Sprint door seals / weatherstrip.

[Craven]

Believed to be the original profile, but of course being Lotus may be just one type used. Very complicated section, basically a double flap the inner longer than outer but separated by a small tubular section, the inner flat also has a small drip lip.
Body part has a metal zig zag grip insert.

[bloodknock]

YES YES YES..........that is identical section and description to my original sprint door weather strip

Door weather strip - Lots Elan Sprint.jpg (173.87 KiB) Viewed 4072 times

[stugilmour]

Here, for reference, are the two profiles that RD Enterprises has in stock. I have tried both of these profiles on my Plus 2 and have door fitment issues. I have not tried trimming the flap seal as Ray suggests. Are these similar to what is available from the various UK suppliers and/or MacGregor in Canada?

Door Seal - Plus 2

C20C9139-22F0-49E0-8ADE-E7D40A7C5835.jpeg (26.45 KiB) Viewed 4029 times

Replacement bulb style door seal for Elan Plus 2.
Supplied as a length; you must cut and miter upper rear corner for all the above applications. Grained pattern on vinyl channel; channel is metal reinforced to securely attach to body. Round rubber sealing bulb.

Ref. 50B6029 Elan +2 $33.00
one piece required per door

Door Seal - Elan

0707F37F-E668-4107-ACF7-9CCD0E7744D2.jpeg (24.84 KiB) Viewed 4029 times

Replacement flap style door seal for Elan S3/S4 coupe and convertible.
Supplied as a length; you must cut and miter upper rear corner on Elan Coupe. The Elan convertible uses one long length of seal, going from the rear corner of one door opening, over the windscreen and around the other door opening.
Grained pattern on vinyl channel; channel is metal reinforced to securely attach to body. Rubber flap seal can be easily trimmed for clearance.

Ref. 36B0320A Elan coupe $37.00
one piece per door

Ref. 45B0320A Elan convertible $74.00
one piece does one car

HTH

Stu

[saildrive2001]

As I promised I stopped at Macgregor's the other day & here is my summary of my conversation with Martin.
Just as a point of interest, Martin was an owner of an Elan many years ago & is very familiar with the problems. Martin showed me several different profiles that have been used over the years. He has two of the single flap style available which he doesn't recommend for the Elan's as the lip is too stiff. I would agree with him about those two seals. He has several bulb type seals of varying thickness of the rubber wall & stiffness. He has a sample of the original design which we compared with the different styles of seals. He has available at the moment a very soft bulb style seal with wall thickness around 0.060" giving a compressed thickness of 0.120". This is the seal he is recommending for our cars. when I compared this seal to all the others including the original, it definitely deforms more easily than any of the other seals we looked at. He only has a limited supply of this seal & in fact has the boxes marked "Lotus Elan only". For interest he did show me seals for other vehicles to point out that even seals from the same tooling can vary in stiffness, partially due to the different durometer of the rubber used on different extrusion runs. Martin asked me not to include a photo of the seal as it is proprietary information, so please don't ask me for one.
I have no financial or other involvement with Macgregor.
I hope this has been of some assistance to you all.

[steponit]

How about this from Woolies

https://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/product/1285/door-seal

Stephen

[RichardHawkins]

Gentlemen,

Whilst following this thread I have also been trying to find a supplier. I came across a company East Anglia Seals in Sudbury Suffolk. These people make seals. I phoned them today, but they are unable to give an idea of price without a sample, which I don’t have. Does anyone have a piece of seal we could use as a sample to see what the price would be?

Richard Hawkins

[stugilmour]

Huge help Keith. Thanks for checking in person.

Just got off the phone with Martin and have ordered a set for my Plus 2. For quick reference Martin lists the required lengths as 11’ 6” per door for the Plus 2, 9’ 9” per door for the Elan FHC, and one 19’ continuous piece for the Elan convertible. As Keith says he has set the material aside for various early Lotus cars, including Europa. He does not believe the original material will be made again, and says it really didn’t stand up that well anyway. I am not sure if he can get more if required. He did not mention the proprietary nature of the profile, but I will honour his request to Keith.

He is also including the correct material for the Plus 2 secondary seals, along with some installation instructions, so I can hopefully install these correctly. I should receive the material in the post in the next few weeks. I don’t expect S&H to be too bad for a direct order within Canada. Main and secondary seals are going to run about $250 to $300 CDN (say ~$225 US), but if it solves the problem it will be worth it. As the cost is so high, I will definitely report back how I make out.

One thing I was not doing correctly. Martin says the carpet on the inner rocker should be trimmed back to the edge of the door seal flange mount. I was pressing the flange groove over the carpet and fibreglass, which is apparently incorrect. It is correct to cover the much thinner headliner in this manner, but not the carpet. He suggested being very careful on the prep to get everything straight before installing the seal.

