70B Door Seals

[wighty]

Just wondering if anyone has come up with a better door seal solution over the Dennis Carpenter seals.  Their seals look and install very nice, but they are too thick in some places for nice door closure.  You know, the click-click type of closing, not the slam the door as hard as you can closing. I put them on my doors and then had to remove them to get the doors aligned properly. Without any seals, my doors fit and latch really nice. I am tempted to not use any seals at all,  but will probably not like that when driving.  Has anyone found a universal shape that works in this application? I had the Dennis Carpenter seals on the car for close to a year with the doors closed, hoping they would conform, but they never got any better.  From what I can tell, the other distributors of 57-58 Ford door seals are selling the same product that Carpenter is selling.

[BWhitmore]

Is it possible to carefully trim down the Carpenter seals using an exacto knife and a straight edge with a steady hand? 

[Ford Blue blood]

The door seals will "set" after a while.  I put mine in, doors would not even latch no matter what.  Used a cargo strap to pull them together.  Put a piece of steel tubing inside the door to get a larger area to pull on instead of just hooking it to the inside sheet metal.  Shop was mid 60s to 70, after two days I was able to pull them closer.  Two more days and again they moved closer.  At the end of the week I was able to close the doors with a firm shove, after six months they now close as you would think they should.  Not a two finger push like the old seals had but a light firm push on the door handle with all four fingers.

[lalessi1]

Anybody used Steele Rubber?

[Mark]

I replaced the door seals on my 64 Galaxie years ago with seals from Carpenter and to this day the only way to close the doors is to slam them HARD.  I think the original seals must have been softer. The seals on my 57 are still original and I have no thoughts of changing them and slamming doors. Funny thing I worked at the AMC plant in Kenosha along the line where the installed the doors and the seals and never saw anyone that had to slam doors. A softer compound had to be what was used.

[Wirenut]

I installed the Steele Rubber seals and had the same issue as Blue Blood, but after leaving the doors in the closed position for a few weeks they are closing descent. The pressure to shut still needs some improvement but as soon as the weather gets warm I will set the car out in the heat and let them finish conforming. I originally thought I had installed them in the wrong location since I had such a difficult time closing the doors. Since my car is a work in progress and not ready to drive, the timeline of allowing the seals to set is not an issue. If I had to do over I would have installed them in the summer. Good luck with yours.

[Limey57]

Any tips on gluing the seals in place?  Been putting off doing mine but need to get it done soon.

[Ford Blue blood]

I put them on with the doors off the car.  I use Weld Wood contact cement and small acid brushes to apply.  I do a test fit, let them sit on the doors for a day to "relax".  I like to start at the top of the door and work down the back side, then the hinge side and if all is well the bottom will fall into place. 

Like "yellow death" the Weld Wood is not very forgiving.  If you really need to pull off the seal I use liberal amounts of mineral spirits applied with a popsicle stick to pry and drip the stuff on.

[RICH MUISE]

I used the standard hd 3m weatherstrip stuff (black)..I can look up the number if you need it. It is also a contact cement requiring both surfaces to be coated. I masked off the door where I didin't want glue, applied the glue and pulled off the tape before I attached the seal in place. My drivers side seal has been on for about 2 years, and the door still needs slamming. It's probably been thru 2 summers, and being Texas, my garage gets hot in the summertime.
BTW< I was looking at various seals at Socal in Phoenix made by softseal. I was just curious because of the softseal brand. Oddly enough, seals for some vehichles were about the same as D. Carpenters as far as squishability, but others were much softer. Don't know what that's about, or if Softseal even makes seals for the '57 Fords.
Anybody ever talk to the Dennis Carpenter people at a trade show and get any other response other than basically "our parts are fine, it's you that has the problem"?

[lalessi1]

A random thought... are perimeter seals or the dog leg seals the problem?

[wighty]

From what I can tell it is the heavy or thick part of the dog leg that is the biggest problem.  I have thought about cutting that section out and replacing it with what I have left over from the trunk seal. 
By the way, I used the 3M Weatherstrip Adhesive #08011 to install the seals (doors and trunk). This stuff really works good. Because I did not like the way the doors closed, I discovered that I could, very carefully, remove the door seals with out damaging or tearing them. Now I just need to figure out how to replace them with something better or modify the Dennis Carpenter ones that I took off for easier door closing.

[RICH MUISE]

I was thinking by "dogleg" he meant the separate part that ends up partially behind the door panel which I don't think is a problem.... but yes, on mine it is the area under the windshield that has been visibly compressed over time. The area above the wing window, I can see daylight thru, but I have not done the final adjustment on the doors. In fact, the area that apparently is to thick needs to door moved inwards a bit, so it's only going to get worse.

[hiball3985]

Mine suffers from all the same problems. They were replaced by the previous owner so I don't know who the supplier was. They have been on there a good number of years and no matter how much I have tried adjusting the doors they are still hard to close but don't seal completely in some areas and the wind noise on the freeway drives me crazy. I've been wanting to replace them but that may just end up being a waste of time and money and more frustration if there isn't anything better available. I was thinking about trying the ones from Steele rather then Carpenters.

[redshoes57]

I talked to Steele a few years ago. He said that Carpenter and made parts for each other. If you look at their location they are in the same area.

[lalessi1]

That is good info. On some items like windshield rubber Steele can be very pricey. I just tend to assume they make better products since that is all they do! You just saved me a little grief and a few bucks.