A Pillar seals, Rubber alternative found!.

[Eagle1]

Hi Jamie,

Sorry missed out on your eBay auction. At the risk of sounding original or creating a cottage industry, if you ever get a chance to recreate your excellent looking seals you have a willing purchaser here.

Cheers,

Dean

[alan e]

Going to Goodwood soft top sunday tomorrow and will be looking at A pillar seals on the cars any pointers on what to look for or pics of the seals before they were cut to fit, i think it may be the best chance of finding which car they came from.

[Jamie N]

Here is a picture of some other seals ive made in rubber, the ones on the left are original sponge ones, not too bad condition actually, the ones on the right are EPDM with a lip which goes over the glass same as the A pillar ones, ( I still have a couple of pairs if anyone is interested), I have not found anything so far to replicate the front part of the header seal but I have devised a way to make the side sections of it and these join onto it, the intermediates are relatively easy ,I can make a good few of those no problem.

As for the B post seals I have still to devise an efficient bracket for those, however the seal itself I have sussed and made a few prototypes, the difficulty is finding a way to screw the seal in the bracket to the hood, the only way so far is to make 2 holes through the seal body and through the bracket that way, there is also the difficulty in getting the seal and bracket in the exact position to then make the screw holes in the hood support and for it to line up perfectly with the glass, not an easy job at all, a project for long summer nights eh, , another idea might be to sikaflex the seal and bracket onto the hood in the exact spot, leave it to set and then self tap the bracket to the hood from the rear, but the access may be too restrictive.

As you can see I've based the design of the front one on the Bottle nosed Dolphin.

[novacaine]

Looking good, I still wouldn't mind a set of the intermediate. My sponge ones are cracking when i fold my hood away, and i guess the rubber would be much more durable

[Jon]

Are you saying you still have some rubber A pillar seals?

Also what are the seals in the picture above - intermediate hood seals?

[novacaine]

intermediates and the side section of the front hood seal i think

[Jamie N]

Yep, the front one on the right "the Dolphin" is the side section of the header seal, and the rear one is the intermediate.

Ive got 2 sets of the lipped EPDM A pillar seals locked in the safe with a German shepherd guarding it.

[Jon]

I'd be interested in a set of the A pillar seals (and the others too). How much are they?

[Jon]

...don't suppose your German Shepherd knows how to muster up an S2 front hood seal???...

[Jamie N]

...don't suppose your German Shepherd knows how to muster up an S2 front hood seal???...

Don't know if he could muster one but he could certainly shred one into a million bits , sent you a message!.

[Neill1607]

If you have any seals left, I'd happily part with money for them!

[chrisP]

Any news from Goodwood Alan?

[nicowalker1]

Hey, recieved min today, they look great. Any tips removing the old ones? Mine have been bonded in and are just crumbling.

[Jamie N]

Hey, recieved min today, they look great. Any tips removing the old ones? Mine have been bonded in and are just crumbling.

What I do is get something like a chisel about 12mm wide and pull the old sponge up at the base and put the chisel under it and just gently rock it side to side whilst moving in and upwards direction, this will remove most, then what you want to do is get a bit wire about 4mm thick and bend the end of it into a hook and that will fit into the upper channel that retains the seal, run it up and down and make sure you get every little lump of it out as that will interfere with the new seal, then just follow the other directions I sent you mate.

[Nippy]

Hi, there is always some idiot right at the end and it is my turn. Recently I have had a new hood and seals from Trim Technology fitted. I also had the added rubber fitted to the header rail (see separate topic) and, even though it is all very tight it works a treat. However, yes I do have new seals but they will not last forever so if I could purchase a replacement set of whatever you have I would be very grateful. However if I am too late, please tell me

[HenriElan]

Well I have been on this road before folks and some of you may remember me posting up the discovery of Renault 19 convertible seals a few years back. Well now we have another Elan and as usual it has awful pieces of water retaining sponge purporting to be "seals" ,therefore they had to be rectified so I duly removed them, at that point I did not know what I was going to replace them with but I was confident I would find something so out they came, (about half a cup of water was squeezed from them both combined!).

