by 66e100pu Wed Aug 24, 2011 11:44 amI know there have been a ton of problems with the vent seals that are available (Carpenter mainly), but I needed to get a pair done and don’t have the time to hope somebody comes up with a better solution.
This is what I found…the seals are very tough to correctly seat in the channel. You think you’ve done it right, but when you peel the lip back, you’ll most likely find that it’s not fully seated in a surprising number of spots. Best way I found to start is to line up the molded “rectangle” extrusion on the back of the seal with the upper frame pivot and start from there. The seal should line up ok with the top of the frame and fit the lower curved portion fairly well. What doesn’t fit is the lower section. The seal lower pivot hole is usually off and the tail of the seal is too long. I fit the seal in the bottom part of the channel and drilled a new hole for the lower frame pivot, and I’ll cut off the excess “tail” to the proper length when they get installed in the doors. Also had to trim a little material from the latch area, but once you get it fully installed in the channel, it’s easy to see the little modifications you’ll need to make.
All sounds great until you try to close the vent and “seat” it in the weatherstrip. Unless you can bench press 500 lbs. the vent won’t be closing anytime soon! The fit is simply far too tight. I used silicone paste (not spray) liberally on the seal and got the vent seated against the seal. To hold everything in position I tightened the lower pivot nut until it locked the assembly solid, but not so tight that you snap off your lower pivot! It’s been fairly hot in So-Cal for the past month, so I left them in the back seat of my daily driver to “cook” everyday while at work. I took them out last night to check on the progress and they work like a dream. Now they open and close with normal effort. I left them in the car for 4 or 5 weeks total, and I didn’t try them during that time so I don’t really know how long it actually takes before they take a set, but I’d guess they need a significant amount of thermo cycling before they are useable.
Not the greatest solution, but it did work in a pinch and it might help someone that really needs to get the job done now. Hopefully somebody will mold seals that fit in our lifetime!
This is what I found…the seals are very tough to correctly seat in the channel. You think you’ve done it right, but when you peel the lip back, you’ll most likely find that it’s not fully seated in a surprising number of spots. Best way I found to start is to line up the molded “rectangle” extrusion on the back of the seal with the upper frame pivot and start from there. The seal should line up ok with the top of the frame and fit the lower curved portion fairly well. What doesn’t fit is the lower section. The seal lower pivot hole is usually off and the tail of the seal is too long. I fit the seal in the bottom part of the channel and drilled a new hole for the lower frame pivot, and I’ll cut off the excess “tail” to the proper length when they get installed in the doors. Also had to trim a little material from the latch area, but once you get it fully installed in the channel, it’s easy to see the little modifications you’ll need to make.
All sounds great until you try to close the vent and “seat” it in the weatherstrip. Unless you can bench press 500 lbs. the vent won’t be closing anytime soon! The fit is simply far too tight. I used silicone paste (not spray) liberally on the seal and got the vent seated against the seal. To hold everything in position I tightened the lower pivot nut until it locked the assembly solid, but not so tight that you snap off your lower pivot! It’s been fairly hot in So-Cal for the past month, so I left them in the back seat of my daily driver to “cook” everyday while at work. I took them out last night to check on the progress and they work like a dream. Now they open and close with normal effort. I left them in the car for 4 or 5 weeks total, and I didn’t try them during that time so I don’t really know how long it actually takes before they take a set, but I’d guess they need a significant amount of thermo cycling before they are useable.
Not the greatest solution, but it did work in a pinch and it might help someone that really needs to get the job done now. Hopefully somebody will mold seals that fit in our lifetime!
