Wind roar round front doors

[Bumpa]

My 1850HL is a pleasant car to ride in but becomes excessively noisy above 50 mph, so that at 70 mph the radio is useless and communication in the car is by shouting. I don't believe it would have been this bad when new. The noise seems to be mostly wind roar round the two front doors. It was especially bothersome on the motorways on our 800 mile round trip to Silverstone as seen in Dolly Mixture recently.

The sealing rubbers look all right but are 45 years old. Is it worth me trying to replace them with part number 709852 from one of the suppliers? How difficult a job is it? Is there anything else I can look at? I realise that due to all the sticky-out bits like gutters and quarter-lights, it is never going to be silent as a modern car, but surely I can improve it, can't I?

[DoloWIGHTY]

Hi Mike,

I know exactly what you mean re the "whoosing" noise you describe. For a car that is as refined as the Dolomite I feel this intrusion is rather annoying and does detract from the driving experince.

I believe the main source of the noise is the front quarterlights. Having replaced the rubber seals on mine I was rather disappointed to find the that the noise was still there, particularly prevalent when driving in a cross wind. My conclusion is that it's "the nature of the beast" especially when reading the period road tests which also highlight this "problem".

Replacing the outer door seals is a long a laborious task, I replaced mine with the ones that are sold via the brothers in Lincoln, whilst the profile of the seal is correct the seals themselves appear much more puny than the originals. Fitting them test the patience as you need a blunt screwdriver to ease then into the channel a millimetre at a time, they must of had a special tool at the factory for fitting them, the new ones also just come on a roll, there is no corner moulded mitre like the original ones, so you have to make this yourself and glue it into place.

In short, if the outer door seal is in good order then best to leave is, or look for a good secondhand one.

Hope this is of use.

Cheers,

ALAN

[cleverusername]

Replacing the seal isn't especially difficult, all you need is is a blunt screwdriver and a bit of patience. You just feed it into the door channel a bit at a time, took me about an hour to do a door. However I suspect you're going to be disappointed by the results. The Dolomite bodyshell was originally designed in the 60's for a car with a 1300 and a four speed gearbox.

When they designed it motorways were relatively new and cars just weren't designed to sit at 70 for hour after hour. The wind noises is always going to be a problem. You could add more sound deadening in the doors and cabin but I suspect whatever you do. it will never be as quiet as a modern.

[Carledo]

The Dolomega, which has a pair of NOS quarterlights fitted, is still wind noisy as all get out. It's actually quieter at motorway speeds with the quarterlights open a bit! My doorseals are good condition used original ones.

As others have said, you can take the car out of the 60s, but you can't effectively get the 60s out of the car!

Steve

[tinweevil]

I don't think you'll get anywhere with new rubbers unless yours are especially deformed/flat but I do think you are on the right lines looking at the door gaps. To an extent you are stuck with your car being a late shell, the press tools wore out long before production stopped. If you compare the profile of the A pillar of an early car to a late one the late is notably less sharp at the bends. I can fit fingers in door gaps on my 80 HL (noisy) that I couldn't get a pencil in on our '73 TC (notably quieter).

I would suggest trying to prove the point somehow. Maybe:
You can get small fog machines for £30 on amazon. Get someone to blow smoke around the gaps? I'll bet it comes straight in in a few places.
Get some soft foam strip (I can't think of any helpful suggestion for what to use) and seal the gaps shut temporarily & go for a drive, see if it helps. Needs to be very soft or you'll create new gaps at the ends which will negate any improvement.
Also while driving press against the windows, the runner rubbers get tired & no longer press against the glass. Wherever the glass in loose in the channel you'll get noise.
Ditto at the door tops / glass bottom.

[Mad Mart]

I would suggest trying to prove the point somehow. Maybe:
You can get small fog machines for £30 on amazon. Get someone to blow smoke around the gaps? I'll bet it comes straight in in a few places.
Get some soft foam strip (I can't think of any helpful suggestion for what to use) and seal the gaps shut temporarily & go for a drive, see if it helps. Needs to be very soft or you'll create new gaps at the ends which will negate any improvement.
Also while driving press against the windows, the runner rubbers get tired & no longer press against the glass. Wherever the glass in loose in the channel you'll get noise.
Ditto at the door tops / glass bottom.

