot see the rear of the door skin edge. If this is really close then it may need shims removing from the hinges (if fitted) and then you could tweak the height of the door slightly to try and reduce the gap. Now that is a cheap fix, just needs some basic tools then.Nothing specialist.

[ac427]

Ulitmately if the door is not whistling when you are driving along or leaking in water then i would live with it.

 

But looking at your picture i cannot see the rear of the door skin edge. If this is really close then it may need shims removing from the hinges (if fitted) and then you could tweak the height of the door slightly to try and reduce the gap. Now that is a cheap fix, just needs some basic tools then.Nothing specialist.

 

Thank you.

 

Here are a couple more and a passenger door shot one showing presumably what it should look like

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by ac427, 02 December 2023 - 02:06 PM.

[sonikk4]

So looking at those pictures your door could go slightly fwd and up. The swage line at the rear of the door is lower than the swage line on the quarter panel.

Now what you need to do is look to see if there are any shims under the hinges where they attach to the A post. If so then I would take out the top one to start with. And then at the same time see if there is enough slack in the A post mounting holes to raise the door.

If there isn’t any slack in the holes the. You can slot them. This will them allow you to raise the door. It does t need a lot to make a big difference.