Bit the bullet, dug into the doors a tad. Overall they aren’t in too bad a shape, the left (driver’s) is worse than the left of course. Did Jag use galvanized? No? no… no, I didn’t think so. Here’s what I found, right door:
I figure on either replacing this panel in each door, OR, plating each area from the rear and then covering the entire face of the shut panel with a new .063" skin to double up on the strength already in this area.
How’s the wood? I assume you’ll do the hinges up with grease nipples and uprated bushings?
Classic stress failure. Mine were the same. The hinge panel is weak to begin with and when the primitive hinges start to bind … well, you already know this. The difficulty with replacing that panel is separating the edge foldover without cracking it. It’s also welded to the outer skin in a few spots. Doable, but welding in patch panels and reinforcing from behind might be a superior approach - and getting the hinges sorted out. I eventually gave up on repairing my old doors and bought new one$.
Boy, I bet that was ex$pen$ive…ow.
Doors are a royal, colossal PITA to repair.
Hinges swing free and have zero slop in them. I’d be nuts to do anything but oil them. I can make all door fit adjustments outside the pillar, each hinge had 4 to 5 shims.
I’d done 2 MGA’s, aluminum skins on steel frames. Much easier, much stronger unless they rot at the bottom.
Are those Whitworth bolts into the doors? I’ll have to hit Moss for some bolts, plenty offered for TC, TD, TF.
The left now, upper and lower hinge panel. Still not beyond salvage.
The fact that the body will need one patch 3" x 3" makes up for this.
The plate removed to see what it’s covering.
I wish one of the vendors or someone here would come up with some sort of door retrofit kit specifically for this area. Something well designed that would make minimal use of welding and riveting. Something that would add more strength to the doors, but not detract from the aesthetics too much if one were to look closely. I have a second '120 on hold and in storage exactly for time sucking reasons like this.
It’s expensive and time consuming to collect enough tools to do a job like this and the skills to get reasonable results. I have half the tools I’d like to have. It’s one of the reasons a really well restored car cost twice to get it that way than you or I will spend.
Part of the reason there isn’t a part for this area is this: there isn’t enough of a market for it. I’ll make a set for my car and I’ll move on because that will have been painful enough.
Keep copious notes and pictures: Im SURE people would gladly toss a few shekels your way.
I would.
Maybe the hinge boxes are already rebuilt and aligned properly? The damage to your door hinge panels points to earlier issues with the hinges. The upper and lower hinge arm faces need to stay parallel and aligned to one another throughout the arc of the door opening and closing, otherwise will effect variable stresses on the door hinge panel leading to stress failure. Better than oiling if you can build in a system to lube the hinges properly. Plenty in the archives on that subject.
There are those far better than I who can attest to how important it is to get the door hinges right to avoid the kind of damage you’re seeing.
Forgive my ignorance, but do 120s not have wood in the doors? That has to make life a lot easier if they don’t!!
I’ve written some full accounts of making new door frames from scratch and repairing skins and hinges for the XK Club Gazette, if any of you get that.
I doubt you can repair that front hinge panel effectively (or, at least, aesthetically) without removing and refitting the doorskin. If it’s steel, take it very carefully, if it’s alloy, anneal it after removing. I managed to remove my 140’s steel skins OK and refit, but you need the right pliers to do it without damaging.
120 FHC/DHCs do.
Hi Roger,
The early alloy 120’s had wood in the doors, as well as the wood frame supporting the rear clip. There is currently an alloy car LHD driver side door listed on eBay (listed by my brother) with decent pictures. This is a rare piece and one of the last in the world I’m sure.
Excellent new 120 OTS doors are available for $2500 a pair from Bill Dengler at Absolute XK’s in western New York, a very reasonable price. I have seen them and they are as good as they get IMHO.
As they duplicates of OE, or have they been reinforced?
Given some of the previous work, nobody took the time.
I will run a plate on the hinges to see that they swing free when bound together.
Only the tacking strip at the top. These doors weigh about 4 pounds.
Exactly what I did. I have a pic somewhere but can’t locate it atm. Lining up the hinge arms is first order of business, already discussed in here so in the archives. I had to do some cutting and rewelding to get them right.
Hi Paul,
The doors are listed as exact copies of the OEM doors.
Several of us compared the doors to a pair of originals and held them in place on an OTS body under restoration and they were excellent.
I would suggest fitting an aluminum backing plate and panel bonding it on the inside of of the door shut face to distribute the load and prevent flexing of the metal.