You could try filling your car with water & see where the water leaks out like they did on Top Gear.

(not helpful I know, just couldn't resist).

[tinweevil]

That kept popping into my head too There was a hell of a lot of fabricated bolx on that show, what was it a door 'spontaneously' fell off? But that one trying to fill up a triumph with water, there aren't enough fire pumps in the country Shame about the otherwise decent car but fair criticism, the panel fit on a late 70's Triumph is strictly where it touches.

And we still love em.

[new to this]

What im planning to do is, leave the original rubber seal round the door, but replace the furflex round the door opening with a door seal, new seals about £25 each

Dave

[10yearsafter]

This is probably the least useful post! I have removed the channeling from either side of the windscreen of my restoration sprint. The idea was an attempt to reduce the wind noise that I remember from when I last drove it may be 25 years ago. The roof channel ends in line with the vinyl roof and I am looking at ways to finish/ cap this so that it does not snag or look too bad. I can make no comment on the effectiveness as I am struggling to get the car finished and on the road. I will report on my findings asap.
Happy Xmas to all, especially those who have supported over the years!!!

Bob

[cleverusername]

This is probably the least useful post! I have removed the channeling from either side of the windscreen of my restoration sprint. The idea was an attempt to reduce the wind noise that I remember from when I last drove it may be 25 years ago. The roof channel ends in line with the vinyl roof and I am looking at ways to finish/ cap this so that it does not snag or look too bad. I can make no comment on the effectiveness as I am struggling to get the car finished and on the road. I will report on my findings asap.
Happy Xmas to all, especially those who have supported over the years!!!

Bob

Can you do this? It looked like the A-pillar was made of two sections, with the gutters being an integral part of the a-pillar and the top half of the A-pillar being held in by spot welds along the gutter. Did you have to seam weld the two halves together?

[10yearsafter]

All I can say that we have done it and seam welded it. it was a very long time ago. I will post a photo when I can find one. Maybe I will be testing for more than just wind roar!!!!!

Bob

[rvfrc45]

Hi, I re shelled my sprint many years ago with a new shell and recently asked roughly what year the body shell could be.
The opinion was that it probably was a late shell and I've heard comments of Spanish steel used.
I'm not sure if this is correct but I've had corrosion issues like many.
Ok lets get back to the wind noise which I certainly have, maybe not as bad as others but its there.
I was really interested in everyone thoughts on this forum esp Tinweevil. I also noticed that my door profiles did not match the A post.
What I did to prove this was smear grease on the seal and shut the door. Once opened you could see the seal missed the A post completely in one
or more places. I'm still getting the car back together but my house move a delayed things. Has anybody thought about using body filler to reshape or
get a good welder/fabricator to get a correct fit. cheers

[tinweevil]

Ok lets get back to the wind noise which I certainly have, maybe not as bad as others but its there.
I was really interested in everyone thoughts on this forum esp Tinweevil. I also noticed that my door profiles did not match the A post.
What I did to prove this was smear grease on the seal and shut the door. Once opened you could see the seal missed the A post completely in one
or more places. I'm still getting the car back together but my house move a delayed things. Has anybody thought about using body filler to reshape or
get a good welder/fabricator to get a correct fit. cheers

Well done on proving you have gaps so simply. The rubber sits in a channel riveted to the door, what direction would it need to move to close the gaps? If it can be moved in the plane of the metal then you've lucked into an easy fix. Drill the rivets & move in-board a bit. If it needs to move perpendicular to the panel then a fabricator reshaping the door shell is the gold standard solution.
This is ringing ancient bells in the deep recesses of memory. I think on mine I worked out moving the channel wouldn't help & I sure couldn't afford a fabricator.
Whatever, filler is most certainly not the way to go.

[10yearsafter]

All I can say that we have done it and seam welded it. it was a very long time ago. I will post a photo when I can find one. Maybe I will be testing for more than just wind roar!!!!!

Bob As promised. Still need to find a neat finish to the s/s gutter.

[xvivalve]

Well, we should know shortly whether the new club quarterlight seals improve (or worsen!) the wind noise...