Ill fitting rubbers!!!! Oooohhh! the pain!!!

[McAnnik]

 Hi All, Just thought I would air this grievence amongst other gentlemen who may be suffering from the same complaint.Some months ago I had ordered from a well known and respected U.S. Alfa parts supplier, some aftermarket rubber sealing pieces for my 105 GTJ. According to their website the parts illustrated showed them to be compatable [I thought] with what I wanted,however now I have come to fit them I find they are not near as good as what one is made to believe. The parts I speak of are thus: the vertical [outer] rubber seals on the B pillar that the door closes on. These pieces as supplied are merely cut from a roll of available rubber sealing and sold on as an Alfa aftermarket spare part.They do not fit! the product supplied is much larger than original and is a lousy compromise,difficult to fit and not worthy of consideration. Don't bother with that ill fitting rubber!    Next!.....I've spent most of today trying to get a bigger rubber on [the car thank you!], this also supplied by XXXXXXXXXX Alfa Parts.Again, this is another cut length from an available seal and again too large to be useful.this is the boot seal which is merely a push on to fit the boot ledge [not the boot lid stick on type].The product is twice the size it needs to be and after the struggle to get it on,[ooohhh the pain], I then found it impossible to close the boot lid.Any further action to make it fit would result in damage to the bodywork. Thats two ill fitting rubbers in a row,I am now looking at the CLASSICALFA Website,their stuff looks like it might be closer to what I need, If you have further comments on your own experiences with ill fitting rubber,please pass it on. there are some kinky people out there who would like to know.  Regards....Ian       

[colcol]

Been there done that, except with another make of car, how are your fingertips?, sore as, i know i swore and screamed so much, my throat was as sore as my fingers, only one thing to do, contact the supplier and send them back as they don't do the job, no matter how hard you try, they will never work, Colin.

[ItalCarGuy]

All the repro ones are pretty average. A lot of grievances on the alfabb and a few suggestions. These guy have a close to original profile.
http://www.cicognaniguarnizioni.it/index.php?lang=en

[dmgrai]

I've just redone the doors and boot on my '74 Spider with the rubbers from Classic Alfa (UK). Freight was almost the same price as the goods, but they went on easily and fit well.

[pancho]

I bought the last few NOS sets of 105 GT door seals I came across; front and rear screens as well as b pillar rubbers. The repro door and screen seals are a real headache apparently due to numerous reasons, some profile some durometre, some just size - I just couldn't be arsed mucking around with aftermarket. If you see anything NOS rubber then buy it - if you can.

[colcol]

Genuine new rubbers are not easy to fit, genuine new old stock, that the rubbers have gone hard are are pain to fit, anything after market, thats cut off a roll, forget it, it will never work, in a previous life i used to make tooling for door, boot and hatch rubbers and we used to drill tiny holes about 2mm in the rubbers, so that when you shut the door or boot the air would escape out the holes and the rubber would collapse easy, so that the door wouldn't have to be slammed shut, the owner said only the premium rubber seal manufacturers do this little trick, so next time you are after rubbers, look for the tiny little holes, the original equipment manufacturers are required to do this by the local car companys, Colin.

[Davidm1600]

I have bought all my reproduction rubbers so far from Classic Alfa for my Giulia Super and as am yet to fit them have  no idea what they will be like. I like your idea Col of drilling some holes and will give this a go if I have any problems, as I can well understand the logic in doing this.

I am well familiar with the complaints re repro products as Derek notes.  I havn't tried the Italian supplier to date but am aware of their good reputation.

Having just checked out their website, I can see they certainly stock what most would need (as do the UK based suppliers) so from my perspective this is far more convenient than trying to find NOS.

Mind you, and based on a very quick look, in comparison to Classic Alfa/Alfaholics the prices appear to be a little steep, so you would want to do your homework comparing prices from the various suppliers before deciding on who to purchase from.  Horses for courses I suspect.

[dfrye]

+1 here for the B pillar vertical seals being all but impossible to fit. Mine were from one of the UK guys - can't remember which.

//dean

[pancho]

Just to add to Colins comments.

The original 105 GT door seals also have slits/cuts in them - why I am not 100% sure, if it's for air or flexibility for fitting.

