MM Lowlight outer waist seal

[Minor49]

Has anyone fitted an outer waist seal on a 2door MM? If so would you share how you made a flange to attach the seal to the door panel as there is no flange to speak of on our doors?
John

[gtt1951]

Hi, I have a Lowlight, but it is currently fitted with a pair of much newer doors, which do have a "gutter" in the underneath of the door to fit a rubber strip - is this what you are referring to?
I also have a Series MM Highlight, with original doors, and I can go and photograph all the parts of the doors that have any form of seal and you can then tell me which item you wish to know about.
Regards, George.

[Minor49]

Hi George
Thanks very much for that would be helpful, our doors are the early ones, any info would be helpful
Regards John

[gtt1951]

Hello John,
It was proving too difficult to photograph the underside of the 1951 doors (Highlight Series MM), but they do NOT have the door bottom channel for pulling in a rubber seal, which seals against the sloping face of the sill kick-plate.
However, the Series II spare doors I have, do have this channel, as do all later cars (with unrepaired doors).
Door repair panels (the door bottom one) doesn't have this channel and it has to be separately bought and welded on.
So, first photo shows a spare door bottom with the channel (no rubber, but this can be bought from ESM) -

Door bottom channel.jpg (1.84 MiB) Viewed 1391 times

Believe it or not, that is a black door!
The next image is of the inner face of the bottom of the same door, where the draft excluder fits. This item is a metal strip (with matching holes) that gets covered with a "U" shaped rubber sleeve and is fitted to the door with special clips).
The replacement rubbers need matching holes punched in them!
This rubber seals against the upright top part of the kick plate.

Inner lower door draft excluder location.jpg (2.35 MiB) Viewed 1391 times

Which item were you referring to in your post?

I'm hoping that another Series MM owner comes along to confirm whether the earlier doors had the door bottom channel.

George.
P.S. Just been on the ESM website and their search facility appears to have degraded as I had to make a lot of guesses for search words - in the end, search "door" and "rubber" separately to see the parts!

[philipkearney]

Below is a couple of photos taken tonight of my 49 saloon. The car is original and it has the channel in the bottom and the rubber strip. It also has the rubber strip on the door face which closes against kick panel.

IMG_5192.JPG (1.78 MiB) Viewed 1377 times

IMG_5191.JPG (407.24 KiB) Viewed 1377 times

IMG_5187.JPG (1.57 MiB) Viewed 1377 times

[gtt1951]

Interesting - so why doesn't my March 1951 Series MM have the bottom of door channels?
More to the point, what does the OP mean by his missing seals?

George.

[myoldjalopy]

There is a school of thought that the seals on the underside of the doors create a rust trap. I left the rubber seal, and the channel it fits in, off the bottoms of my doors when I had them repaired. I did, however, fit the rubber strip which is at the bottom of the door face and closes against the top of the kick plate.

[gtt1951]

Minor49, which seal were you referring to?

[Minor49]

Hi George
Thanks fo all the info! However the waist seal I was referring to is the glass seal, the is an inside seal but no outside seal or provision for one,

Kind regards
John

[Minor49]

Photos attached

[philipkearney]

Interesting - so why doesn't my March 1951 Series MM have the bottom of door channels?

George.

Hi George. Good question - I'm not sure ! My 49 car has them - as seen in the previous photos. I had a look tonight on my 1952 highlight sidevalve tourer and it has the rubber on the base too - see photo below. It's a very original car so I'm pretty sure the doors haven't been changed. So, not sure why your car doesn't have them.

IMG_5243.JPG (1.08 MiB) Viewed 1311 times

IMG_5237.JPG (1.54 MiB) Viewed 1311 times

[philipkearney]

Photos attached

Ah, that makes more sense ! As you probably know, early cars didn't have an external glass seal. This is probably why the bottoms are rotten out of most of the early doors ! I've never heard of a seal being retro fitted but this forum is the right place to ask !

[Minor49]

I’ve found details for fitting an outer seal, it’s in the workshop manual!!! Body section R.17
To simple!!
Thanks for the comments, John