TR2/3/3A TR3 door weather seals

[Scotsman]

Can you get weather seals for the doors of the TR3a. When driving at freeway speeds in heavy rain I find that the road spray comes up through the lower front area of the door resulting in wet cold feet and having to strip out the carpeting.

 

[Rut]

Richard,
MacGregor sells the best rubber products available, but you must call him. Using email or website will get no response, but his products are worth the effort!
Rut
https://www.macgregorukcarparts.com

 

[TR3driver]

Sure, all the seals are available. Whether they fit or not is a different question, the originals were pretty soft and the reproductions are sometimes firmer, causing problems with the doors closing or what not.

There should be a seal that runs along the bottom of the door, secured with a dozen or so clips. It turns and runs partway up the front of the door. Then there is another piece of the same type of seal, that runs along the curved section where the door meets the scuttle, and partway down the front of the door. It uses 7 more clips. Between the two of them, you shouldn't get any water. Then there are fuzzy seals (more trim than seal, really) that run up the inside of the door at the front and back.

Check out TRF P/N 650046 for the bottom seal, 603257 for the top, and 552877 (available in different colors) for the fuzzy seal. You'll need two each of the rubber seals. They also have door seal kits with all the seals and clips in one package, P/N RFK903 for black, RFK904 Red; RFK905 blue or RFK906 tan. The kits are shown on sale at the moment, so this might be a good time to buy.

However, are you sure it's coming past the door? There are more seals inside the front fender that are sometimes overlooked. If they leak, you can get water (or snow) that mysteriously comes out of the dash onto your leg. I drove without them for a lot of years (stuffing cloth and whatnot into the opening) before discovering how it was supposed to work.

 

[Scotsman]

Yes water is coming up through the door gaps, but that isn't to say its not coming in between the front wing and fire wall also.

Does anyone have pictures of how the door seals look when installed? I would also be interested in more info reg the fender seals.

Was under the car a couple of days ago and noticed a previous owner had applied a lot of duct tape to the inside of the fender/firewall before applying underseal and its now beginning to peal off. This may have been why. Amazingly they had also used tape to patch petrol filler hose, jack holes in floor, transmission tunnel holes, air scoop, etc., etc.. All of this before painting. Fortunately they were not covering up rust and I have been stripping it out as I find it. I just hope this is also the case reg the wing.

 

[TR3driver]

Hopefully, someone else has some better photos. 40 years of TR ownership, and I've never had them all installed properly at the same time! Here are a couple of shots that a friend (Don Elliott) sent to me of his early TR3A.

In this second shot, you can see the two holes in the front of the door, where the bottom seal should be attached. As I recall, Don was one of those who found he couldn't get the door to fit properly with the bottom seal installed.

Here are a few more shots of my previous TR3A (after it got wrecked), showing how far that bottom seal has to crush in use

 

[mrv8q]

I'll tag along after Randall. I, too, replaced the bottom seals on my passenger door with MOSS seals. Afrerwards, I missed being able to gently close the door with just a "snick". After 10 years, they've compressed, but not by much. Haven't tried the TRF seals.

I didn't have the heart to replace the drive door seals.

 

[TR3driver]

I don't have a photo of the actual bulkhead to wing seal, but here is the diagram from the parts catalogue

 

[Scotsman]

Thanks for the info

Can the floor carpets be successfully installed without contact cement? I have read that the clips on the fire wall, and snaps on the gearbox tunnel work well, while others have said to use contact cement. If so how are the front fender wall carpets held in place: where the dimmer button (lft) and speaker hole (rt) are. Also were snaps used other than on the gearbox tunnel. It seems that since these cars are prone to leak being able to remove the carpets is almost a necessity I you don't want rust and mold.
My carpets were installed using heavy duty contact cement (probably to hide the duct tape), and I have found superficial rust under them on the floor pans, and have torn them up badly in removing them.

 

[TR3driver]

On the floors in front of the seats and tunnel, install with snaps and clips. The vertical sections (like over the speaker hole) are glued on AFAIK. The angled section behind the seats was held originally with screws and washers, I believe, but you can use snaps there as well. For the floors under the seats, I believe the original approach was to bolt the seat rails through the carpet, locking the carpet in place. But I have my carpet cut to fit over the rails, so I can pull it out just by removing the seats.

While you're working in this area, you might want to include some (non-original) insulation under the carpet. It does wonders for comfort on long rides in warm weather. With just the carpet, my tunnel would get so hot that I couldn't rest my right leg against it! But with a layer of inexpensive felt/foil insulation underneath, it never gets uncomfortably hot (although you can definitely still feel the warmth). You'll have to do some creative cutting to make it fit snugly over the tunnel, but that's not too hard. You can tape the cuts together with duct tape; but I find that mine stays put just fine just held by the carpet.

Also, it's better to start a new thread with a new question. You'll usually get more responses that way, and it makes it easier for others to find the information later.

 

[Scotsman]

Good point reg new thread, but one last Q to you and Kevin. Do the door seals work. Designers can have the best intentions only to find they don't work. I had also heard like the same comments Kevin made in that they can be too soft or too hard (like the 3 bears) resulting in them breaking down quickly or having difficulty closing the doors respectively.

I may add this info to a new thread just for peoples reference.

 

[TR3driver]

I don't drive in the rain much any more, but as I recall the seals definitely helped. I don't know if they were perfect, but after installing them my biggest leaks were water working it's way through either the seal under the windshield or where the top fit onto the windshield.
The seal in the second pair of photos above was over 20 years old when the photo was taken, and still doing it's job well enough. IIRC, I got it at Moss around 1985.

 

[mrv8q]

but one last Q to you and Kevin. Do the door seals work.