Martin suggested I re-adjust the door to flush with the seal removed. The new seal compresses easily enough that the door should not require additional adjustment when all is installed.

Great guy on the phone. Very helpful. Former Elan owner, and just finishing up a Europa carpet set today. I now understand why the line was busy any time I have called.

Thanks again Keith. Hoping this works.

[nmauduit]

please post photo of the section and comment fitment when the time comes... thank you !

[alan.barker]

Hi Stu,
sorry but what's this
"you must cut and miter upper rear corner on Elan Coupe."
I have a 1972 Elan Sprint fhc and the join is mid way on the bottom no mitre on top rear corner.
That's new to me
Alan

[stugilmour]

Alan, I just copied those descriptions from the parts listing from RD Enterprises (at rdent.com). I agree it doesn’t make much sense, and I ignored it when I installed the seals.

Sounds like the Elan FHC is similar to my Plus 2 where the upper rear corner of the B/C pillar is a curved fibreglass flange that retains the head liner material. I just fitted these seals from RD by working them around the corner, which I found took some effort as the radius is pretty tight to shape the metal seal mounting groove. Just occurred to me that this would perhaps be more difficult the deeper the seal groove. I have had issues with the seals coming loose in this tight corner.

When I spoke with Martin at MacGregor regarding seal installation, he mentioned a 45 degree mitre joint is common practice at this location on many cars; his example was a MGB-GT. In these cases he said the upper rear corner is a right angle, and the mitre joint forms the gap in the continuous seal, and is often finished off with a dab of appropriate sealer/caulk. I took a quick look on a Europa forum (where they are also discussing the RD seals among other things) and it sounds like the Europa uses this type of mitred corner. Perhaps that is how the parts listing got a bit confusing.

http://www.lotuseuropa.org/LotusForum/i ... pic=1396.0

For the a Plus 2 he said the seal gap should be placed about midway on the bottom rocker flange. Assume it is the same for your FHC.

HTH

Stu

[alan.barker]

i found on my Elan Sprint fhc the flap Seal works very well and i just needed to add a piece of seal rubber inside the "U" short horizontal part above the Hinge (to stop drafts).
The flap Seal makes it easier to close the Door without slamming.
Alan

[stugilmour]

Just reviewing the Europa thread I linked above.

This page looks like the front gate to the Seal Ranch ...

https://www.mcmaster.com/bulb-seals

Unfortunately they do not appear to provide the crushed thickness of the seal, which seems to be the issue with our cars. That said, it looks like full seal dimensions are included when you click on the individual part numbers. Perhaps there is something readily available that is suitable.

HTH

Stu

[RichardHawkins]

Ron,

You should have received a private message, and I might have sent it twice.

Richard Hawkins

[Terry Posma]

I'll post this again as I had this trouble a couple of years ago.

These people have a few alternates that look similar to what people are looking for.

https://www.indrub.com.au/rubber-produc ... -seal.html

I used seal 004 because it had the thinnest bulb even when doubled over. I still had issues on the driver side at the door catch, to make it even thinner in that area I took out the steel material inside the U section that fits over the body which also removed some of the plastic material that stops it from lifting off. You cannot see the surgery as it is over a short distance and the seal does not lift off.

I also sanded away a bit more body edge which the trim is pressed over. It was a bit drastic but after painting and fairing nothing could be seen.

The drivers door still requires a firm close to get it to catch but the passenger side is perfect. I do not know what else to do other than having a slightly proud door or do a bit more surgery to the body.

I would be interested to see whether the Sprint trim can be obtained.

[Terry Posma]

As a follow up.

The photo below shows what happens when you pull out the guts out of the door weather seal. You can reduce the thickness dramatically which is what I did around the door latch area to see if that would make a difference. The difference unfortunately was very little but it was very effective in getting the end cap to sit nicely at the end of the seal.

After posting the previous comment I went out and had a close look at the door shut lines but this time with a very powerful torch. I found the problem. It had nothing to do with the seals but was a problem with the plate that holds the door latch and is attached to the window frame. In my case the window frame was badly cracked so I had it brazed and ground down before re chroming. Unfortunately we did not get the shape exactly right at the pointy bit where it changes direction. It was a bit proud and this was hitting the door shut. When I raised the weather seal adjacent to the latch I noticed it was causing a mark on the body where it hit. I ground a little paint and fibreglass away in that area and now the drivers and passengers close with the same pressure.

What a fabulous feeling of getting it sorted after 2 years of pain.