Your Recommendations for Door Seals

[ricsix]

Hello All,

 

The wind noise in my 74 02 is mighty loud on the highway, and the original door seals likely need replacing (along with any other solutions you might have).

I realize this topic has been well-discussed here, but most of the posts I've found are from years ago around the poor fit of the URO seals, I'd like to avoid that if at all possible and don't might spending a little more to have the installation go smoothly. 

Now that it's 2021, has URO fixed any fit/design issues? Is there another product I should look into?

 

As always thanks for your help my friends,

 

Ric 

Edited October 24, 2021 by ricsix

[calw]

We installed the "new" version of URO early this year (see other threads to confirm by the numbers on the package if it's the new version or the old).  These are the only door seals I've ever worked on (insert usual disclaimers here).  They are tight but the doors do close with some slamming that seems to decrease with use.  Not the same as closing the door of a modern car, but I don't think that was the case when new either, based on hearsay.  When first installed, I had to find a balance in the tightness of the driver door mirror- too tight and the mirror wanted to bend the door sheet metal when adjusting it, too loose and it went out of adjustment every time you closed the door.  That "feature" of the door system leads me to believe that these seals must be tighter than the OEM as when the car was new.   The doors also still slightly bulge outward at the bottom when closed, but I haven't thought about tackling that issue- it seems like a too fat seal might cause some of that problem, and I don't recall an obvious way to "tilt" the door bottom inward.  No problems with wind noise.  We did have to go thru several tries to get the bottom of the vertical parts to actually stick to the body- the answer is to clean off the mold release gunk carefully, then do it again, and again.  See other threads about what cleaner to use, the gunk is tenacious.

[Mike Self]

Hint to our parts suppliers...

 

The only part of those door gaskets that actually deteriorate--or at least are the first part to deteriorate--is the section that seals the trailing edge of the door glass to the body.  The rest of the gasket may be perfect, but that piece--with its lip--starts to crumble within a few years of installation.  

 

Someone...(hint hint) could sell a boatload of just that door glass seal portion of the entire perimeter seal.  If you look closely at the seal, it's actually made of several parts glued together, so should be (relatively) easy to reproduce.  I'd take two sets!

 

mike

[ricsix]

7 hours ago, calw said:

We installed the "new" version of URO early this year (see other threads to confirm by the numbers on the package if it's the new version or the old).  These are the only door seals I've ever worked on (insert usual disclaimers here).  They are tight but the doors do close with some slamming that seems to decrease with use.  Not the same as closing the door of a modern car, but I don't think that was the case when new either, based on hearsay.  When first installed, I had to find a balance in the tightness of the driver door mirror- too tight and the mirror wanted to bend the door sheet metal when adjusting it, too loose and it went out of adjustment every time you closed the door.  That "feature" of the door system leads me to believe that these seals must be tighter than the OEM as when the car was new.   The doors also still slightly bulge outward at the bottom when closed, but I haven't thought about tackling that issue- it seems like a too fat seal might cause some of that problem, and I don't recall an obvious way to "tilt" the door bottom inward.  No problems with wind noise.  We did have to go thru several tries to get the bottom of the vertical parts to actually stick to the body- the answer is to clean off the mold release gunk carefully, then do it again, and again.  See other threads about what cleaner to use, the gunk is tenacious.

Thanks calw, very helpful and good advice about getting the mold release off

[Conserv]

I would place my money on OEM door seals, but wouldn’t expect perfection. I would, instead, expect fewer surprises with OEM seals.

 

My 76’s passenger door — 3 years after its repaint and new OEM seals — requires focus to shut fully. The driver’s door works perfectly, and worked perfectly within a few months of installation.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

 

 

 

[irdave]

14 hours ago, Conserv said:

I would still place my money on OEM door seals. But, I admit, my ‘76’s passenger door — 3 years after its repaint and new OEM seals — requires focus to shut fully. The driver’s door works perfectly, and worked perfectly within a few months of installation.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

My '72 doors would close just perfectly all the time.  My '76, on the other hand, requires some 'focus' to get the doors to close- new OE gasket on the passenger side, old gasket Jim gave me that didn't work for him on the driver's side.  Wife did comment that it was noticeably quieter after the new gasket though, and she said it was easier to close.

 

I'm going to a new OE gasket for the driver's side at some point.

Edited October 25, 2021 by irdave

[ricsix]

I’m leaning towards the OE gaskets as well, it seems like less risk. 

[Jdddrigot]

I took care of my wind noise for less than $20. No after picture on my phone but it looks “fair to midland”.

[Dick R]

I'm very interested in the seal strip shown in the last posting.  I'm assuming that this takes the place of the edge protection around the door frame where it attaches - I can't envision how you could have both this and the edge protection clamping on the the metal at the same time.

 

Can you shed some light on this?  Also, an "after" picture would be appreciated as well.

 

Thanks.  It looks like a terrific low-cost solution. 

[zambo]

W&N are running a special on LHS door seals last time I looked, for anyone that’s interested - OEM. RHS not currently available. 

[David Layton]

I messed up the OEM RHS door seal, so right now, I have OEM on the drivers and URO on the passenger.  The drivers door closes with the right amount of effort, the URO requires a slam.  I still have my outstanding order for the OEM RHS which I will replace the URO.  There are about 1,100 of the OEM RHS in a warehouse in Germany.  They simply have not shipped any.  

[Jdddrigot]

[popovm]

On 10/28/2021 at 5:57 PM, Jdddrigot said:

Just bought this because your post. Hopefully will also work for me. Did you glue it in or just press it on? https://www.ebay.com/itm/14-feet-Rubber-Car-Door-Seal-Weatherstrip-Body-Mounted-Front-Left-or-Right-/114486363445?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0

[Jdddrigot]

10 hours ago, popovm said:

Just bought this because your post. Hopefully will also work for me. Did you glue it in or just press it on? https://www.ebay.com/itm/14-feet-Rubber-Car-Door-Seal-Weatherstrip-Body-Mounted-Front-Left-or-Right-/114486363445?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0

Just press it on. Pay attention to the transitions and try to do a better job than I did. 

[TobyB]

Quote

Someone...(hint hint) could sell a boatload of just that door glass seal portion of the entire perimeter seal.

 

https://www.carparts.com/jc-whitney

 

Back when there was a JC Whitney, their $6.99 universal 'low profile' stick- on gasket worked great-

 

cut the rotten window perimeter off with a razor blade, leaving the hard rubber base, add some 3M

black Gasket and Trim adhesive, and then fit the gasket.

If you precut it right, the adhesive can be used to miter the corners and everything.

Low pressure, but sealed 87,5% of the whistling and stuff.  Adjusting the window can get it to 95%,

if you get the vent window frame right, and replace the U- channel that the glass rides in.

 

You want the lightest profile, smallest stuff you can find.  And sometimes even that needs to be cut down.

 

t

gave up on that shit and bashed the windows all out for that 'al frescoe' feeling.