MG Midget 1965 MKII Restoration Project: Doors

Doors. Such a small word really. Who knew they could harbour so many big challenges!

There's so much to get right on them but due to the small spaces they are a bugger to work on. bandages at the ready!

I've already covered fitting them in this post: Panel Fitting which is the easy bit on reflection.

It's fitting all the parts to them, quarter lights, window winding mechanism, glass, locks, catches, interior trim and handles, etc... Oh and weather strips! oh my, weather strips.

I'll start with some easy bits.

There's the stop plate that window sits on when it is fully down. Two screws from the underside. Easy.

Next fit the door latch, three bolts. Easy

Next you can fit the door catch opening mechanism or remote control as it is also known.

Slightly more tricky to get in the right place. It's worth giving these a good clean and some fresh grease as they can get stiff.

Only three screws to hold it in place....

....but you need to make sure the arm slots into the hole on the door latch.

Then you can test fit the handle and see if you can open the door.

Next up is the first real challenge! Window regulator mechanism.

It is worth giving these a very good clean. And I mean really clean, as the old grease can totally stop these from even working as I found out having fitted one of them.

In the photo below you can see the teeth that are turned by the main shaft that the handle attaches to. Where the two sets of teeth cross over each other is partly covered by a metal plate, but under there will probably be filled with grease and muck. So plenty of degreaser, WD40 and keep winding it backwards and forwards, soaking up all the crud that comes out of it, until no more comes out. Then you can apply new grease. If it doesn't move smoothly at all or judders then there is more cleaning to do. It's very possible small pieces of metal have broken off inside and this is stopping it from moving. That's what I found even after cleaning and refitting. So it all had to come off again and more cleaning, which is when I found the shards of metal.

Works perfectly now!

With the mechanism all clean and greased up you need to get it inside the door.

Now I am working on the left hand side door.

Wind the mechanism so it looks longer rather than a square, as in the photo below.

With it in this position you should be able to slide the mechanism through the large hole in the door. The handle shaft goes in first.

Then push it in further until you can get the handle back on the winder shaft. Turn the handle as though you are closing the window and the mechanism will start to change back to a square shape. This allows you to start to line up the bolt holes.

It takes a little while to manoeuvre the whole mechanism into place.

You'll find you winding a bit, moving it a little and then unwinding it until all four bolt holes around the handle line up.

Then you can get the four bolts in place. Wouldn't bother to tighten right up yet. But you think you should also be able to screw in the other four holding plate bolts to the left as well. This piece rotates, which you have to do to get it lined up. But unlike me don't screw in the bolts as you need to fit the glass to the mechanism.

I did wonder how the glass would polish up.

About 15 minutes later and I was happy with the results. A few fine scratches but nothing more.

The channel really needs to be clean and well greased.

This is how the slider fits into the channel. Out of the door this is really easy! Give it a few goes with the other mechanism so you can familiarise yourself with it as you'll be having to do this inside the door with a lot less space! Take note of the gap in the channel in the photo above.

In the photo below you can see the spring on the front of the slider.

This is really hard to show using photos and explain exactly what's going on. First up get a light to shine on the inside so you can see what your doing.

You can see I don't have the square plate bolted on at this point.

Slide the glass down into the door and try to get the front of the slider into the gap in the middle of the channel by pushing down on the spring and slotting it in.

To get it to go you might have to wind or unwind the handle.

Once you get the front of the slider into the channel by the gap in the middle you can then try to push the back of the slider into the channel at the rear.

If you get it done right it should look like this.

Then you can put the holding plate bolts in to see which way it should go, but don't tighten them up yet.

Next you need to slide the quarterlight into place so that the glass is in the felt channel.

I found this quite difficult because it initially doesn't seem to fit at all. Because the mounting plate curves away from the felt glass channel it seems like it won't fit in the holes.

You need to fit the rubber seal first.

The new seals don't seem to fit that well initially. But just before you tighten up the bolts to hold down the quarterlight that's when you move it in place, trying not to scratch the paint.

Just need to make sure the lip of the seal stays on the outside.

Once the quarterlight is down and in place you can then think about tightening it all up.

You'll notice these holes should line up nicely and it might be at that point when you remember you need to finish fitting the window!

You'll then realise that in order to get the glass to fit the quarterlight properly you have to undo all the bolts holding the winding mechanism in place. This causes the whole thing to drop and there is a tendency for the slider to pop out of the channels. Gets really annoying as you want everything nice and tight but it is all moving all over the place independently.

