Door Seal Rubbers - What Orientation / Attitude ?

[rfs1957]

I've fitted these several times but never been 100% convinced I've got them right.

How do others do it please ?

The sketches show, clockwise from top-left, all on the LHS of the car, a horizontal section through the rear door pillar, with two ways of fitting the handed L-R rubbers, followed by a similar horizontal section taken through the front door pillar, followed by a section through the sill.



The seals are (I believe) the "good" soft ones as supplied by SNGB and Wilkinsons, at least, and they are easily identified by their code-numbers which are always written is silver felt-tip.

Beginning with the sill-seals, I have always fitted them this way up and believe it is correct - could someone confirm that's how they do them too ?

Regarding the rear-door rubbers, parts 50.007 and 50.008 are physically interchangeable - am I right in assuming that 50.007 is the right application here, with the longer lip to the rear ?

Both will fit and there might be arguments in favour of either (picture on its side, sorry) :



For the front door seals, there's no doubt about which is Left (50.001) or Right (50.002) but there is some scope for getting the rubber's "attitude" in the body recess right or wrong.

As the seal leaves the triangular intersection at the root of the windscreen pillar, its orientation is pretty clear :



which essentially produces this :



and I've always assumed that this was the position to aim for for the rest of its length, which gives this





when it's taped into place during gluing operations, and produces this orientation on the vertical part of the door-post



Is this correct, please, and is there any wisdom to share about how best to do this ?

My own experiences with glues/adhesives are related here.

http://forum.etypeuk.com/viewtopic.php? ... 910#p71372

and I've just updated it with the conclusions I came to after nearly a year with the various options.

PS Am I the only one to not have the cut-away or hollow at the rear of the junction of the windscreen pillar and the scuttle ? The rubbers have a pronounced block at this point which doesn't fit into anything on my car and in the past I have always just pared these away with a sharp knife ?

[ralphr1780]

Clockwise, to me the first is wrong, rest is correct.
There should be a hollow and the rear screen pillar and the scuttle, in which the rubber would fit to form some sort of reservoir I guess supposed to hold few drops of water from dripping on your sill vinyl when you open the door. To be honest, I have checked the efficiency by pouring some water along the pillar then opening the door, and indeed it does work...

[44DHR]

Just fitted some C O H Baines doors seals below the B pillar.
I believe on the left, (Nearside on a UK car),the longer top lip should face to the rear as in your drawing 50.008.
In your text you state that you believe that you are correct in having the longer lip to the rear - yet you then refer to 50.007 - which to me shows the top longer lip is pointing to the front.
I believe the clue is looking at the top of the seal, which should have a moulded closed off area and following the alignment down. The difficulty is then identifying the actual bottom area of the seal to seat into the body channel. I found by once this area could be identified, by keying it up for the adhesive and using a small piece of thin ply, I could use this to push the seal into the channel through the seal opening and get the seal correctly seated to ensure the "long" part does not extend too far towards the rear and overlap the rear wing edge.
I will upload some photos to PhotoBucket tomorrow to assist.
Regards,
Dave

[rfs1957]

Thanks to both,

Yes, the ambiguity stems from whether the longer edge is "at the rear" or "pointing to the rear" which are of course opposites.

The position of the 50.008 would be the correct one, then, and I suppose this is logical in that its movement when compressed by the door will be accompanying the direction of the door rather than fighting it.

Somebody commented recently here about inserting a round-section into the groove during the gluing/curing operation and I will try that, I have some suitable smooth rubber cord, as this ought to make it easier to dictate at what angle/rotation the seal sits in its channel ?

UPDATE - Comments by Peter C a few years ago would suggest that the B-Post rubbers should be fitted with the groove INNERMOST so that the seal appears smooth and rounded from the outside -

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6196&start=20

- which is obviously a radically different approach.

Could others - including perhaps the man himself - comment on that ?

[44DHR]

Rory,
I agree that on the door rubbers that it makes sense that they would be pushed flat by the door and work in accompaniment with the door and not against it.

Picture below of my nearside door with C O H Baines seal JDS 15



Picture below of my offside door with C O H Baines seal JDS 14


Sorry about the reflections and me on my "milking stool" as my wife calls it !

Regards,
Dave

[frogeater]

Thank you for this post!

I thought this point was difficult to understand for a french, but I assume in fact, the joint positionning, is also difficult for British people living in france...
(Hi Dave, will you come back, this year to Goodwood?)

[Hugo]

I do believe my door rubbers are still attached to my bodyshell - I'll be over with the car later today so I'll check it out & let you know what I have.

[Hugo]

On my Series II, all the door seals have the lip pointing outwards, if that makes any sense. So on the front door seal, the lip points towards the front of the car, and on the back seal, the lip points towards the rear. Or to put it another way, on the front seal, if you run your hand towards the front of the car you would smoothing the seal down, and vice versa on the rear. Is that clear enough for you to understand? I don't mean for YOU to understand, I mean anybody!

[44DHR]

Hugo,
So you are basically confirming my photos above for the B pillar rear door seals ?
Regards,
Dave

[Hugo]

Hugo,
So you are basically confirming my photos above for the B pillar rear door seals ?
Regards,
Dave

Yes. I was a bit hesitant to say so, as I wasn't sure I could tell from your photos. But having studied them more closely, yes, that's the same. The fronts look similar, with the lip pointing out from the hole if that makes sense!