Door moulding rubber refresh

[britlude]

As mentioned in my build thread, the rubber seal between the door and glass has shrunk in length on the drivers side, and a bit of a refresh was in order. The passenger side is ok, but I’ve looked at replacing both rubbers….

Here’s the drivers side at the door handle end, you can see where I’ve added a filler piece to keep some of the weather out…
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn41/thisYup/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-04-2609.jpg (http://s301.photobucket.com/user/thisYup/media/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-04-2609.jpg.html)

and at the front end, the rubber has pulled back a little too
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn41/thisYup/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-04-2608.jpg (http://s301.photobucket.com/user/thisYup/media/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-04-2608.jpg.html)

with the moulding removed and the filler piece taken off, you can see just how much it’s shrunk…
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn41/thisYup/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-04-2611.jpg (http://s301.photobucket.com/user/thisYup/media/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-04-2611.jpg.html)

and the seals profile…
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn41/thisYup/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-04-2612.jpg (http://s301.photobucket.com/user/thisYup/media/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-04-2612.jpg.html)

[britlude]

now, I purchased some universal seals, ones that match the length of the OEM seal, so that the door handle rubber meets flush…. Here’s the original, the new, and the new with a cut down mounting piece….
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn41/thisYup/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-04-2614.jpg (http://s301.photobucket.com/user/thisYup/media/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-04-2614.jpg.html)

the original rubber was carefully removed (just in case!) and the new compared!
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn41/thisYup/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-04-2620.jpg (http://s301.photobucket.com/user/thisYup/media/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-04-2620.jpg.html)

the new trim was bonded on… and clamped!
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn41/thisYup/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-04-2615.jpg (http://s301.photobucket.com/user/thisYup/media/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-04-2615.jpg.html)

to give this….
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn41/thisYup/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-05-2628.jpg (http://s301.photobucket.com/user/thisYup/media/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-05-2628.jpg.html)

all looks good, the new seal tucks into the moulding as per OEM, the OEM clips can still fit without interference and all is well!

That was until it was fitted…..

… unfortunately the new seal lip was too ‘horizontal’. That is, the seal put too much pressure on the window itself, and rather than the rubber deflecting it was pushing the glass over too much. So much so that the window didn’t want to move smoothly up, and sufficient pressure for the rubber (despite being flocked) to grip and tuck in as the window was dropped! So all fine in theory, but not so much in practice! Basically the rubber was too stiff given it’s mounting flange and too horizontal compared to the original seal.. (check the angle in the pics above.) given a bit more time, I’m sure I could trim the mounting strip off the new seals, and fine tune the seal angle by pushing it further into the mounting extrusion!

SO, it was to plan B..

obviously I was trying to be too complicated as plan B was always the simple solution!

I cleaned the original seals, to remove the dirt that had accumulated on the rubber in the extrusion grooves and utilised the rubber properties of rubber! Working out where the front end of the rubber has to be, this end was inserted into the moulding with a dot of super glue to anchor it, and the rest of the rubber fitted with a bit of tension, stretching the rubber. Once I was satisfied the rubber ended flush at the end of the moulding another dot of superglue fixed this end too. The bottom edge of the rubber was fitted over the moulding and the job complete!

So the result was no more gap, original rubber re-used, and a bit more knowledge added to the pot!

Door moulding seals, if shrunk 15mm can be eased back to length without any issues! (disclaimer… in this case!!!)

[britlude]

....so the end result.....
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn41/thisYup/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-07-2643.jpg (http://s301.photobucket.com/user/thisYup/media/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-07-2643.jpg.html)

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn41/thisYup/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-07-2644.jpg (http://s301.photobucket.com/user/thisYup/media/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-07-2644.jpg.html)

... no more gaps! (and a little bit of chip touching up required.....)

[TheSebringOne]

Congratulations on another fine job! That explains why the other side was alright.

[britlude]

no idea why one side had shrunk, and the other not!!!

[Problem Child]

now, I purchased some universal seals, ones that match the length of the OEM seal, so that the door handle rubber meets flush…. Here’s the original, the new, and the new with a cut down mounting piece….
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn41/thisYup/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-04-2614.jpg (http://s301.photobucket.com/user/thisYup/media/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-04-2614.jpg.html)

the original rubber was carefully removed (just in case!) and the new compared!
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn41/thisYup/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-04-2620.jpg (http://s301.photobucket.com/user/thisYup/media/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-04-2620.jpg.html)

the new trim was bonded on… and clamped!
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn41/thisYup/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-04-2615.jpg (http://s301.photobucket.com/user/thisYup/media/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-04-2615.jpg.html)

to give this….
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn41/thisYup/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-05-2628.jpg (http://s301.photobucket.com/user/thisYup/media/nsx%20stuff/nsx%20door%20rubbers/2013-05-05-2628.jpg.html)

all looks good, the new seal tucks into the moulding as per OEM, the OEM clips can still fit without interference and all is well!

That was until it was fitted…..

… unfortunately the new seal lip was too ‘horizontal’. That is, the seal put too much pressure on the window itself, and rather than the rubber deflecting it was pushing the glass over too much. So much so that the window didn’t want to move smoothly up, and sufficient pressure for the rubber (despite being flocked) to grip and tuck in as the window was dropped! So all fine in theory, but not so much in practice! Basically the rubber was too stiff given it’s mounting flange and too horizontal compared to the original seal.. (check the angle in the pics above.) given a bit more time, I’m sure I could trim the mounting strip off the new seals, and fine tune the seal angle by pushing it further into the mounting extrusion!

SO, it was to plan B..

obviously I was trying to be too complicated as plan B was always the simple solution!

I cleaned the original seals, to remove the dirt that had accumulated on the rubber in the extrusion grooves and utilised the rubber properties of rubber! Working out where the front end of the rubber has to be, this end was inserted into the moulding with a dot of super glue to anchor it, and the rest of the rubber fitted with a bit of tension, stretching the rubber. Once I was satisfied the rubber ended flush at the end of the moulding another dot of superglue fixed this end too. The bottom edge of the rubber was fitted over the moulding and the job complete!

So the result was no more gap, original rubber re-used, and a bit more knowledge added to the pot!

Door moulding seals, if shrunk 15mm can be eased back to length without any issues! (disclaimer… in this case!!!)Genius! I like the clothes pegs. I don't have them in my NSX toolkit!