Door seals

[Grumblebuns]

Anyone here:
1.  Own a Europa?
2.  Have a camera or cell phone with a camera?
3.  Seals that are either proper/used/perfect?
4.  A ruler or tape measure?
5.  15 minutes to snap a pix and take a measurement?
6.  Post the results?

If so, we can solve this seal problem and ALL have happy doors!!

My S2 has very good sealing doors. I'll try to get some pictures and details later on today.

On another note, there was a similar discussion on the Yahoo list and this vendor was mentioned as having the correct seals.

http://www.macgregorukcarparts.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=Lotus-Europa 

Just suggesting Me

[kerrywittig]

I have no seals.
I am away on business for the next few weeks, so no car available.
So even though I have a camera and tape measure in hand......I have NO car or seals.....
Just have many free hours to source and search and call merchants to see if they have a quality substitute.
Asking for info that's all, just trying to help, my bad....

Just trying to help ME....WTF

[BDA]

As I posted before, I got my seals a long time ago and I suspect they came from r.d., though they could have come from Dave Bean or Richard - those were the major sources of Lotus parts for my car.

My doors close but as John mentioned earlier, they don't seal very well. I suspect that the passenger door could be adjusted much better, but the driver's door looks very good to me and it doesn't seal that much better than the passenger door.

I've attached some pictures of the door seal I had left over. The part that clamps on the door "frame" is covered in a cloth. The "thickness" - measured along the cloth side of the entire seal is about 0.6". If you measure from the cloth side to the edge of the "seal" it is roughly 0.8" or 0.9" (in the first picture, the 0.6" is measured roughly vertically and the 0.9" is measured roughly horizontally. 

In case they are different, these are for my TCS.

I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions.

[kerrywittig]

BDA comes through!!

BDA and myself just has a nice telephone chat and I now have, I hope, enough info and pix to make this happen...

Standby for a proper seal...I hope!

I see seals in my future Me

[4129R]

I have bought several sets from Banks Europa.

Provided the carpet is held to the door sills with wide tape, the rubber seals go on with tapping from the handle of a hammer.

All you have to do is cut a 45' angle x 2 for the top square corner for a good fit.

Alex in Norfolk.

[kerrywittig]

I have bought several sets from Banks Europa.

Provided the carpet is held to the door sills with wide tape, the rubber seals go on with tapping from the handle of a hammer.

All you have to do is cut a 45' angle x 2 for the top square corner for a good fit.

Alex in Norfolk.

Alex, they seal properly? The doors close well without applying undue pressure to compress the seals?

If that's the case then Bank's is a no brainer.............Only one problem.....

I've called trans-atlantic twice, sent 4 requests for parts with a list ($3000-4000 USD total) in the past 30 days and have yet to get any response........say they are busy preparing and campaigning a race car. Looks like they have lots of what I need just don't have the time to gather, quote pricing, bill me, get paid and ship it...

Thanks for the insight....if I could only get them to sell me some!!

Still waiting Me

[jbcollier]

You are not going to find, or make, a seal that will fit all Europas perfectly.  Some Europas were tight and leak free, some were so bad they finished their days as colanders in Italian restaurants.  Adjust your doors to fit as best as possible without any seals installed.  Then examine things carefully and choose the seal, or combination there of, that suits your gaps.

[3929R]

I think Joji's reply above got buggered up. I think it should have looked like this-

Anyone here:
1.  Own a Europa?
2.  Have a camera or cell phone with a camera?
3.  Seals that are either proper/used/perfect?
4.  A ruler or tape measure?
5.  15 minutes to snap a pix and take a measurement?
6.  Post the results?

If so, we can solve this seal problem and ALL have happy doors!!

Just suggesting Me

My S2 has very good sealing doors. I'll try to get some pictures and details later on today.

On another note, there was a similar discussion on the Yahoo list and this vendor was mentioned as having the correct seals.

http://www.macgregorukcarparts.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=Lotus-Europa 

[kerrywittig]

You are not going to find, or make, a seal that will fit all Europas perfectly.  Some Europas were tight and leak free, some were so bad they finished their days as colanders in Italian restaurants.  Adjust your doors to fit as best as possible without any seals installed.  Then examine things carefully and choose the seal, or combination there of, that suits your gaps.

Thanks for the enthusiasm and encouragement......................??

Shaking my head in disbelief Me

[kerrywittig]

[/quote]
My S2 has very good sealing doors. I'll try to get some pictures and details later on today.

On another note, there was a similar discussion on the Yahoo list and this vendor was mentioned as having the correct seals.

http://www.macgregorukcarparts.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=Lotus-Europa 
[/quote]
[/quote]
Thanks for the positive interest JJ

For some reason I can not access the yahoo group.........

No yahoo fo ME

[EuropaTC]

For some reason I can not access the yahoo group.........

No yahoo fo ME

If you can't get onto Yahoo then try the knowledgebase which is a database of all the Europa Group posts.

It looks dated but works very well, just put in "door seals" as the subject and you'll get a page full of hits.  If you've not used it before, the interface works a bit like the "frames" of old, you hit the topic on the LHS and the content comes up in the RHS frame.  Usually you get so many hits with only a few being relevant today, but with a bit of time you'll get a comprehensive view of how a topic has evolved. 

http://lotus-europa.com/ekb.html

[4129R]

Can I just say that the Banks replacements seem as good as the originals were when they left the factory.

[EuropaTC]

Can I just say that the Banks replacements seem as good as the originals were when they left the factory.

as bad as that eh ?   

Edit to add.....     I wasn't aware there was anything special about the door seals apart from the originals had a nice sharp corner at the top of the door frame. If anyone in the UK is looking for seals, I found this place to have the best online catalogue;

http://www.sealsdirect.co.uk/shopping.asp?intDepartmentId=68

Door seals are quite a bit down the page, lots of options to choose from.

[jjbunn]

I bought some of these: http://www.amazon.com/Trim-Lok-3100B3X1-4A-25-Aluminum-Diameter/dp/B00NL40XTK/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 which arrived this week and I just tried fitting.

They fit quite nicely: I can actually shut the doors with them in place! However, I think the bulb could do with being a bit larger - it is 3/8" in diameter - as I can see some gaps around parts of the door opening. This may be partly due to my poor skills with getting the Banks door hinges aligned properly. The seals cost about $30 for a 25ft length, which is plenty to do both doors. 

[BDA]

Those gaps may not be your fault. I remember when my car was new, you could see through a gap in at least one door. At that price, you could try the next larger bulb.