door seal driving me nuts!

[Parzival]

I replaced the inner door seal on my passenger side door 3 weeks ago, and its been a real pain! I have it fully seated, I've tried soaking it in silicone as suggested by DMC, I've hit it with a rubber mallet all the way around. I cleaned it and used gummi pflege left the door closed for weeks. It still has to be slammed really hard to close. So hard my wife cant close the door, and even some of my male friends can't on the first or second try. I'm afraid at this point that I'm gonna break something if I let things go on like this. I went ahead and ordered another inner door seal, this time from delorean go (hope its different then the DMC Huston one I got) I've heard there was a new style one that Huston was selling that had their DMC logo moulded into it every few inches, but I didn't get that one in my order, and when I asked them about it they told me there was no such thing.... I swear I saw a photo of it somewhere. Ethere way, I don't care about the logo, I just want to be able to close my freaking door!
What should I do? Does anyone know if the deloreanGO inner door seal is different then DMC Huston's? My door closed fine with the old door seal. and closes fine if I remove the inner door seal.
Thanks in advance for any insight as to what is going on.

[DeLoreanGo Arran]

Yes, they are completely different seals. As you have mentioned, really make sure they are seated fully, rubber mallet all the way around. You might need to adjust the position of the striker pins from what you describe, and/or you might have other alignment issues going on with the doors. Read this thread fully (it's only 3 pages ) and it should help you out: http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?15...tallation-help

[David T]

Different vendors sell different seals and they are not all the same height. As mentioned you may need to adjust the anchor pins. When the door is closed is the surface of the door level with the adjacent panels? If it is significantly below or above the pins should be adjusted.

[Parzival]

Different vendors sell different seals and they are not all the same height. As mentioned you may need to adjust the anchor pins. When the door is closed is the surface of the door level with the adjacent panels? If it is significantly below or above the pins should be adjusted.

When the door is closed the lines of the car look good. Adjusting the pins is defiantly something that might need to happen, but I've never done it before, and the door was fine with the old seals. Now that I know the delorean go seals have less of a bulb on them, I'm gonna wait until those get here and see if that solves it. If it does not then I'm gonna have to get creative.

[Jonathan]

When you take that seal off, but before you put the new DeLoGO seal on, you can try to open and close the door with no seal installed to see if there are any other interference problems.

[dn010]

I've heard there was a new style one that Huston was selling that had their DMC logo moulded into it every few inches, but I didn't get that one in my order, and when I asked them about it they told me there was no such thing.... I swear I saw a photo of it somewhere.

Seems like whoever you talked to has no idea what is going on. Dana (DMC-81) has a photo of the seal with the DMC logo on it in his interior restoration album. I couldn't find it used in a thread to post a link to it and didn't want to pull his picture and use it as if it was my own.

[Parzival]

When you take that seal off, but before you put the new DeLoGO seal on, you can try to open and close the door with no seal installed to see if there are any other interference problems.

Closes perfect with no seal installed.

[Parzival]

Seems like whoever you talked to has no idea what is going on. Dana (DMC-81) has a photo of the seal with the DMC logo on it in his interior restoration album. I couldn't find it used in a thread to post a link to it and didn't want to pull his picture and use it as if it was my own.

Yeah Dana has the new style seal, I've seen it. But DMC Houston has pretty much said the seal they sent me is the only seal they offer, I even had the person on the phone go ask around the shop. I even emailed them photos of the difference and they have still maintained that I received the only seal they offer. That being said, I assume that their seal is a good product, but all of our cars are different. I would imagine that some cars have less lip around the body tub then others. DMC Houston's seals likely work on cars with less lip and keep the door from leaking, and everything is 100% functional. Other cars might have more lip around the tub, and those cars may benefit from the Delorean go style seals. I guess I'm gonna find out. The guys at DMC Florida tell me that some cars get new seals and its all easy going, and others are a fight to get them to function correctly when new seals are installed, and that they have to trouble shoot in those cases.
Frankly I dont care who makes the best seal, or who's are more original. I just want my wife to be able to close the door, and not to damage the car on account of how hard I have to slam it to get it to close.

[bueller]

I recently installed the DeLoreanGO ones and am very happy with the look and fit. When I bought the car, I knew it needed new seals so had bought the Houston ones. I kept putting off installing them but then heard about the newer style and decided to give it a shot. They are definitely thinner than the set I got from Houston and they look sharp on the car. You won't be unhappy.

I will tell you that I had to hit way harder than I thought I would with the rubber mallet. I thought I had the set on correctly at one point and then tried to close the door. Had the same issues with closing as you mentioned. After trying a few things with no luck, I tried hammering the hell out of it (carefully of course so as not to break anything...) and found it wasn't actually fully seated -- had maybe another 1/16 or 1/8th of an inch to go. When I got it fully seated, everything worked like a champ with closing. Not saying you're in the same boat but maybe something to check again. The thinner ones from DeLoreanGo will definitely help too.

[David T]

If you call other vendors they can get you seals of different sizes. I know PJ Grady had several sizes. On the earlier cars it can be difficult to get the right seal. Never adjust the door to fit the seal or to close tighter to compensate for an old, tired seal.