OE door seals...do these need to be trimmed?

[ollie]

Ok so I was one of those who threw down for Vintage Rubber kit and was less than impressed. All the seals fit OK except for the doors and the rear hatch seals so I scoured and spent $$$ for OE in these areas. Anyway I think the door seals I ended up with are likely for a 280 but whatever, they fit well and the issue with the VR seals is the metal U is ever so slightly thicker than the OE one therefore I, too, experienced the door slamming issues in spite of trying every trick in the book to sort it out.

Anyway I installed one of the seals today and it seems like it is about 1.5" to long...the seal is on perfectly so the only thing I can think of is this needs to be trimmed off, is that the same experience others had? There is a small section at the end of the seal that does not have the metal U in it, only the seal portion if that makes any sense…but it seems like this and the 1.5” portion of the U shaped metal potion needs to be cut off. In short, the new seal is about 3” longer than the Vintage Rubber one.

BTW I ditched the inner and outer hatch seals which was a real pita to install but the hatch sits a lot less proud now. I think the adhesive glue is finally scraped off my fingertips.

[psdenno]

I had to trim a few inches off mine on my '71.

Dennis

[ollie]

That is great, thanks a lot for the confirmation. There did not seem to be any alternative but wanted to confirm before the tin snips made an appearance.

[psdenno]

Just remember.....Measure Twice, Cut Once.

Dennis

[AZ-240z]

When you trim these rubber door weatherstrip seals, I strongly recommend doing two things. First, make sure that the weatherstrip is firmly seated

in all of the corners and the rubber has not been stretched at all during installation.

Then, when trimming, leave about 1/4 " longer. The rubber will compress for a nice tight fit, and this will also allow for any future shrinkage on the

rubber. I did this on my NOS '70 door weatherstips, and the fit is so nice that there is no need for any adhesive to connect the ends. I also used a

razor sharp exacto type blade that pretty much melted through the rubber for a perfect 90 degree cut that made for an almost invisible jointing of the

ends.

Edited October 29, 2014 by AZ-240z