Richard, I don't have a good answer for you. My car is open year round. I don't use the canvas top, nor the hardtop, and have stowed the side curtains in the rafters (next to the hardtop). I try to avoid driving in the rain.
I wouldn't know how to tell if the door seals were sealing! I will say I replaced all the other door seals, except for the driver side bottom seal, because they had simply begun to crumble to dust. This was 10 years ago.

Right now I'm working on the TRF trunk surround seal. After 55 years, it was time for a new one. I'll know if that one is working the first time I wash the car...

 

[Don Elliott]

I refer to Randall's diagram above. In 1989, I made my own new ones (Item 12) out of stainless steel (16 ga. is thicker too) and painted them black. The top rubber bit (15), I cut .from thicker and stiffer rubber. I also cut it larger so that I have a curve in this piece where it sits tightly against the fender. I did not pop-rivet that top piece of rubber through the small plates shown. I hate the word "catalytic corrosion of dis-similar metals". So I drilled holes in stainless steel pieces like the original ones and screwed them all together with stainless steel screws, washers and nuts for easier removal. As for the side rubber strips, I reused my original ones from when I bought my TR3A in 1958. They still look like they did in 1990 when I finally finished my restoration. No water ever came in there in 24 years and 113,000 miles.

As for the hole for the loudspeaker, I made a round steel cover and screwed it into place. Also, I smeared silicone sealer all around it to keep out drafts.

The side wall carpets are secured with the tiny No. 4 straight slotted screws and cups up the edges of the "A" posts. Then I dabbed about 4 dabs of contact glue along the top backing of the carpets so the top corners don't droop down towards the gearbox tunnel. Once you install the dimmer switch this also helps keep the carpet on that side secure.

 

[vickxxx]

I recently ordered new seals for my TR3A from Moss. The new lower seals did not allow my door to close. I installed them both ways and had no luck with them properly fitting so the door would close properly. A called Moss and spoke to a tech there about my problem. He looked up in his files to see if there had been any other complaints called in concerning these seals. There were none! I was shocked after reading how many TR3 owners have had problems with these seals that no one complained. Anyway the tech pulled a seal from his inventory and described it to me as being a solid seal. The ones sent to me were hollow. The tech went back to his inventory and found the seal they had sent to me. They were totally different in size, compressibility. The tech even went so far as to compare the hollow core seal to one that was sitting in one of their TR3's sitting at their location and realized it was impossible for this hollow core seal to fit and close the door properly. Their supplier had changed the construction of the seal without letting Moss know about these changes. I will be receiving the proper solid core seals in the next few days to replace the ones originally sent to me. But for everyone out there that has problems with fitment of any parts, register a complaint with them. These companies handle thousands of parts and sometimes ( as with this seal) quality control slips thru the cracks. They would never had known of this if I hadn't called them on it. I have to hand it to Moss, they got down to the root of my problem and are rectifying their inventory and my situation. Let's hope the new seals work

 

[TR3driver]

He looked up in his files to see if there had been any other complaints called in concerning these seals. There were none! I was shocked after reading how many TR3 owners have had problems with these seals that no one complained.

I've heard that story before! Only difference was, _I_ was the one that had previously complained! I won't say it is deliberate, but at the very least they don't keep good records of customer complaints.

I wish you luck with the solid seals, but I don't have a lot of hope that they will fit. The originals were neither hollow nor solid, instead they had a lightweight foam in the center, surrounded by a relatively soft solid skin and harder rubber for the clip to grab. We've had this kind of discussion before, and apparently the manufacturers have lost the ability to have different grades of rubber in the same seal.

 

[vickxxx]

I've heard that story before! Only difference was, _I_ was the one that had previously complained! I won't say it is deliberate, but at the very least they don't keep good records of customer complaints.

I wish you luck with the solid seals, but I don't have a lot of hope that they will fit. The originals were neither hollow nor solid, instead they had a lightweight foam in the center, surrounded by a relatively soft solid skin and harder rubber for the clip to grab. We've had this kind of discussion before, and apparently the manufacturers have lost the ability to have different grades of rubber in the same seal.

LOL. I'm glad I'm not the only one that got the standard answer. But I'll definitely post my results when I install new seals. Tx.

 

[CJD]

I too, bought 2 sets of seals from 2 of the big 3. The current lower seals simply do not work. They are too large and do not compress enough to let the door close properly. My door fit perfectly, but with the lower seals in place, It stuck out 1/2" from the body, and no encouragement would get the doors to close any farther.

So...You will either need to find a seal from a different application that will work, or learn to live without them. If you do find one. let us know, as many of us have been waiting for a solution for a long time!

Also, getting wet is part of the "TR3 experience". Even if you find these leaks, you will learn there are many more to discover.

 

[vickxxx]

Tx John. At the moment I think I'm more worried about door rattles (with the old cracked seal gone) than water coming thru the bottom of the doors I'm rolling without a top at the moment so it's sunny day cruising for me til my frame and top arrive.

 

[mrv8q]

it's sunny day cruising for me til my frame and top arrive.

Crazy nice warm weather today, so I took the TR3 today on the famous Mulholland Highway to pick up my daughter. Perfect day for top down motoring; I can only imagine how nice Hawaii is... More chances for a sudden rain squall, though!

 

[vickxxx]

Crazy nice warm weather today, so I took the TR3 today on the famous Mulholland Highway to pick up my daughter. Perfect day for top down motoring; I can only imagine how nice Hawaii is... More chances for a sudden rain squall, though!

Love Mulholland, Hwy. Perfect weekend cruising! I'm originally from L.A. and my wife and I just retired to the island of Moloka'i,HI. I was so lucky to find a rust free TR3A on this island. I'll have to admit, cruising in the islands feels very different from the mainland but it's just as entertaining