Door thing??

PostPost by: wgrainge » Mon Apr 11, 2005 3:23 am

Could anyone tell me if the part in this photo really belongs on my
car, or was it something done by the previous owner? I can't find any
reference to it in the Parts Manual. It is a rubber strip retained by
two aluminum strips that are riveted to the underside of the door
opening. I am reassembling the car and would like to leave it off,
but maybe it helps keep the rain out or something. Here's the photo:

http://members.shaw.ca/mmg3/door_thing.jpg


Thanks,

Will Grainger
1970 Elan
45/9693
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PostPost by: Frank Howard » Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:19 am

Will,

Your inquiry peaked my curiosity enough to go out to the garage (through the
rain) and check mine. I have the same parts on the underside of my door
opening. I noticed that there is a channel on the top of the door that is located
just under this strip when the door is closed. I can only guess that the rain
coming off the windscreen pillar has a tendency to wick into this area and
the part you are referring to prevents it from running into the car. When the
water drops off, it goes into this channel and is routed down the front of the
door, onto the door sill, and out. Of course, my channel has a hole in it,
(does yours?) so some of the water goes straight into the door. This must be to
keep the speaker from drying out! Or perhaps it is to provide coolant to the
window motor. Who knows?

The 34 year old rubber on mine appears to be worn. Thanks for helping me
figure out why my car leaks in this area.

Frank Howard
'71 S4 SE
Minnesota
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PostPost by: rgh0 » Mon Apr 11, 2005 9:52 am

Will

My 68 S4 FHC Elan did not have the fittings shown in the photo or any
holes to show they had been present orginally. But that does not mean
that Lotus did not introduce it later as an unrecorded change.

Rohan
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PostPost by: elanz » Mon Apr 11, 2005 10:14 am

I have these seal type arrangments on both my S2 and Sprint FHC, and certainly when I
repainted the S2 some years ago and didn't replace them the rain came in intorrents,
now with them fitted it just comes in in slightly smaller torrents. The S2 rubber section is
a U where as the Sprint is an L section and will I think be more effective as it will cope
with the variation in gap better.

Tony Herbert:



Will

My 68 S4 FHC Elan did not have the fittings shown in the photo or any
holes to show they had been present orginally. But that does not mean
that Lotus did not introduce it later as an unrecorded change.

Rohan
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PostPost by: rgh0 » Mon Apr 11, 2005 11:13 am

Tony

If something similar is on your S2 and Sprint it sounds as if my car
was one built when they had run out of the needed components! Nothing
unusual for Lotus. Given its not in the parts manual no surprise they
ran out as the parts as the manual list was the basis for their
ordering of components.

By the way I dont have any real leak problems in this area without the
seal strip. The water running around the lip of the body tends to drop
into the drain channel and hole in the door shell. What gets past that
gets stopped by the door seal on my car and runs down the seal to the
front of the door and down and out at the bottom front corner of the
door.

Rohan
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PostPost by: wgrainge » Mon Apr 11, 2005 2:36 pm

Thanks guys for the feedback on this part. I'll put it back on the car.

-Will


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PostPost by: StressCraxx » Mon Apr 11, 2005 2:49 pm

Will,

The piece is a drip rail to prevent the water from migrating into the door opening. It allows the water to drain into the door, rather than the interior. Mine was missing the driver's side piece when I bought my car. Whenever it rained, the drivers side floor area flooded. I discovered the problem and used a piece of self adhesive neoprene foam weather stripping. It took two attempts to get the strip placed properly so it woudn't leak.

Make sure the holes in the bottom edge of the doors are open and clear. Otherwise the rainwater/windowmotor coolant will start sloshing in the door, add unneeded weight to your driving pleasure and kill the window motor.

Regards,

Dan Wise

Elan S3 SS 45/7279



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PostPost by: elans4dhc » Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:19 pm

Will/Rohan

The door seal parts are listed in the Lotus Elan parts manual, in page BC3, right after item BC17. They are:
036B 6000 Secondary Seal, Door Qty2
036B 2002 Strip, Retaining Qty2
Pop Rivet Qty10

Applicable to S3 onwards from serial no.5811

I have a set of this seal and strip, still to be attached, that I could photograph if anyone particularly wants to see
them. There's nothing about them that I can see in the workshop manual so perhaps a service bulletin was issued.

Andrew King



----- Original Message -----
From: "Rohan Hodges" <***@***.***>

Sent: Monday, April 11, 2005 12:11 PM
Subject: [LotusElan.net] Re: Door thing??



Tony

....... Given its not in the parts manual no surprise they
ran out as the parts as the manual list was the basis for their
ordering of components.......

Rohan
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PostPost by: wgrainge » Tue Apr 12, 2005 3:14 pm

Thanks for the parts manual reference. There doesn't seem to be any picture of it,
so it was easy to overlook.

-Will

--- In ***@***.***, "Andrew King" <afking@b...> wrote:



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PostPost by: Elan45 » Tue Apr 12, 2005 4:03 pm

Yes, Andrew, I'd very much like to do something like this to my S3s. There is a torrent of water comes in any time it rains or I wash the car.

Roger



Thanks for the parts manual reference. There doesn't seem to be any pictureof it,
so it was easy to overlook.

-Will

--- In ***@***.***, "Andrew King" <afking@b...> wrote:





























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