But once the glass slider is in the channel and quarterlight channel you need to fit the rear felt runner. Only three bolts, easy right?

At first it doesn't look like it will fit. So you have to put one bolt back in to the holding plate and the winder mechanism and just wind the window up as far as it will go so you'll have the space.

Top end in first and try to slot the glass into the channel.

Then bolt into place. You can then screw in all the window mechanise bolts, but I really wouldn't bother doing them up tightly.

Now it is time to finish off the quarterlight. Very fiddley!

At the bottom of the quarterlight channel you'll see this hole.

You'd think it was easy to bolt it on before fitting the glass, but this bracket below just keeps getting in the way. So I decided to do it after fitting the glass.

You need to fit the bracket and line it up to the two bolt holes in the door.

Trouble is that your fingers cannot manoeuvre it in place because of the tight space and angles.

What I found was that I could get it to stay roughly in the right spot with the help of a screwdriver to hold it whilst using my other hand to nudge the treaded stud through the hole. Took me a few goes.

Once that is in you should be able to put the bolts and nuts in place. But again, don't do them all up tight.

You now have to check the window will wind up all the way without getting stuck and this is why you need to keep the bolts loose until you have it all right.

But there is still some way to go yet! You have to fit the stop bolt. This stops the mechanism from going too far.

This is very easy compared to what you've already been through.

Now your ready to tighten up the quarterlight.

Working upside down...

Yes seriously, upside down as these nuts, whilst being long are not easy at all to fit. Make sure you have an extendable magnet to retrieve the washers from the depths of the door.

After much swearing and scraping of knuckles and a bit of luck you'll get these nuts in place. This is point when you need to make sure the rubber seal is in the right place, so check it before you tighten them up.

Then you can tighten the two main securing bolts next to the A post.

Once you've done that keep checking the window winds smoothly, if not loosen the nuts and bolts and adjust.

But after a little while you should have something like this.

It's important you check the gap between the quarterlight and the window frame. When I first fitted mine there was a gap at the top. The gap got smaller as I looked down. For me this was because the windscreen wasn't pulled back enough when I tightened the windscreen bolts. So I had to loosen them and pull back the top of the windscreen and tighten again. This closed the gap so the rubber seals touched.

Then you stand back admiring you work and realise what next? It will dawn on you...weather strips!!

Side Note: It was at this point that I realised I had fitted the wrong quarterlight! I had acquired several quarterlights over the years and this one, whilst in very good condition was from a later model. You can see the frame is polished steel and not chrome plated like my 1965 should have been.

I had to do this all over again, because you cannot get the quarterlight out without taking the glass out of the mechanism.

There was much swearing!!

It was also at this point that on testing the window mechanism it failed to wind, so had to take it all out again and clean the teeth as I explained above.

More swearing!!

Weather strips!

There are definitely different approaches. Sure you can read about them all.

Here's how I did it...eventually!

With the window in place test fit the outer rubber weather strip. It shouldn't need cutting and slides right up next to the quarterlight seal.

On the seal you will see slots in the rubber. This is where the clips are to go.

However in order to get them securely into place you need a tool to pull them up so they clip to the metal door frame. You can buy the tool, but it costs over £30 new, so I made one out of scrap aluminium chrome grill surround, bending it into shape.

I tried several times to pull the clip into place, but it just wouldn't go all the way. I lost a lot of clips into the depths of the door frame. Buy an extendable magnetic pole to fish them out or you'll hear them rattling around for years to come.

I found that by opening the clip a little bit with a screwdriver helped to get them to fully located so the razor sharp teeth held it in place.

The aim is to place the clip in the tool.

Lower it down into the opening.

Then make sure the opening of the clip fits over both the seal and the metal frame and then pull hard upwards and hope the clips bites.

More often it doesn't until you master the technique, which is learnt by trial and error. Mostly error! Again and again!

Eventually you'll have all 7 of them in secured. But some will drop out and some will break so have spares.

Once you've finished that ordeal you've got the inner weather strip to fit and that's more of a pain as the outer seal and glass gets right in the way! Grrrr

This strip you'll need to cut to size, if your replacing with a new one.

I found metal cutters work well, but make sure you measure correctly a few times.

You have to cut the end at an angle so that as you push it down in place it gets tighter.

The clips that fit the inner seal are slightly different. Seem a harder metal and slightly smaller.

This time you are trying to pull them on to the metal edge of the seal and the door frame. But this time you've also got the glass of the window to deal with.