Door seals

[daveiow]

Would it be possible for someone to set me straight regarding what seal is where?
Most of my hood seals are remarkable good however the seal that is on the actual door which terminates in the shaped " knob" which then covers the window glass strip is very tatty.
Is the door seal and "knob" all in one?
Is it available?
Where is the B pillar seal?
I know this is a minor problem compared to having water poring in the roof but it annoys the hell out of me

[rip]

I'm trying to picture what you are describing, but I can't.
Any chance you could take a pic & post it please?

[Nickydee]

Dave

Sorry to hear you have a tatty knob but know exactly what you mean and think many of us on here suffer from the same problem

The Knob forms part of the whole seal and as far as I know Driver side seals are unavailable. The knob is required to get a good seal with the Hood and whilst I replaced my passenger side seal I had to repair the drivers side including making a new knob out of a bit of the old passenger seal and sticking and finishing with silaflex.

Regards

Nick

[daveiow]

Rip-Thanks for the reply. I intend to post pictures and will as soon as I can get my spare brain cell to work out how to do it
Nick-good to hear from you. I knew there would be a Knob man on here somewhere
So the seal and knob are one but unobtainable
When talking to a well known hood expert recently I was told efforts were being made to reproduce a batch of seals, perhaps it may include this one also

daveiow

[rip]

I intend to post pictures and will as soon as I can get my spare brain cell to work out how to do it

This forum makes it easier than many because it will host images.
If you scroll down a bit you will find Upload Attachment. Please modify your file to show it as a maximum 800*600 or it will just show as a download. The smaller the better.

[TrevorB]

Now if there is one thing that spoils 'Merlot' are the door seals and therefore I am interested in some
resolution of my problems. After many enquiries I now know that door seals are like the proverbial
rocking horse doo dah. I have taken some photos of top of door seals and knob, which I presume
is the bit by 'B' post cap. Now the photo does emphasise how bad the driver side is but it's not as bad
as it looks, in my opinion anyway. Are there any suggestions on how I can improve the look as it does
not appear to affect the seal. Is there a rubber solution that can be put over or something else.
First photos are nearside and then drivers side:

[Rice crispy]

Trevor I repaired my passenger side using sikaflex and a piece of cling film. I tried making a mould first but that didn't work so I put the sikaflex on neat an moulded it with cling film and left it to set then trimmed off the excess. Its not perfect but looks much better than it did.

[TrevorB]

Trevor I repaired my passenger side using sikaflex and a piece of cling film. I tried making a mould first but that didn't work so I put the sikaflex on neat an moulded it with cling film and left it to set then trimmed off the excess. Its not perfect but looks much better than it did.

Thanks Dave, when I used silkaflex to replace the 'A' post rubbers it was not easy to manipulate. As I need to mould it over the bad patches how did you do that with the cling film?
Trevor

[Rice crispy]

Trevor, I just put a blob on the top then used the cling film on top to shape it and then shut the door to make sure it all still shut. I then left it to set overnight and then trimmed it to look neat.

[TrevorB]

Ok, silkaflex ordered, I will post photo's once I have attempted the restoration work. Thanks again Dave.
Trevor

[wayne]

I recently replaced my door seal as my pax side looked similar to Trevor's pictures. and I had a spare that was in much better condition. Drivers side was even worse!!

Fredyjohn is looking at the possibility of having new seals made. see here: viewtopic.php?f=85&t=22393.

I guess my seals live in the worst environment possible....so my seals are probably not good examples.
Looking at earlier pics the problem most people suffer with is the end cap?

Looking at the door seal I believe that this part was made separate and bonded to the rest of the seal?? There seems to be a joint a few inches down from the top?

If everyone only has the same problem with the seal caps. Then I believe it is affordable option to have the caps remade and then bond them to the main seal lower down where it is out of view.

The company that made the escutcheons apparently can remake the seals. I did not ask about the cost but I assume for the smaller seals the price would be similar to the escutcheons.

I believe the cost of a full door seal is going to be out of reach for a low quantity order but maybe still worth asking about.....

[TrevorB]

Well I did promise photo's, so here is drivers side before and after, work in progress, but looking a lot better.

What do you think guys?

[Rice crispy]

Looks much better already

[TrevorB]

I know it's been over a year but was informed of a product called 'sugru' which is a self-setting rubber compound,
(a bit like 'play-doh'), so I've had another attempt at the drivers door. I think it's an improvement and will continue
to practice with it to perfect the finish, hopefully not another year though
There website is http://sugru.com/buy/?gclid=CPuBi9_Pk8ECFWTHtAods10Aww but I got a pack of 2 from Wilkos for
£5.

[Kathryn]

Thanks for that Trevor.
I've been putting off buying Sikaflex for months cos it seems silly to buy a massive tube for two small blobs to patch up the tops of my A pillar seals. I bought some black sealant in Halfords, but had mixed results - I found it easier than expected to use but it didn't bond very well with the original seal. The passenger side repair is still attached but the driver's side was bourne on the wind a few weeks ago!
I was going to have another go at it today and then I saw this post, so off to Wilkinsons I went! It is very easy to use but I'm not convinced this is going to stick either! I'll let you know on Tuesday when I next uncover the car!

[dapinky]

I'm keeping an eye on this thread with high hopes.....

....whilst stripping the car down for the repaint I realised my passenger door rubber was in much worse shape than i thought (well, 2 shapes, actually as it had split at the bottom and a previous owner had tried to mend it with something which set solid but only actually stuck to the door, not the seal halves).

I will be using a reasonable amount of PU sealant on the re-build, so was going to use that - but if this magic stuff works, I'll try it!

[Kathryn]

So here are the results.
(It actually looks better than in the photos!)
Before:

2014-10-05 17.00.01-1.jpg

After:

2014-10-07 14.27.18-1.jpg

2014-10-07 14.27.03-2.jpg

I had a little bit left over, so had a go at this bit:

2014-10-05 17.06.51-1.jpg

After:

2014-10-07 14.25.13-1.jpg

And I still had a tiny bit left! So I put it into the flaky roof seal corner! No before pic cos it was an afterthought!

2014-10-07 14.26.29-1.jpg

One final pic - I can't see inside the car now other than through the glass so that has got to be good!

2014-10-07 14.23.35-1.jpg

[Steve A]

Not bad, I might have to get some of that stuff
If a seal alternative doesn't materialise soon we'll all be getting some

[Jamie N]

Im pretty sure the door seal in question could be replaced by something from another vehicle, Its just a matter of getting out there and studying whats available in the yards, obviously its never going to be the case of just removing it from one car and just putting straight on our Elans, there will be mods and experimentation to be done but im certain there will be something superior to the awful scruffy mess we currently have.

I have had a look at mine with the thought of replacing it with something nicer but haven't went much further as yet, hopefully i will be able to put some time into it and report here if I can foresee any solutions, the hardest part I reckon will be the section that goes up towards the door mirror, the thing to bear in mind though is that a substitute doesn't have to be "exactly" the same shape as the original although it helps to be close, a different design can still perform the same task.

If we can find a rubber alternative for this one that will finally create a sponge free Elan, happy days.

Jamie.

[TrevorB]

Kathryn, results are looking good. Definitely a solution for 'patching up' not the complete fix. You probably use your
car more than me so it would interesting to know whether it has improved any water ingress.

I have some 'patching up' to do around the hood seals so will continue trying it out, when I get the opportunity. Now that
winter is closing in Merlot's onesie comes on.

Just a little hint on how I smoothed out once it was layered. I used the small roller that decorators use for sealing wallpaper.

Trevor