The MGA door is one of the biggest design-difference points between the roadster and the coupé, so significant that roadster and coupé doors are largely separate component sets despite sharing the same basic aluminium-over-steel-frame construction. Both variants use aluminium-skinned doors over steel X-brace frames, with two body-coloured hinges at the front edge (the coupé adds rubber sealing strips on the hinge pillars plus a small sealing pad above the top hinge). Beyond that shared construction, the two variants diverge substantially in locking mechanism, window fitment, seal arrangement and overall door design.
Roadster doors, simple and functional
The MGA roadster has no external door handles. Entry is through the sidescreen's signalling flap or through the open cockpit, with the door locks operated by plastic-covered pull cords located inside the door pockets. When the hood and sidescreens are erected, the pull cords are accessed by reaching through the sidescreen flap (1500 and early Twin Cam models) or sliding the sidescreen open (1600 onwards). Roadster doors use a Furflex door seal originally colour-coded to the interior trim (red, green, etc.), but standardised to black and red from the start of the 1600 model.
The door post carries two rubber buffers to cushion against the body when the door closes. The roadster door pocket is a significant trim item in its own right, hardboard backing covered in Vynide leathercloth to match the seat colour, with a metal strip along its lower edge painted to match the trim colour. The door pocket aperture has rounded corners.
Coupé doors, complete redesign
The coupé door is a complete redesign, reflecting the coupé's role as a weatherproof car rather than an open sports car. Features unique to coupé doors include swivelling front quarterlights (small pivoting windows at the front of the main window aperture, for ventilation without opening the main window); wind-down windows set in thin chrome-plated brass channel surrounds, operated by interior winder handles; external door handles (short vertical handles protruding through oval escutcheons at the rear of the door, on the rounded shoulder just below the window, pulled down and away to operate); a key-operated lock originally fitted to the left-hand door regardless of drive configuration, but from 1500 coupé chassis 25110 the lock was moved to the driver's door and operated by the ignition key; and a single rubber buffer on the door post (compared to two on the roadster). Coupé door seals run right around the door opening in one piece, split at the front bottom corner, with retaining and protecting strips fitted over the seal along the sills. Additional rubber sealing strips are fitted on the door hinge pillars, with a separate small sealing pad above the top hinge.
A chrome-plated finisher runs around the upper part of the door aperture above the waistline.
Section structure, three sub-categories
The Doors & Fixings section is divided into three sub-categories. Rear Outer Panels, Door & Bootlid covers the door assemblies (aluminium skins and X-brace frames) alongside the rear wings and boot lid, cross-linked from the main Bodywork > Panels section. Door Locks & Fixings covers the door locking mechanisms, the roadster's pull cord and internal catch, the coupé's external handle and key lock, the associated catches, keepers and the key for the coupé lock (where originally factory-fitted). Dropglass & Fixings covers the coupé's wind-down window glass and winder mechanism, along with the glass guides and seals.
This section is coupé-specific, roadsters have no wind-down glass.
Ordering considerations
Confirm whether the car is roadster or coupé before ordering any door-related parts, this is the single most important variant question for this section. Roadster doors and coupé doors share almost no components except the aluminium-over-X-brace frame construction concept; everything else (locks, handles, seals, windows, window winders) is variant-specific. For coupés, also note whether the car is pre-chassis 25110 (lock on left-hand door) or post-25110 (lock on driver's door operated by ignition key) before ordering lock components. For roadsters, the pull cord system is common across all variants.