On 4/26/2009, Malcolm Purvis in France wrote:
"I removed the 4 hinges from the hood and trunk. Now I am trying to refit them but do not know which is which any more. How can one tell which is LH and which is RH"?



Bonnet and boot lid hinges for MGA are the same. Left and right are mirror images. When you hold them side by side with the hinge pins exactly level the flat plates will be slightly canted left or right to match the small angle of the mounting surfaces on the curved body. When installed the hinge pins need to be aligned on a common axis. See picture. If you lay the hinge upside down on a flat table top, the two flat plates should lie flat in the same plane.

Addendum April, 2020:
Pictures below show what happens if you get it wrong and swap the left and right hinges. To keep hinges vertical with hinge pins aligned horizontal, the fixed plate has to be badly distorted to mate with the car body. The moving arm also has to be badly twisted to match the angle on the opposite side of the lid. --- The taller side of the hinge pin fixed bracket should be inboard.

Photos compliments of Mark Hester

When you set the hinges upside down on a flat surface, and press down on the flanges, all of the flanges should lie in a flat plane. If you put the domed end of the pin through the longer leg (maybe this was the factory standard), then you can easily see which hinge is a pair. Domed heads go inboard on the car.