Jwied
New Member
1965 Dodge Dart that is restored and the new door rubber is so stiff that closing the door is next to impossible!! Any ideas to make it work?
New Door Rubber too Stiff
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Evan Dutch
Well-Known Member
I've also wondered about this. Replaced the door seals on my old dodge truck, had to slam the door fairly hard in order for them to close, did that for about a year. They were still stiff when I sold the truck.
clifftt
Well-Known Member
Have you talked with the vendor about this?
Jwied
New Member
I did not. I will reach out to Laysons.
Assuming the windlace is installed properly, meaning the cloth covered side is towards the interior and the bare rubber side is towards the door, you can apply Vaseline petroleum jelly to the bare rubber to soften it up.
Jwied
New Member
Thanks, I had heard about the Vaseline and was not sure if it was just a old wives tale
slantsixdan
=..=
Vaseline, no, you don't want to be rotting your new rubber with a petroleum-based product like that. The right product is Sil-Glyde, but it's not going to fix the stiffness you're objecting to. Assuming the new seals are the right profile (not necessarily a valid assumption since you bought from Layson's) and are properly installed, it will take time for the new seals to take a set. You will have to slam the doors extra-hard for a few weeks, and you'll have to slam them a little less hard for a few months, but by and by you won't have to slam them any more. Same goes for installing a new trunk seal. If the doors/trunk are literally unlatchable, then the latches might have been adjusted to compensate for dead (compressed) old seals and you might have to readjust them, but otherwise don't go adjusting the latches before the new seal has taken its set; if you do, the new seals will never seat in and you'll just wind up with doors that don't line up.
My friends 66 Dart Gt has that same issue with the wind lace rubber, and its been together now for a few years (still hard to shut the doors). I think some manufactures make the rubber a little thicker, and it makes it tough to shut the doors.
leblanc
member 2883
Better yet you should have gotten ''soft seal'' weather stripping in the first place.
Well I did get soft seal and I have the same issue as stated above, on my 66 GT.
leblanc
member 2883
Sounds like something might be in misalignment or something. I have a mopar buddy that had about the same problem but after a couple months everything fell into place. Maybe summer heat helps a lot ?
Back in Time
Well-Known Member
I did mine the backyard mechanic way...stuck a block of wood between the door and the lip the seal rides on then just used door to push the lip over a little.It made a big difference and door sill covers still fit just like they should.
Jwied
New Member
Thanks
66dartgt
Well-Known Member
I had the same problem with my car. I ended up finding some good used windlace seals and installed them on the drivers side- passenger side was fine with the new repop windlace, so its probably variation in the sheet metal causing the problem.
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