New Member

[Imnotajediyet]

Hi all,
Great to be part of the M100 clan. Hoping to make it as water tight as possible, I know it’s the holy grail.
Anyone know why the top corner of the door panel is cut away? I’ve seen this on a few cars.
Thanks,
Jon

[MPx]

Welcome!

I've not seen one quite as cut away as yours, but the one of the issues is with the top section of the door seal. The original M100 seals were mostly soft absorbent foam with a thin skin. The skin is easily damaged and the foam then deteriorates quickly. In that particular section (at the top of the seal where it should sit on top of the doorskin, it has a metal insert in its structure. It takes a bashing from the bottom of the hood every time the door is opened and closed and the seal splits around the metal insert. Yours has had several inches cut away. When mine went past the point of acceptable wear, I covered it with tape which I've had to replace several times.

I've no idea why so much of the seal and top of the door skins are cut away on yours - maybe the locks jammed with the door shut? Replacement original door seals have not been available for many years...

[dapinky]

Hi Jon, welcome to LEC.

I'm sure that you've already noticed that the replacement weather seals can't just be picked up from Halfords, and getting hold of them is not easy (although Jamie N has done great work on replacement 'adaptations' of slightly more common stuff).

The S2 had many improvements over the SE/NA (okay, so not all - or many- actually improved the car, so better called 'changes'), and one of those was to the area where the door rubber seal meets the hood deck seal....... to enable that, Lotus took the 'thought-out engineering' approach, and cut a chunk out of the top corner of the door card.

Although you see a large hole there, when the door rubbers are fitted, it all goes together well, but as your rubbers are damaged, it is what it is.

A 'replacement' door rubber can be as simple as finding a Mitsubishi FTO (not many of those about, either!), and they can be fitted with only very slight modification (a bit of cutting of the end of the rubber by the door lock, then folding and glueing it with superglue).... any 'gaps' can be filled with various things - some people have had good results with Sikaflex - build it up and cover it with clingfilm until it sets, then trim if necessary - or some have used Sugru to mold a new part. I used the FTO seals and found them to be very good.

[Imnotajediyet]

Thanks Dave. I saw Jamie’s post but that is a little beyond my capabilities. I’ll look out for some FTO seals. Do you have any photos of your fix?

[dapinky]

Mine is different to how you need to finish your corners, as my SE doesn't have the corner of the doorcard cut off. Pictures of my doorseals don't seem to come out well due to the colour of the car being so similar to the rubber (and probably my poor camera skills, eyesight and old phone camera!)

[Imnotajediyet]

Ok thanks. I’ll suck it and see what I can do. Don’t suppose you know how to remove the digital clock?

[dapinky]

Don’t suppose you know how to remove the digital clock?

Mine hasn't worked for many years (I have a new one to fit, but haven't got round to it yet!) - due to it's position it is a pointless part of the car, and it is far easier to look at my watch (which is at eye level with hands on the steering wheel).

I have yet to consider how it is held in, but would expect it to simply pull out with a couple of plastic tabs....... (don't quote me - I don't know). Unfortunately, the Workshop Manual doesn't tell you, and nor does the Electrical Manual (unless I missed it when I just had a look), so it can't be that important a procedure, otherwise they'd tell you.

[Imnotajediyet]

Yeah , I know it’s fairly pointless but I’d like it to work, once again I’ll just give it a go, what’s the worst that can happen. Even worse the bonnet release isn’t working, not sure why it has been working apart from once the other day. I’ve tried pulling and pushing etc on the bonnet but no joy. Ordered some Sugru though

[Imnotajediyet]

Clock just levers out