Like everyone else I’ve lived with a very badly fitting, hard to close door on my 1971 Sprint DHC.
It had new Paul Matty seals fitted when I bought her in 1983 and they were never right. I’d binned the original ones when I bought the car - they were falling apart anyway so probably beyond any sensible hope of refurbishment. Fast forward 38 years and the PM seals (are in great nick) but have still not compressed enough. I guess they never will.
Inspired to “try” something out, I bought 7m of “Medium black rubber car edge protective trim 15.5mm x 11mm” from The Metal House Store on Amazon. £24.43 delivered.
It’s a remarkably good fit, edges the carpet/bodyshell nicely and, not surprisingly, resolves the door fit problem.
I’ve not ventured out in the monsoon season yet - but then again I never do. If it rains when I’m out, the hood remains down and I get wet. I really am not worried about having watertight doors so, for me, the edging strip is a suitable workaround.
It also occurs to me that I may well be able to source some thin, high-density black foam “weatherstrip” that I could use to form an effective seal “if I wanted to”. This material seems widely available and, with a bit of trial and error, may take me another step forward.
Not a perfect solution but I’m pleased with the improvement until the perfect answer comes along.
I’ve just fitted a door seal from Woolies which has a near identical profile to the original. The lip covering is an imitation woven plastic rather than the original cotton weave, but the open-seal fit is spot on. Fitting takes a bit of time but pretty straight forward.
Intriguing - I ordered a sample of the self same Woolies material but decided it probably wouldn’t crush down enough. Had you tried the Paul Matty type of seal previously or was this your first trial?
It was the first one I’d done. It has been recommended by a few on here over the years, and the only one I could find that had the ‘flap’ seal rather than being a fully enclosed tube…they certainly won’t allow the door to close!
I got my flap seal from Sue Miller. The painters said it was the best fit they’d seen.
Doors close snugly with little effort.
I don’t intend to go out in the rain, but I will wash the car, so need to stop the water getting in.
Ian
I re-shaped the doors of my 1967 Elan in 2014 as part of a rebuild/respray and got them fitting perfectly, only to find the heels pushed out again once the seals were fitted. I have experimented with various different products, both the closed bubble type and the flap type, but have yet to find one that is entirely satisfactory. Those that are stiff enough to seal the gap and cushion the door push the heels out, while those that are flexible enough to prevent such distortion do not seal properly. Moreover, the U-channel that grips the seam needs to be sufficiently robust to accommodate the fibreglass seam together with the edge of the carpet, and follow the curves around the aperture without distorting; most of the products I have tried have channels with insufficient width and/or depth, resulting in a less than satisfactory appearance. I am currently running with a type DX73 profile by COH Baines. This is a fairly flexible flap-type seal with a generously sized grip that looks very neat. However, this is a compromise solution as it still pushes out the door heels slightly and lets in the draughts. I think I have proved to myself that there is nothing out there that is just right (unless anyone knows better?) so I might just try the U-channel suggested by XKR and accept that cold, wet legs are the price you and your passenger have to pay for being silly enough to take to the road in cold, wet weather. Happy days!
Bill
LOL: At least the Elan has a great heater. Our Elise S1 by comparison has a feeble affair which is compounded by the fact that the “outlet” is directed very significantly towards the driver - passenger-friendly it certainly isn’t.
In the 38 years I’ve had the Elan and the 20 for the Elise I can still probably count on one hand the times I’ve had either roof on. Being cold and wet goes with the turf - we’re (some of us anyway) British after all!
Back to the Elan - I’ll be looking to see if I can add some material in discreet areas (maybe underneath the door) to provide some cushioning/sealing and to kill the odd rattle from the striker over poor surfaces that I’ve now introduced.
The quest continues but I’m very much happier with the visual aspect now.
The roll cage is by Spyder. I had to modify it slightly as the two bracing struts didn’t fit properly but apart from that it’s fine and gives you a safe reassuring feel when driving fast. As you can see from the attached rear view, I have found it useful for attaching a dashcam, which now has the advantage of recording driver, passenger and instruments as well as the road ahead. This photo also shows my home-made wind buffer, fashioned from garden seat cushions wedged behind the roll cage and covered with a black cloth; this is very effective at stopping the cold wind in the back of your neck and, along with Spyder’s adjustable headrests, makes for a very cosy cockpit, and doesn’t impede rearward vision.
Bill
I noted the comments about the COBaines product and was reminded that their rep came to see me over a seal for a hardtop on another make of car. The reason for the visit was because the usual seal they supplied (Similar to most of the other suppliers) was causing chaffing and marking of the paintwork as the hardtop moved during driving, as they all do to a greater or lesser degree.
The hardtop had its original 50 year old seal still in place and we determined that the profile of the replacement was very slightly different from the original, but more importantly the Shore hardness factor of the rubber was possibly harder on the replacement, which was the potential reason for the the chaffing issue, together with fit of course. The rep went back to HQ and spoke with the technicians regarding production of the seal but with a lower (softer) Shore factor. However it transpired that they would need to manufacture a new mould (not sure why as we talked about just changing the material which could have gone through the existing mould, or so you would think), which for a one off job worked out quite expensive.
However it occurs to me that given Elan owners search for the Holy Grail of door seals, whether there would be enough people willing to buy such seals and make it worthwhile getting some made that do the job satisfactorily, may be worth looking into. Certainly Baines were happy to come down and talk about the possibility rather than just close the door on the idea.
The website below makes for interesting reading regarding Shore hardness but also there are a couple of seals with dimensions that look similar to the original seals, the second site shows the flap type seal which I think was an original fit at one point, but also gives some interesting info on compression values,
From memory the cost of the mould was around £750, so as you can see there would need to be a good number of buyers to make it viable, unless those with very good contacts in the Elan supply world could persuade one of them to stump up the cash.
Here is the COH Baines despatch note for the DX73 seal. Maybe they have discontinued it? The Phoenix Trim Company and Sue Miller supply one that looks the same but they are both stiffer than the Baines version.
Bill
I had a quick look to see what is available from independent firms and I was quite impressed (no affiliation) with “edgetrims.co.uk”.
Their range is quite wide and interested me as they offer different colours and closed cell foam rubber for the draught seal at the front of the door (that I picked up on while watching Paul Haigh’s marvellous production on You Tube).
The only aspect missing are the Shore values but they may be able to reply on this subject.
