opening and closing doors with new door seals

[DMCMW Dave]

When I sprayed it, the door closed fine. Got to work and the rubber is sticky, cant even get it closed all the way. I also noticed that I cant get it over the edge nearest to the sesat belt mount behind my head. It keeps slipping off.

Somehow I dont remember door seals being this challenging!

I've never had luck with the spray liquid stuff - goes away too fast.

Can you post a picture of "I cant get it over the edge nearest to the seat belt mount" as I can't visualize that. Is a chunk of fiberglass missing?

[alexwolf1216]

I've never had luck with the spray liquid stuff - goes away too fast.

Can you post a picture of "I cant get it over the edge nearest to the seat belt mount" as I can't visualize that. Is a chunk of fiberglass missing?

Yea ill walk out there now.

[alexwolf1216]

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1423763597.501022.jpg
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1423763612.556439.jpg

[PJ Grady Inc.]

Hi Alex,
Winzer and Wurth both sell rubber care products that work the best for this purpose but they only sell to the trades if I'm not mistaken. We carry it so you could order it from us if you'd like to try it.
Your problems are more than a shot of lubricant will completely solve if you're breaking door handles from the binding you're having. Solving the door fit issues on such cars is a somewhat complicated process that involves grinding and recontouring the body edges where the surround seals rest on the body. It requires grinding equipment and a good quality respirator to do it safely. It also requires some real skill with a die grinder to avoid doing more harm than good and for these reasons I've decided it's best not to post a "how to" here lest some people get themselves in trouble with the procedure. After the grinding process the door strikers often need to be reshimed and adjusted to obtain the maximum benefits. All of this is best left to experienced hands.
Rob Grady

So I applied some spray silicone lubricant but all it did was get sticky on me. The link provided doesnt work, so I am wondering if there might be a different product I need to apply? I broke my door handle trying to get the door open...

[alexwolf1216]

The old seals closed beautifully. Sad face.

[DMCMW Dave]

The old seals closed beautifully. Sad face.

Probably because the part that would rub was torn away.

[alexwolf1216]

Probably because the part that would rub was torn away.

Hey, noone likes a know-it-all

[Jonathan]

Alex, where is your start/finish line with the door seals? Are you tying the two ends together at about where the door lights plungers are?

You might want to release the new door seal completely along the lower side from that starting/ending point back to where this spot is you are struggling with in the photo. It looks like you might not have given yourself enough slack for it to sit down on the lip of the fiberglass. To me it looks like it's getting pulled off the lip by the portion below it. Basically shift everything a small amount towards that problem area so you have a bit more seal to play with. You want there to be excess material to compress in the corners as you go around and not too little such that it needs to stretch. If there's too little, it'll pull itself away from the lip.

[alexwolf1216]

Alex, where is your start/finish line with the door seals? Are you tying the two ends together at about where the door lights plungers are?

You might want to release the new door seal completely along the lower side from that starting/ending point back to where this spot is you are struggling with in the photo. It looks like you might not have given yourself enough slack for it to sit down on the lip of the fiberglass. To me it looks like it's getting pulled off the lip by the portion below it. Basically shift everything a small amount towards that problem area so you have a bit more seal to play with. You want there to be excess material to compress in the corners as you go around and not too little such that it needs to stretch. If there's too little, it'll pull itself away from the lip.

Yes, by the plungers. It seems too thick in that one spot, but I will give it a shot. New doorhandles should be in today so I can work on it this weekend

[Jonathan]

Another quick check you can do is see that your doors open and close without interference while you have the door seal completely removed. That's often more of a check while you're doing striker pin/door alignments, but if you already have your seals off (and once your door handles are back together) give it a go and you might notice a problem area more easily. Maybe, maybe not. Simple thing to check though.