Here are the slits in mine and they came from a sealed bag.



If the rubber gaskets NOS or otherwise have been sitting in a cool / dry place they should be fine. If they have been in the sun or poor condtions then don't bother with them.

[colcol]

To get the air out of the rubber quickly the local trim manufacturer was told by the local carmakers to drill x number of i think 3mm holes per x length, they were not allowed to cut strips into them as shown as the strips will lengthen over time and the seal will collapse and have no sealing properties, best solution would be to get uncle Col to make some special drills for rubber, [joking], or get a small hot round soldering iron and burn some holes in the rubber to help with the exit of air, P.S, love the title of this subject, some people might think its about dodgy birth control products, and they don't need holes drilled in them, Colin.

[pancho]

Col, The Ones I have also have the holes. From the factory (unless the locals were sealing the bags post factory).

They were originally shipped to Germany in 1985.

[McAnnik]

  Thanks for the input guys,i've reordered better quality ill fitting rubbers from the UK suppliers. I trust their illustration of the product they intend to send me is an accurate example of what they have to sell. I will inform all of my findings in due course. Some good has come of the ill fitting boot lid rubber that isn't. I cut it about so much that it's not returnable to the supplier but i did find a place for it. The engine bonnet flange [underbonnet in front of the air intake plenum below windscreen] is a good place to fit the metre or so that I didn't root up elsewhere. I now have some left that someone may want to use for the same purpose,it's free to a good home,but you gotta pick it up.If you arrive with a couple of stubbies, i'll even fit it for you. That offer only suits Melb. based blokes.[or sheilas!].For the moment, I have refitted the original boot lid rubber, to keep some of the rain out at least! I got some door rubbers from the US supplier, haven't tried to fit them yet. Obviously they were not cut from a roll of "one size fits all" and I need to see the results when I attempt to fit "em before I can comment. They do not have the machette slashes that are depicted in Pancho's Pics! I would be concerned a little if I found my unopened packet of rubbers had been attacked in that fashion, The results in the use of that product could only end in disaster. Col! Did you you read something into my post that I missed!!!....Cheers ....Ian

[McAnnik]

  Just thought I would add some more fuel to this thread while it's still warm! I have to fit a new head lining to the GTJ and was contemplating the work program. O.K. we know the front and rear screens have to come out to do that[successfully] and I was looking at my 40 year old screen rubbers and thinking,well, can they stand the trauma of R&R without disintergrating! So, What are the fitment problems involved with the latest CAD/CAM supplied screen rubbers? are they of useable quality or if they are of the ill fitting variety [expected?] should one smear the old ones with generous quantities of Vaseline and hope that they can stand up again [to adverse conditions!] ...Balls in your court Gentlemen....Cheers.....Ian

[colcol]

If your windscreen rubbers are more than 20 years old, then they will most likely fall apart when you remove them, and they will be all hard and inflexable, so you will have trouble getting them back in the car, and are you going to put a new windscreen in, or try and save the old one?, putting one in with inflexiable seals is a recipe for breaking one, however here are a few tips for reusing windsreen rubbers, give them a good cleanup with terry towelling material and mineral turpentine to remove all the old windscreen sealant, then finally wash it in wash and wax car wash, as this will give a slippery sheen to the rubber to help it slip in, use talcum powder on the body openings and windsreen rubber to help it slip in, if possible buy good quality new seals, but how do you know they are good quality until you buy them?, you think why won't this screen go in, is it me or are these seals rubbish?, there in lies the dillema, Colin.

[AlfaACT]

Signor McAnnik,

Just a penny's worth ... ?

I believe that the older windscreen rubbers may have been made from latex (i.e vegetable product).
Vaseline is a petroleum product (used to be called petroleum jelly when I was a lad).
Petroleum products and latex are not compatible. (For the same reason, we use a different types of oil in our brake systems to the stuff we put  in the engine. The seals in the brakes are or used to be latex based - nowadays they are probably silicone based. But I digress.)

Therefore, I would recommend NOT using vaseline.

A good "rubber grease" (from Repco or elsewhere) should do the trick, if you really need lubrication.
But Col's suggestions / recommendations come with much experience, so I'd be trying his ideas before any others.

Peter.