door seals..

[ChrisTasmania]

Thank you everybody for the advice from my previous post, and I have run the full length earth lead as suggested.

Now I wish there were a door I could look at.. but there is a serious lack of written detail on how to re-assemble a Mk2 Vitesse door, all the usual clues in parts books etc use such confusing terminology for the simplest things! There has to be an award for getting a whole and functioning door back together, I look forward to claiming mine soon.

Can somebody help me with the top two seals?, the ones that you see on the top of the door, the ones the window come up through as you wind it up. The question is how they relate to the quarter vent, The big fat fella on the outside obviously goes full width(?), but the inside chrome topped one, does that stop at the quarter vent? or also go full width? If it stops at the vent, then what seals the vent to the door top on the inside? The chrome topped seal I have supplied is full length, which could be a clue.

Any chance of a photo?

As usual all advice much appreciated. 

And there is a rumour that there is another Mk2 2litre Vitesse in Tasmania, imported by an English doctor. I'll be chasing that up. I know there is/was a 1600 here some time ago, but they were never sold in Australia.

Cheers and thanks

Chris

[Colin Lindsay]

You're talking about the outer and inner door glass seals?

Outer one goes full width of the door, it can be a squeeze around the quarterlight frame but will fit eventually.

Inner one... must dash out to the garage to check... hang on.....

Back again: I have three spare doors out there and on all of them the inner strip stops at the quarterlight, then continues on as a metal strip only - no rubber - across the quarterlight. This was also the case in my 948 coupe as I remember one of the metal strips fell off and I had no idea where it came from... but I suspect that, as with the outer, they're both meant to run full length and these have been fitted incorrectly by a PO; it may take a little bit of trimming at the quarterlight to allow for the glass channel, and you may need to loosen the quarterlight bolts slightly to give some movement, but I suspect that inner and outer seals run from front to back, unbroken and are supplied full length of the door. As always, open to correction...

 

[Pete Lewis]

im sure my VIT6 inner chrome tops were in two parts  same as colins pic.

when fitting the retaining clips i always advise tie a long cotton tail on so you can recover them from inside the door when they fly off 

i use a hook to pull the clip up , a bit of timber/small hammer  to tap the seal down whilst lifting the clip .Oh   and 6 pairs of hands .

Pete

[mark powell]

This is where that favourite tool comes in handy...  (telescopic magnetic pick-up device)

[Colin Lindsay]

47 minutes ago, Pete Lewis said:

im sure my VIT6 inner chrome tops were in two parts  same as colins pic.

My GT6 inner glass strip was originally one long piece, but a PO cut the fur off the lower six inches so that the strip continued on with no seal, sort of a cosmetic look only.

This is what sowed the seeds of doubt with me, that the seals are sold full length today, and there's nothing in the early parts manuals about a small chrome strip for the remainder across the quarterlight - in the diagram, they're shown as fitting only the space between the B post and the front glass runner, with nothing continuing on at all. Yet this leaves an unsightly gap across the top of the door. It then made me wonder: was it something that was added later, or maybe just to higher-spec models?

A quick check of on-line manuals shows nothing on 948 or 1200 models, yet on the 13/60 and Vitesse we have this small piece, part number 613343, 29 on the lower and later diagram, labelled as a "finisher" for 13/60 and Vitesse and of course NLA. So: some cars have them, and others don't, and maybe should, or shouldn't! (Note: there are actually two part 29s in the lower 1360 diagram, but it's the small strip by the quarterlight)

 

[ChrisTasmania]

Thanks everyone,

And Colin, thank you for the photo. I had spotted part 29 as well, but didn't know if it were rubber or chrome top. In the rusty remnants of one of the original doors was a small, quarter-window long, piece of chrome topped finisher, just like the inner seal, but de-fuzzed, I will go ahead and replicate that, just as you photographed, but would still be interested to see what Mk2 Vitesses originally used.

Amazingly I bought a NOS door here for about 60 of your pounds.

A big day yesterday as the final coat of Dolphin Grey went on yesterday, three years of rust repair and chassis welding/replacing finally coming to an end. Actually the colour is Koala Grey! as near as we could find to what I hope is an original grey, with an Australian twist. An interesting but I suspect common story is that the car was built on the 7th August 1970 in Sienna Brown and despatched to Shropshire, but was first registered as a WHITE car on 1st August 1971 in Salop, which I think is in Wales, ie it took a year to sell and required a colour change. This is the first car that I have not returned to the original colour as the Sienna is so underwhelming.. that should be provocative. Though I am thinking of a Sienna flash along the sides, Grey and Sienna?...

 

Also a photo of the passenger side tail-light housing, a very definite B is scribed there in the wet paint. Is that Barry the Painter or something else signalled on the production line?

Cheers Chris HC/56953-CVO

[mark powell]

Salop is Shropshire...  

[Bordfunker]

Chris, my Herald 1200 is Dolphin Grey so looking forward to seeing how your Vitesse looks when complete.

I was thinking of a white flash down the side of mine to enliven the overall grey.

Karl