Aft Door Weatherstrip Won’t Stay Glued

[RonJones]

I have a 1973 EB that underwent a frame-off a few years ago. Both doors close a little tight, but nothing dreadful. I can’t get the drivers rear window vertical weatherstril to stay put; I’ve used adhesive a half-dozen times - a few weeks later it’s flopping around. As you can see below the rear door window frame seems bent in towards the top. I honestly can’t tell for sure weather that’s a door problem vs. the top being splayed out. All I can come up with is (1) clamp the aft window frame (glass down) between a pair of 2x4’s and bend it out, or (2) loosen all the top bolts on the drivers side (passenger side does’t have this problem), and push the drivers side inward and try to gain an 1/8” or more. Anybody have experience or suggestions?

 

[Slowleak]

Those frames are easy to bend in or out. Let the window down and open the door. Roll up a towel and put it over the top rear corner of the window frame. Then push the door in. It doesn’t take much to tweak them.

 

[RonJones]

I’ll give it a try. Thanks!

 

[Torkman66]

True, but too much and they crack right where the door and window frame meet. That is a weak spot on the door/window design. The key is to ensure your door is aligned right with hinges...done by getting your rear door edge to align perfectly with the plane of the qrt panel edge. That has to be right all the way from the very top of the door clear down to the bottom back corner of the door where it meets qtr and rocker. If that is all correct, then your only option is to pull the window door frame out as needed. I had to do that to mine and then put a few targeted spot welds in place to hold it.

In terms of the rubber coming off, I agree the stock rubber is hit or miss, is hard to apply, can be messy, and rubber can fall off as described. That is why i went with a custom rubber application around entire door, that is a great fix. I did this and it works amazingly well. While it starts off discussing the upper seals, it is also done on all door locations.

Door seal escapades....

For those of you who are tired of messing with upper door seals and glue, this stuff fits great and you just push it on over the flange. I’m still fine tuning and trimming but it’s much easier than messing with glue. It hides your old glue residue and has that nice woven texture on the inside...

classicbroncos.com

Good luck.

 

[mimmonen]

Try E6000 adhesive on the weatherstrip. You can get it Home Depot.

 

[RonJones]

I was all fired up to tweak the upper door, but looking at the picture above, the upper aft window frame/door is too-tightly yet perfectly matching the top’s contour. I never adjusted the upper door while I had the doors off, but I definitely messed with the top. I‘m thinking if I could push the tops lower edge in 1/8” on the drivers side, that would leave a lot more room for the weatherstrip. Some window frame tweaking might still be needed after that, though. Unfortunately, I had knee surgery a couple weeks ago, and doubt if I can root around in the back and remove the plastic fascia to gain access to the bolts. Maybe in a month or two.