I mentioned in the other bit of the forum that I was on a mission to try and get my car as quiet as possible, I know in the marketing material they keep on about how quiet the cabin is on a Dolomite, whilst I know it will never be as quiet as a modern I still want to see if some of the spurious noises I can hear can be reduced or eliminated.
I now know that the hissing noise from the front quarterlights is a trait of the design (thanks to all those that responded to my question
) so, that is that, I know I can take that no further.
So, with money given to me on my birthday earlier this month, an online shopping trip to Rimmers saw me buying a new boot seal, two door seals. I can only afford to replace the ones on the front, as these appeared to have the most wear (and obviously the most use).
The bonnet seal was replaced recently too.
Today made a proper start on "Operation Shut-Up".
First off with the old boot seal:
This is held in place by impact adhesive, it was in very poor condition. This got shot of one of the most annoying noises, a intermittent click, tick. This was the actual lid chattering up and down.
New seal in place. Again attached via contact adhesive.
Not only has it completely stopped the rear end "chatter" but has surprising reduced an tremendous amount of "booming" in the cabin of the car. Surprised at this, all I can think is again this was also another area where back draft from the car was being forced downwards and into the boot itself and thus into the car(?) With the new seal in place the boot lid now needs a good old fashioned shove to close it properly.
Onto the doors..
I only managed to replace the passenger side, this side seem to be showing the most sign of wear (which I would of thought that the logical one would have been the driver's door - but hey-ho!)
Old seal:
Now anyone who has done this job will know it takes forever to do. pushing the new seal into the channel with the blade of a screwdriver, you can only do one width of the blade at time. Took me two hours to do the entire door, edging along a bit at a time.
The Rimmers item doesn't come with moulded corner as per the original, it is not a loop either, just a length. Thus you have mitre your own corner. This I have done and glued together, I may revisit this as the ends of my fingers were numb after all the pushing of the seal into the channel!!
Here you can see the seal old and new. The Rimmers repro one is one the right;
Whilst having more spring, the part that acts as the actual seal between door and car (the "flap") is somewhat puny in comparison to the original. However it does seem to have more "flap" in it, as you would expect I guess in comparison to the original which has been compressed over 38 years of use. Time will tell as to how durable it is.
A test drive...Well it is Drive It Day...the passenger door area there seems less hiss, the boot is spectacular in it's lack of noise - dead happy with that one.
I still have the Driver's door to complete.
The rear door seals appear to be in good order. What I am thinking about doing is buying a roll of that stick on foam draught excluder and stick this to the underside of the "flap". This will make it stand prouder than before, but will also allow the foam will deform when the door is closed. It should also not be able to be seen as it will be tucked under the flap of the seal...that's the plan. It will certainly be a cheaper option than 2 more seals from Rimmers. I will report back when I have tried this with the rear doors. I think it might work!
).
