Door construction and hood seal strips

[kabu]

Hi again,

I have a couple of quesions now. First of all, what is the 4AD door internal construcion supposed to be. Should there be a door skin supporting strip inside the door, going horizontally across the door about midway in door height? I have doors from two different cars, the other has a strip there and the other does not. Which is correct?

Other question is about the material used between the hood (bonnet) and the body. There is a strip of some material between the hood and the body and the radiator frame. I suppose this same material is used between the engine bay side panels and the body and radiator frame as well. But what is the correct material and its width and thickness?

Thanks in advance,
Pekka

Helsinki, Finland

[Paul Bouchard]

Pekka,

I have only seen doors with the supporting strip. There were two pieces of plywood attached about 1.5 inches by 3 inches with a square notch in the edge to keep the strip in place. One other suggestion is to consider some form of method of adding a diagonal wire or rod that can be tensioned to bring in the bottom rear door edge flush to the body. Do a test fitting and see how things line up. I used the inner door panels to help keep the curved shape of the doors... but this did not last for ever.

As for the bonnet rubber, I have an A Series, but I think that the rear rubber is the same. The front buffer strip (on the grille shell of the A) is a flat woven strip that is laced through slots in the grille shell.

I will attach a clip from an article by Bill Haverly + a quick graphic of what I remember as the support bracket. This was made from a piece of plywood and attached to the center vertical door member.

Paul

[kabu]

Thanks Paul,

I need to examine the door closer. I can propably figure out the correct position and dimensioning of the support strip from the old parts now that I know there should be such a strip.

Thanks for the hood seal drawings as well. Can you also tell which type of ruber the seals are, are they solid rubber or sponge type? Does the rear seal have a solid or hollow bead?

BR/
Pekka

[Paul Bouchard]

Pekka,

The rear seal is definately solid rubber. I got mine from Abbington Spares in the US but I am sure that Paul Beck or Woolies would have something similar.

As for the front rubber, I can not say since my car does not have this. I would imagine that it would be solid rubber. One thing to consider is the thickness. You do not want to put too much upward strain on the bonnet and front hinge. This could distort the bonnet and I have seen some with small cracks forming because they are too tight.

Paul

[Peter McKercher]

Pekka
I believe what you are looking for on the front under the bonnet is radiator shell lacing. It weaves through the holes in the rad shell and looks like the material used for military trouser belts only narrower. It is available at any vintage car specialist for a few dollars.

[indian301]

My car is a 1952 4AD and it has 1 piece of hard rubber on each side of the radiator shell where the bonnet closes on it. This might be the one item that has never been touched on my car. It is mounted with very tiny straight slot screws.

Dave

[Paul Bouchard]

Pekka,

Dave is correct. Having just returned from the Mad Dogs & Englishmen show in Michigan, there was a chance to see some very original 4ADs. Each has the hard rubber strip as per Bill Haverly's diagram.

Hope that this helps.

Paul

[kabu]

Thank you all,

Yes this definately helps. Now I just need to find suitable rubber strips somewhere. Any hints? Of course Trevor might have those, have to find out.

BR/
Pekka