Sunday, June 18, 2006

Bad seal


Fitting a seal
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
The painting went well. A couple of small runs but nothing that really shows. In a few weeks I’ll sand and polish the job which should render it invisible. Even now it’s better than the rust bubbles.

So, emboldened by this I made a fatal mistake. Looking at the new seal for the sliding door cover, I though, “That will only take a few minutes to fit and then there will be another job done”. Lets face it all you have to do is release the gripper, drop the cover into place and tighten things up again. That’s what it says in the Haynes manual for the VW Type 2 1968 on edition. And that is never wrong is it ?!

Off comes the cover and old seal. I clean things up and grease the runners for the door. Then I fit the seal to the cover to push it back into place.

It doesn’t want to go. I push and shove but no good. Then I lose my temper and hit it hard with my hand. Success. The back end is pretty much in place.

Obviously the seal is a tight fit (good) and will take some persuasion to go in. The photo shows the persuasion going on.

Most of the job is fine but about half way along it’s not working. I manage to waggle the seal from underneath and fixing re-commences. Then the door end gets caught underneath and I have to lift the cover a bit.

Glossing over the ranting at inanimate objects that occupied the next hour, I eventually gave up. The seal had torn and wasn’t going to sit tight and be pushed into position. So I cheated and cut off rubber that goes behind the cover.

Result – I can push everything in place but the seal isn’t sealing at the door end. It looks Ok-ish for the moment but I know this is one job that is coming back to haunt me.

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