External hinges, tapered washers & door skins

An issue that is sometimes seen when fitting the doors on a classic Mini is in regards to the external door hinges, as several of the bolts/studs that are fitted to the upper door hinges are angled within the hinge - a substantial amount - approx 10degrees. 

To allow the nuts to tighten securely on these parts of the hinges, thick washers with a tapered section (the official part description for these is "distance pieces") are used - but used only on the rear two studs of the top hinge, against the inside of the door skin. 

There are two issues with using such a tapered washer - the washer has a small surface area; and it can also turn as it's being tightened. Both issues can result in the single-layer outer door skin being distorted as everything is being tightened. To mitigate this I have seen some Mini workshops weld a steel support plate to the inside of the door skin to strengthen the skin, and I decided to also make this improvement. 

I cut a 100 x 50 x 2mm steel plate and bent it slightly to match the curvature of the door.  

While hanging the doors to confirm the exact hinge locations I managed to drop the tapered washer a few times, which was frustrating having to fish it out from within the door each time. I decided to remove the need for separate tapered washer and made some new larger diameter tapered washers to match the required angle and welded them to the steel plate. 

After a coating of (copper-based) weld through primer :

I drilled a few holes in the door skin around the hinge holes and plug welded the plate in place.

Once the piece was welded in, the only indication of the plate being there is the hole in the plate behind the outer door skin.

The process was of course repeated for the passenger door. There is no need for this modification on the front two hinge holes (in the wheel arch) as there are multiple layers of steel in this panel. The lower hinges also have two layers of steel and have no large stud angles like the upper hinges.

Lastly, because I can't get my hands in between the door skins to apply seam sealer around the perimeter of the support plate, I will be spraying liberal amounts of Valvoline Tectyl 506 (waxy rust preventative product) around that plate once everything is painted.