Bay Window Bus Door Seal Installation Tips

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Amskeptic
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Bay Window Bus Door Seal Installation Tips

Post by Amskeptic » Sun Sep 23, 2018 8:10 am

The "DNA" of replacement parts is getting more and more erroneous.

The high-quality door seals I have run across have different dimensions from example to example, I do not know how or why this is unless there are different manufacturers of the same part.

There are a few important aspects to improving your chances for a successful door seal installation that does not beat up your poor door latch:

a) it is critical to clean all old adhesive from the channels, down to the paint. This is laborious, and can damage the paint if you get too aggressive.

b) the seal must be fully seated evenly around the perimeter of the door. If you see any wavy edges, go back and checking seating as well as deviations in the "stretch" which should actually be bunched. I stretch the seal just at the insertion point, then stuff it hard towards the already installed portion, this is to make sure you don't have "excess" at the corners. If you insert consistently, bunch evenly, no waves, nice corners, then ...

c) the bottom corners can be a bitch, but you have to get this right. The front lower corner has a nice curved ramp and the seal is going to want to slip up around the corner due to tension. No! No! You get your adhesive nice and tacky, really, let it almost dry on the door and the seal, then apply a light "re-activation layer" of adhesive to the seal itself, let it get slightly tacky and install seal so it is absolutely seated on the very most outside perimeter of the corner fully seated in the groove. Hold it here. This edge likes to creep up around the curve, so once you have a seat, shut the door for a few hours. If this surface is not fully seated (at the door stay especially), you will have a ridiculous springiness as the door attempts to shut.

d) the door stay has a problematic rectangular opening. You look at the seal and think, "isn't that a nice touch? little barbs to hold it in the opening." Ah no. One of the sides of the rectangular opening has this maddening refusal to allow the barb to catch. Then the seal buckles and bunches here. Forget pretty, just get the seal to lay flat. Note that this entire run from the bottom corner up to the a-pillar, is the only part of the seal that has a compression 90* off from the rest of the seal. Every other part of the seal is pressed towards the door itself. The front run is pressed towards the rear of the car. Make a note, the seal must be seated as fully as possible along the front edge of the door pressing towards the rear of the car when the door is shut. If this surface is not fully seated (at the door stay especially), you will have a ridiculous springiness as the door attempts to shut.

e) By all means relax the door striker during seal seat-in. The factory adjustment for almost all German vehicles of this vintage suggested a 1/2mm protrusion of the trailing edge of the door panel and a 1/2mm indentation at the leading edge (this to reduce wind noise).
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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Happyfolk
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Re: Bay Window Bus Door Seal Installation Tips

Post by Happyfolk » Mon Sep 24, 2018 10:29 am

This and the door stay refurb instructions that you recently posted are exactly what I needed! :cheers: Thanks Colin!

Mike
79 CA FI Westy
Mexico Beige
"Sandy"

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zabo
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Re: Bay Window Bus Door Seal Installation Tips

Post by zabo » Mon Sep 24, 2018 3:28 pm

i made the mistake of buying one of bus depots “cheaper” seals. i had to cut out a 4inch section and glue it back together on the bottom edge. Since then i have purchased 2 of the more expensive seals and they fit much better.
60 beetle
78 bus

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JLT
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Re: Bay Window Bus Door Seal Installation Tips

Post by JLT » Mon Oct 30, 2023 12:36 pm

zabo wrote:
Mon Sep 24, 2018 3:28 pm
i made the mistake of buying one of bus depots “cheaper” seals. i had to cut out a 4inch section and glue it back together on the bottom edge. Since then i have purchased 2 of the more expensive seals and they fit much better.
I just replaced the two door seals on the front of George. For the driver's side, I bought the German one from Wolfsburg West for $100.94. For the passenger side, I bought the "OEM Volkswagen" weatherstrip from Bus Depot for $19.95. Why? I was curious about the differences, since I'd heard different things from different people. I figured that if the cheaper one didn't hold up, the twenty bucks I spent were the cost of educating myself, and I would buy the more expensive one next time. And I figured that the driver's side would get far more usage than the passenger side.

The $100 one was easier to install, since the corner moldings were all in place. I couldn't find Colin's beloved "yellow" weatherstrip adhesive, which does not seem to be for sale in California, so I used the 3M black stuff instead. I used the adhesive only on the corners and where there were no channels for the door seals to fit into.

I found the installation of the $20 one a bit harder, since I had to make sure there was absolutely no stretching of the seal. Again, I used the adhesive only on the doors and channel-less areas. Before I glued it in place, I used blue masking tape to temporarily hold the seal in place, making sure that it fitted all the way around without sag. (That was a tip I gleaned from a write-up of the procedure on the Samba.I did have just a few "wavy" sections, but I'm hoping that they go away once the door is closed for a while.

I followed Colin's method scrupulously and had no real issues with the installation on either side.

My next mission is to replace the rubber seals on all the windows in the doors. I see that Colin has done his usual masterful write-ups on the procedure:
https://www.itinerant-air-cooled.com/vi ... +2#p199017

https://www.itinerant-air-cooled.com/vi ... ow#p222362

Now all I have to do is get my courage up to actually do the work.
-- JLT
Sacramento CA

Present bus: '71 Dormobile Westie "George"
(sometimes towing a '65 Allstate single-wheel trailer)
Former buses: '61 17-window Deluxe "Pink Bus"
'70 Frankenwestie "Blunder Bus"
'71 Frankenwestie "Thunder Bus"

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Amskeptic
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Re: Bay Window Bus Door Seal Installation Tips

Post by Amskeptic » Sun Nov 19, 2023 9:03 am

I will be interested to see how the right side is doing in a year's time. Slippery ad-speak makes it difficult to know what we are getting sometimes.
My brazilian Type 3 door seal ($39.99) exploded into thousands of tiny little cracks along the outer perimeter after only six months of sitting in a storage unit. Replaced with genuine German for $139.00 ea, and they are perfect after 17 years.
The replacement German door seals ($79.00) on Chloe are perfect after 16 years.
The original German door seals on the BobD are perfect after 46 years. Go figure.
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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