has anyone had problems fitting new door rubber seals on their 240z's?

[Downfall]

someone i know has a 70 240Z and he bought a whole weatherstrip kit and he was not able to use the ones for the doors as they wouldn't allow the door to close because they were too big....i don't know what kit he bought but he checked and it was a kit for a 240Z.

i want to buy a new weatherstrip kit but now i'm worried about what kit i should buy as i need new door weatherstrip? anyone have these problems?

i own a 71 240Z

[Rob]

It's pretty common for doors to be hard to close for a while after fitting new seals, until they squoosh down a bit.

Is it possible that the seals just needed squooshing time or was there no chance of the door closing?

[Harry Frigg]

It is common for the doors to be a little harder to close until the rubber "seats".

Also check to see if the doors have been adjusted a little too tight to compensate for the collapsed weather stripping.

[zed240au]

i bought some universal dor seal rubber and found it too tight to shut doors it was the one recomended for a 240z ended up buying the next size down in the range and putting the wide seal at the top for the glass area to seal on and the smaller rubber on the bottom so the door shut firmly but not too tight

has worked good you dont need to buy special rubber for this as it is a common rubber door seal used on heaps of cars should be able to go to rubber specialist and get a size similiar to the orginal

Mick

[sapruns]

I bought a weather strip kit from B.V and all of the door strips were too big. I talked to a guy from Precision Replacements and was told they use re-manufactured parts. He told me that a 78-weather strip would fit better or call MSA. MSA had the strips with the metal bands attached, the ones from B.V I had to re-use the old bands. The ones from MSA cost a little more but fit like a glove.

[peterc]

While its true that the new seals will "squish" down after a period of time, there's a limit as to how much they will "squish" and how soon. If the seals aren't fitted properly and the doors are very hard to close, you will stress the door skins, sometimes to the point of tearing the metal!

A couple of things to check for.

1/ You might have to readjust the window frames after installing new seals. If the old seals had begun to leak, a P.O. may well have adjusted the frames to get a tighter fit.

2/ If the door is VERY hard to close, i.e. "pops" open when you open it, then most likely the rubber seal is binding somewhere.

An easy way to find out is to rub lipstick on the face of the seal ( the part that is supposed to come in contact with the car body when the door is closed). Then close the door like normal. When you open the door you will see (on the car body) everywhere that the seal is making contact. It will be very obvious if and where the seal is binding.

The seals are very easy to stretch when installing them and its quite common to have them bind somewhere.

Cheers,

Peter

[Harry Frigg]

Are the OEM (Nissan) seals no longer available? I had no problem whatsoever with those. A touch more effort to close the door for about a week. Then perfect. Not a leak, not a squeek.

[Bambikiller240]

Originally posted by sapruns

I bought a weather strip kit from B.V and all of the door strips were too big. I talked to a guy from Precision Replacements and was told they use re-manufactured parts. He told me that a 78-weather strip would fit better or call MSA. MSA had the strips with the metal bands attached, the ones from B.V I had to re-use the old bands. The ones from MSA cost a little more but fit like a glove.

It is quite common for the 240Z style "Precision Products" door seals to make the doors difficult to close.

MSA sells the Precision brand seals for 280Z's (the one with the bands attached).

The OEM door seals were still available from Courtesy Nissan in the Fall of 2002, I bought a set. They do cost more than the Precision seals, but then again they also fit better too.