Hood and door seals

[stevebow]

also interested especially if they are made from another material, a friend just got an mg tf and the seals are so much better they are made of rubber rather than some kind of foam.

[rip]

also interested especially if they are made from another material.

Me too.

[lotusnut]

I'm also interested

[wayne]

also interested especially if they are made from another material, a friend just got an mg tf and the seals are so much better they are made of rubber rather than some kind of foam.

From the limited info that I have received getting them made in the original material at an acceptable cost is possible To look at getting them made in another material is probably going to be a pain in the Ass. I believe it is easy to copy a proven design but to change it then you are opening up a can of worms.....

I know the oem design leaks. I would not hae the ball to change the idea or material and hope it would cure the problem...

[WienLot]

Wayne,
I had à chance to meet Towatl on saturday morning in Vienna. His car is à S2. The hood seals, in particular A post look much better than those of the SE. Would you know if they could be installed on a SE as well ?

Franck

[Rusty Wishbone]

also interested especially if they are made from another material, a friend just got an mg tf and the seals are so much better they are made of rubber rather than some kind of foam.

From the limited info that I have received getting them made in the original material at an acceptable cost is possible To look at getting them made in another material is probably going to be a pain in the Ass. I believe it is easy to copy a proven design but to change it then you are opening up a can of worms.....

I know the oem design leaks. I would not hae the ball to change the idea or material and hope it would cure the problem...

I think you are right. In addition to what you have said, the car is designed to use these foam seals, so designing rubber seals is likely to be nigh on impossible. If only Lotus had used extruded rubber seals, but then they would probably have had to have designed parts with tighter gaps. I suspect that Lotus just squirted expanding foam into the panel gaps of their prototype Elans to get the shape of the various seals.

[Windyfarmer]

Add me to the list too please.

JB

[GoM100Go]

Sign me up for the doors!!!

-James (gom100go)

[Axel-F]

Count me in please !

[Fredjohn]

Apologies to all, but I have been somewhat busy for the last few weeks helping renovate an old cottage and not really had time to look at forum recently.

Thanks to all for your responses. I have had a conversation with SJ Sports, and will try to speak to Trim Technology (when they answer their phones!), but my current feeling is that it would be better to concentrate on just some of the seals.

Some are still available, such as "A" post seals and earlier cant and falling pillar seals, so I may well ignore these and look at others. Perfect samples will be required as otherwise any errors/damage will simply be copied onto any replicas. Original material will probably also be necessary to ensure an adequate seal ( as original ): I don't think we can re-engineer the whole window to hood seal design.

Will keep you posted on any progress, but please do not expect immediate results: this will take time and money. It may turn out that the cost of the moulds simply make it totally impossible, but I am not giving up yet!!

John

[lotustonybassplayer]

on ebay today brand new door seals, starting bid at 400 quid reserve not met

[epipete]

on ebay today brand new door seals, starting bid at 400 quid reserve not met

Yep, noted them; the label says 'Lotus Centre' - who are they/where is that?

[Fredjohn]

Yep, noted them; the label says 'Lotus Centre' - who are they/where is that?

They are South West Lotus Centre in Lifton nr Launceston Devon, who probably supplied them originally. Parts are actually being sold by an individual in (Norfolk) edit Suffolk. They are the later seal, post VIN 8161.

£400 no bids and reserve not yet met! Wonder what they will go for?

[Fredjohn]

Geoff

You have a PM

John

[Fredjohn]

General update.

Wayne and I are gathering info, and a lot of members have come forward and offered seals to be used as templates to have more made.

You no doubt will have seen ebay door seals under another topic: these have received an offer of £900, not accepted!! I think that we can do it without this guy's (M100hoods) help. Unless he wants to offer us a very large discount.........................

For general info, the original hood seals were made in Canada and Lotus did a final buy when production stopped. The process of making the seals was carcinogenic (!) and became illegal in Canada. Once the final run was complete the moulds were destroyed.

Lotus, however, have resourced the "A" post seals (took them 2 years). I am trying to find out who now makes them to see if doing other seals is within their capability. We are also trying to source from China.

[TrevorB]

Just a thought but haven't Kia produced an Elan. Would they have a mould for door seals?

TrevorB

[lotos]

This topic gets my seal of approval. It's the one part of our cars that's failing almost universally and is virtually impossible to repair/replace, right?

[Brit-Car-Nut]

been there, done that. We have tried to buy every part we could from Kia with little success.

Unfortunately, No. When Kia ceased production all of the excess Lotus parts and tooling was either destroyed or returned to Lotus. Kia also reserves purchases of any Kia Elan repair parts to owners with the correct VIN and will not ship out of country. We managed to get the sample door escutcheons because the buyer was thought to be a Kia dealer. They stopped selling him any Kia Elan parts right away.

When Lotus decided to have new "A" Pillar seals manufactured, they had to start from scratch as the tooling was destroyed between Bugatti, Kia and Lotus obsolescence. It took many attempts to get close to the original function and was too expensive to consider looking at any other seals for the future.

The problem is the M100 is an affordable sports car so people less financially well off have them. Mercedes, BMW and the other luxury makers charge a lot more for similar trim and they sell them without complaint. With our $7,000.00 to $12,000.00 cars, we cringe at the price because it is such a high percentage of the car's value (compared to the luxury cars) and we rarely have extra budget to splurge on items that are costly to us.

In the early '90s a complete hood assembly with header rail for the MGB (basically, you bolted it on with 6 phillips head screws) was an incredible $300.00 cost and $450.00 retail. We get quotes for the M100 tops at £1,500.00. Clean MGBs don't sell for a lot less than a good M100 these days. The biggest difference is the volume of cars and buyers of parts. If you can make something by the hundreds or thousands, then the unit price is reasonable. Making parts for the M100 that might sell 200 total over the years has too much up front costs to make it affordable.

[paulous]

This topic gets my seal of approval. It's the one part of our cars that's failing almost universally and is virtually impossible to repair/replace, right?

Still got to be worth a try.

[Scott]

As an elan owner the pain in the ass is the leak... And the car has become 20 y.o for everyone. The need for seals is of great meaning if we want a nice car and not scratched and burned seals. Whatever youre up to and it comes for seal parts im in!.