Then I went off round the yards to see what I could glean, I couldn't find anything on a car in any of the yards that looked ideal, however speaking to the owner of one of the yards he points me to one of the containers and says "have a look in there", well this was a bit daunting to say the least, crammed full of plastics and rubber door/boot seals and all manner of dusty stuff (probably Rats as well!) but I gave it a search and finally found these, 5 of them cable tied together, as soon as I checked the section of Elan seal I had with me it was obvious they were pretty close. Now the main problem here is I don't know what they are from and neither does the old guy!, there are no part numbers on them that I can see and nothing in the container to indicate what they might have come from, so does anyone recognise them possibly?, long shot but you never know somebody just might recognise them from a car they have or had.

So I get them back to the garage and cut a section from one and give it a test fit into the seal channel, I could never have imagined the fit would have been this close, it just pushed in there like it had been manufactured specifically for the Elan, However, not quite perfect as the top part had to be modified to fit the ledge where the roof closes down on it and a couple of studs holes made into the rubber (a tap with a piece of sharp 3mm pipe), the bottom part needed very little work, just a bit thinning on the back of the wide part where the studs go.

The glass closes perfectly on to them as does the mirror and the section below, but the best part is the look, its just so much cleaner and tidier, it really lifts the appearance, the pictures really don't do justice to how they look . The other bonus is......totally water sealed!, actually the first time I shut the door and looked at it I knew it was watertight but I tested it with a watering can and then yesterday it sat out in Scottish monsoon conditions and not a drip got past those seals.
They also fit so well in the channel there is no need for sealant, they don't budge at all and need a good pull to release them.

Profile test piece into the channel, note where the arrow points there is a channel there with the lip up inside it.


The modified part for the ledge.


Full seal showing the finishing part at the bottom, virtually perfect fit.


Glass closed onto seal with firm pressure, completely waterproof!.


2nd set I made with the other 2 seals.


Seal being push fitted into the channel


The ultimate aim is make it as waterproof as the wee French beast alongside it, a challenge for sure but think
it can be done, ive already done one side of the hood seals with rubber ones but that's another story for another day.


So in summary there is something out there that is a viable alternative to over priced sponges that have a limited life span,
these seals will outlast the car for sure, but what are they and more importantly are they available?.
I will certainly be going back to look for others and will be checking all the cars I can ,
I will know them instantly if and when I find them.

Jamie.

It fits perfect but where did you find these rubber seals?

[brian s]

did anyone manage to discover what car the rubber seal was originally fitted to ?

[Jamie N]

did anyone manage to discover what car the rubber seal was originally fitted to ?

Brian, the rubber seals I have replicated for the Elan are not "fitted" to another car as such, so far as I know (and I have checked hundreds of makes and models) there is no seal that can be taken from another car and fitted straight onto the Elan, any seals that do work have to be heavily modified as in other "how to" threads I have shown, depending on the seal required you will have to incorporate 2, 3 or 4 different types into 1. HTH

[brian s]

jamie, i think i should have worded my question better.
did you find out which car the seals you found (in the container) and then modified to fit the `a` pillars were from.

[Jamie N]

Not that specific seal Brian, but don't let that put you off, if you are determined you can make A pillar seals from various different rubbers which can be found on modern breaking vehicles, although time consuming its not that difficult if you are a hands on type of Guy,(as many on LEC are) in fact all of the Elan seals can be done including the Header, go to a breakers yard and see what you can find, I can make them from various donors and even a lipped version replicating those earlier ones but as I said there isn't one that will just go straight on. You will also need to remove your old seals first and do a bit of studying before you even begin looking for replacements.

A couple of the closest matches I have found were the Renault 19 convertible a few years back, and also the mk1 MR2 (door wedge shape), those are fairly good matches for the main body of the seal but like all versions the top and bottom parts will need modified, some versions will also need internally modified as well.

As with anything, determination and a will to succeed is a prerequisite, but also the quality of the end product, alongside working well they have to look neat and professional, set your standards high, if you need any advice just send me a message mate, always happy to help.