The door closing and slamming issue was really bugging me. Comparing used, previously compressed door seals to a new re-pop seal was inconclusive. In studying an NOS passenger door seal that I recently bought and comparing it to the re-pop seal, I was surprised to discover that the contours of the seals were not as different as I had thought. The ends, however, are another story. The OEM NOS seals had smaller and softer ends while the seal material itself was harder than the re-pop seal. One of the biggest contributors to doors having to be slammed are, in actuality, the door seal ends and possibly, an issue with the roofline seal ends. Here is a comparison of the two: ] The one on the right, the OEM NOS piece, is hollow. When the door is closed, the hollow section is designed to collapse . The re-pop piece on the left is solid rubber and very hard. In looking at the forward end, there are several differences as well. On the left is the re-pop, which is both larger and stiffer than the NOS piece on the right. The re-pop design has a metal plate imbedded within it that the OEM seal does not. Not sure if this a big issue provided it is not glued fast to the door. I have concluded that, at least on my car, that it is the rear termination (see first pic) of the seal causing the door to be held off and requiring it to be slammed. To prove it, I disconnected the rear retention pin and pulled o couple of inches of the seal out of position. The door shut fine. I also noticed that the re-pop roofline seal has a hard rubber section close to the aft end by the pins (see blue tape) where the OEM seal is hollow. Again, the lack of proper compression in these areas could contribute to the door slamming issue so widely reported.
hmmm.. vedy vedy interesting. I have to wonder if it would be possible to grind or whittle(maybe even a centralized groove?).. away some of the excess thickness behind the seals where it would be hidden? Might not take much.. 1/32 - 1/16?.. just enough to reduce the standoff distances to match the more compressible hollow OEM stuff. Just thinking out loud.
I thought the same thing. Since I have to use the re-pop on the drivers side, I am going to use a ball burr on my dremel and hollow the end out similar to that of the OEM piece. I'll also take a drill bit and hollow out the roof run seal in that small area where the rubber is solid (see blue tape in pic).
