Baker

SS door pins Work well if your doors are beginning to creak or sag but not as easy a job as might at first seem. Doors are heavy & tend to lever - it’s all too easy to knock paint off the edges done on your own! I suggest: Recruit 1 mate. Draw round the hinges where fixed to A-frame and door with a marker pen. Disconnect strap. Open door fully. Support door weight underneath & stop it tipping inward and outward so it doesn’t pull on electric cable. Don’t put any weight on sill or car seat while job is being done. Take out hinges one at a time repair & replace. Bottom first, out, on bench, circlip off, pin out, bushes out - oem are black plastic with metal ring inside but shredded by time of replacement. New SS bushes push in easily. A little grease. Re-assemble tapping pin ‘splines’ into previous indents in hinge & put on circlip. Refit hinge lining up to pen marks drawn on A frame and door. Repeat with top hinge. Refit strap. You may need to readjust hinges and/or door catch on B frame but this method protects edge of door from damage and makes realigning door easier.(according to me).

Baker

Rear Big Brakes 280 mm black diamond discs and pads sold with beautifully engineered red anodised aluminium caliper spacers. Work well behind AP racing 304mm 4pot front discs. Reason in my experience is that the AP 4 pot brakes are strong enough to create front stopping bias while car centre of gravity is further back. Straight line braking is fine but hard braking into a gentle curve seems to understeer while very hard braking into a tight curve induces slight oversteer. The MS big rear brakes tend to even the balance with more neutral effect of braking on steering. Look great if outer face of rear caliper is painted red to match AP 4 pots. Drilled discs look a bit odd if fronts aren’t- if so ask for non drilled/grooved.

Baker

Results In the end I had to ask for expert help including repairing my slightly chipped paintwork. However now both doors open & close smoothly without even the suggestion of a creak. The shut lines are neat in all directions. Closure makes a consistent seal from the doors to the door frames and of the door windows to the hood. A persistent low level rattle by behind the driver’s right elbow has disappeared. This was not an easy job but restores one aspect of the car to what it should have been.

GIRARD

This simple design is perfectly machined. It is a good replacement for the original poor quality plastic screw.

Baker

I recently lent my 03 plate 135 TF to my son. He returned it and called me to say the recent upgrades have made “a complete transformation”. What were they? MS Slick shift Stage 1 black diamond clutch MS clutch release arm Full set of front and back MS SS subframe mounts. Gear change now firmer, much more precise and shorter throw. Reverse doesn’t jump out. Clutch sharper - can spin rear wheels from standing with extra revs Car feels firmer on its suspension especially at the rear. He commented that it drives like “a modern car”. I don’t entirely agree. It retains the charm it always had but these MS modifications make it closer to the car it should have been but for BMW accountants and limits of the MG-R parts bin.