How do I get my doors to shut perfectly?

I've spent many hours working on the doors of my 37 ford to line up and close like a brand new car. Everything works great as long as there is no weatherstripping. I put the stock-type reproduction material across the top, bottom, and front, and it still closes decently. It's when I try to put some stripping along the rearward latching edge that I have problems. If I use something thick enough to stop the air from whistling through, then the door doesn't shut too well. It won't catch on the completely closed position unless I hold against the door as it closes. It just bounces back 1/4" from closed when I close it what I consider a normal effort.

I HATE that. It's something I can't ignore. What can I do to get that crisp, clean, consistent close and still be able to keep out wind noise? Weight in the door? Super soft weatherstripping? Weld them shut and climb in like Dick Trickle?

Not familiar with the '37, but can you close, (somewhat slam) the door with the weather stripping in place and leave it, so the weather stripping can take a set?

I understand the frustration with something like that. Would it be possible to move the weather stripping out closer to the door skin. Maybe a different material in that area, sand down the thickness, if the weather strip is oval in shape, try looking for something flat like used for panels found @ home depot.

Just some ideas, "Weld them shut and climb in like Dick Trickle?"
almost lost my coffee ....... very funny!!!!

look at the step in the jamb. there is no room for weatherstrip + thickness of door. same thing with the tr5 chevy truck. the doors never fit flush because of weatherstripping. no room .
to use a seal on the rear of the 37 door it must be very thin . top seal wont work .

What you describe is pretty normal, it'll take a while to get the weatherstripping to take a set. It has to be overly tight and to force itself into shape. I find i have to let out the striker a piece and then readjust over a period of time as the door closes tighter and tighter, when all is done proper that is when you get that 'chumpf' when the door closes and everything should happen in a single sound. A difficult thing to do.

Thanks for the tips.

I've actually tried two different types of stripping from Home Depot. The first was D-shaped hollow. I liked it, but it was just too small in a couple areas. You could see daylight from the inside. A slightly bigger version might work, but I haven't found it.

Most recently, I tried the solid square type. I think it was 3/8 W x 1/4 T. It sealed great, but made it too hard to close the door. Leaving the door closed for a while to let it seat helped, but if the door was open more than 30 seconds, it grew back to normal.

Andy,
Take a look at this link and then you might want to give them a call:

SoffSeal Weatherstripping & Rubber Details

you could try steel rubber

Something I've heard of but never tried:

Lay a fat bead of black RTV on the door, cover it with plastic wrap then shut the door and let it cure. When you open the door, peel off the plastic and you have a perfect seal.

Anyone tried this?

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Originally Posted by firebird77clone

Something I've heard of but never tried:

Lay a fat bead of black RTV on the door, cover it with plastic wrap then shut the door and let it cure. When you open the door, peel off the plastic and you have a perfect seal.

Anyone tried this?

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sounds like you could have a real mess rtv is a real bitch to get off paint

Quote:

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Originally Posted by firebird77clone

Something I've heard of but never tried:

Lay a fat bead of black RTV on the door, cover it with plastic wrap then shut the door and let it cure. When you open the door, peel off the plastic and you have a perfect seal.

Anyone tried this?

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Sounds interesting, but I think I'd like to see pictures of a successful install before I tried it. I could see the windshield adhesive maybe working for this, but oh what a mess if it didn't work!!

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Originally Posted by rspears

Sounds interesting, but I think I'd like to see pictures of a successful install before I tried it. I could see the windshield adhesive maybe working for this, but oh what a mess if it didn't work!!

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do not even think of using window urethane... never ,,,,, it has a self primer meaning it will stick to any thing and will do it very well . as in new car glass is part the structure its job is to hold windows in event of a hard hit or rollover and windows fail to stick people get hurt .glass urethane is much like 5200 3m if you never play with glass sealer its very nasty stuff .very hard to clean up when it drys your stripping paint to get it off .wears off your hands if you get it on them

Hey Andy, Well, it's been a whiles since I've driven mine but I didn't have a seal down the back edge of the door for the reasons Shine stated. The factory seal ran around the top & front of the door. I depended on the windlace, which was fitted around the interior side of the door to seal out wind & road noise. It seemed to work well and allowed the doors to close fine.
I bought this one-piece kit to use in this rebuild but don't have it installed. Don't know if it will be worth a hoot or not....One Piece Door Seals; fits - 1937 Tudor

until the one piece seal was used around the door. 50 i believe , the windlace was your dust seal. before the top seal there was a rain gutter on the top of the doors. water ran down onto the running board. put some clay in the door jamb and close the door. it will tell the whole story :)

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Originally Posted by rspears

Sounds interesting, but I think I'd like to see pictures of a successful install before I tried it. I could see the windshield adhesive maybe working for this, but oh what a mess if it didn't work!!

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Thought about this more a bit later, and even with RTV it wouldn't work. You need to very slightly over fill that void, and your seal is then slightly compressed when the door closes. The RTV, especially with a plastic wrap layer, would at best fill the void, but would not be compressed. I think it would just be a mess. I used Shine's clay trick on mine and found that the gap varied widely around the door, which makes it all but impossible to use any kind of continuous weatherstrip where the doors were not designed for one in the first place which may not be the case with your '37.

Yeah-don't overlook the Soffseal link.They made their rep from making seals for the older cars.

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Originally Posted by 1gary

Yeah-don't overlook the Soffseal link.They made their rep from making seals for the older cars.

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i think steel rubber has more shapes and sizes ? check out there peel-n-stick at www.steelerubber.com i used there stuff

IMHO softseal products never fit properly, perhaps because they buy the old factory tooling to make their seals, and the tooling is worn out meaning that the resulting product is too large. I have had to use a cutoff blade on a die grinder to remove as much as half the material in order make seals work on a 56 T-bird. Try Steel rubber for much better (and softer) products.

I've found that with the closed cell foam that vaseline put on the rubber and then leave the door closed a day or two, causes it to take a set that won't pop out.

I had to do that with my friends '71 Chevelle and my 77 Chevelle to get the windows to seal.

I'll look into those weatherstripping links. I've also never heard of the Vaseline trick.

Has anyone ever used springs or magnets to get the door to close better? Modern doors are spring-loaded and much heavier. They carry a good bit of momentum. Early V8 doors weigh maybe 1/4 of that and have no "help" closing, so it's no wonder it doesn't take much to keep it from closing consistently.

I was thinking about maybe using a compression spring inside the door over the door stop arm. I was also considering using some magnets along the bottom of the door or simply putting a few pounds of steel inside the door towards the rear to give it some momentum. That would be the easiest way.

Did you investigate yet if there is actually any room for a seal. They weren't designed to have any room in there, the windlace around the interior sealed the door opening. On my car the inside edge of the door actually touches the body in a couple spots, I could never get any kind of seal in there.

As Shine mentioned earlier, use some clay to provide you with a clearance measurement to act as a guide.

adding springs, weight or magnets will no change anything. you have to adjust the doors period. you need to get them set right starting with the front then work back to the latch.

There is a 1/8" to 3/16" from the top to the bottom. The main problem is that the gap is wider right at the belt line. To close that gap required some pretty thick strip that is too thick for the rest of the door.

The doors are set about as perfect as can be done. Like I said in my original post, I spent a lot of time doing that. Without any weatherstripping along the rear edge, it closes great. I'm not trying to force a misaligned door to close like a Cadillac.

then you are as good as it gets. there is no seal that i know of that works on the rear edge. if the door does not latch in the second latch it is a little tight. the first is a safety latch. one common problem is the door panel hits the kick panel. 35 to 40 is just a pia to adjust.