Fill door seals?

[red02tj]

I’m still chasing leaks on my half door slider uppers. I’ve narrowed it down to the half door upper seals which press against the windshield frame. Unfortunately Bestop only sells the entire window and replacing just the window seals is not an option.

Since the seals are intact but with the doors, top, windows all coming from different places, I’ll never get perfect alignment.

My next idea is to put a split in one of the seal corners and fill the inside of the seal with some kind of flexible expanding foam or weather stripping and add some volume so the seal makes better contact.

Anyone ever tried this or think it’s just a bad idea?

 

[macleanflood]

I know the trick with the Ford trucks is sliding surgical tubing inside the weather stripping...

 

[J.Pierce]

I've never tried it, but latex tubing can be found down to as small as 1/16" OD going up in 1/16" and sometimes 1/32" increments.
Foam backer rod might work, but I've never seen it smaller than 1/4". It's and extruded polyethylene it might be too firm.

It's gonna be tough getting it in there, but maybe with some dishsoap and water or tire mounting lube you could fish it in.
Push I wire through, put a piece of masons line with the wire, then use the mason line to pull the lubed tube back through.

This is all just a theory, unless it works...........

 

[freedom_in_4low]

I had ok luck just bending the upper frames inward so they have some preload against the seals when closed. Have you tried that already?

I never did get them to stay fully sealed at highway speed, but filling the seals wouldn't have helped that.

 

[red02tj]

I know the trick with the Ford trucks is sliding surgical tubing inside the weather stripping...

That’s a much better idea than filling it with foam. I’m gonna give it a try this week.

 

[red02tj]

I had ok luck just bending the upper frames inward so they have some preload against the seals when closed. Have you tried that already?

I never did get them to stay fully sealed at highway speed, but filling the seals wouldn't have helped that.

I’ve done the bending trick and it helped but with a long rain I still get puddles.

 

[red02tj]

I got the drivers side door done today. What ended up working best was
1) 25ft of 3/8 nylon rope, my ID of the seals was approx 1/2in and the rope filled them nicely.
2) small slit in the top corners of the door seal
3) fish tape real
4) lots of lube
5) Put lube down the the seals, on the rope and fish tape.
6) pull rope through
7) use some RTV silicone type sealer to close up the slits in step 2.

I did still get water from a direct hose spray but we’ll see if it does better with normal rain and some bending of the upper frame.