Major tip for eliminating door rattles on 944
08-21-2015, 03:26 PM
#17
Burning Brakes
Aw, shucks, t'weren't nuthin.'
Another idea, if surgical tubing off the roll is not available at your local hardware store for about 15 cents per foot, would be to get an 8' piece of polyethylene pipe insulation at a big box store like Home Depot, for about 89 cents. Slice it lengthwise into strips just narrow enough to fit into the hollow channels in our door seals, and this will make them a bit fatter, and so seal better.
Plan D would be use of Great Stuff expanding insulation foam, about $4 per can at Home Depot or probably Wally. They make two types of this stuff, you want the kind designed for use around windows, as it expands more gently and cures more flexible and somewhat squishy. Great Stuff is urethane foam, and is cured by atmospheric moisture, so may not cure in an airtight place. So, squirt some water into the hollow channel, to moisten the inner surfaces, then squirt in the Great Stuff, but not too much. It will expand and flow out any holes, so anticipate that and mask* off anyplace it may flow that you don't want, like onto your paint. Before it fully expands, close the door so that the expanding foam pushes the door seal snugly against the door frame, for a good seal. Let cure overnight.
*Saran Wrap is a good masking film, as polyurethane won't stick to it. Steal some from your kitchen.
As the hollow door seals on my '86 951 are mounted to the body and not the door, and as the door frame geometry is tapered such that pneumatic or foam-filled hollow seals would push outward against the door, I don't think the door would bind or have problems closing IF you used Great Stuff as described above, and closed the door before it fully expanded, and let cure in that position. All we're doing here is restoring the collapsed OEM hollow seal to its original thickness, i.e. expanding it by maybe 1/32" so it closes a very small gap.
Of my suggestions above, the thin-walled surgical tubing idea, coupled with refrigerator door strip magnets inside the surgical tubing, would be the quickest, cleanest, and most reversible and adjustable plan. So if you don't like it, just pull it back out.
That said, I'm pretty sure just the surgical tubing alone would work fine.
Another idea, if surgical tubing off the roll is not available at your local hardware store for about 15 cents per foot, would be to get an 8' piece of polyethylene pipe insulation at a big box store like Home Depot, for about 89 cents. Slice it lengthwise into strips just narrow enough to fit into the hollow channels in our door seals, and this will make them a bit fatter, and so seal better.
Plan D would be use of Great Stuff expanding insulation foam, about $4 per can at Home Depot or probably Wally. They make two types of this stuff, you want the kind designed for use around windows, as it expands more gently and cures more flexible and somewhat squishy. Great Stuff is urethane foam, and is cured by atmospheric moisture, so may not cure in an airtight place. So, squirt some water into the hollow channel, to moisten the inner surfaces, then squirt in the Great Stuff, but not too much. It will expand and flow out any holes, so anticipate that and mask* off anyplace it may flow that you don't want, like onto your paint. Before it fully expands, close the door so that the expanding foam pushes the door seal snugly against the door frame, for a good seal. Let cure overnight.
*Saran Wrap is a good masking film, as polyurethane won't stick to it. Steal some from your kitchen.
As the hollow door seals on my '86 951 are mounted to the body and not the door, and as the door frame geometry is tapered such that pneumatic or foam-filled hollow seals would push outward against the door, I don't think the door would bind or have problems closing IF you used Great Stuff as described above, and closed the door before it fully expanded, and let cure in that position. All we're doing here is restoring the collapsed OEM hollow seal to its original thickness, i.e. expanding it by maybe 1/32" so it closes a very small gap.
Of my suggestions above, the thin-walled surgical tubing idea, coupled with refrigerator door strip magnets inside the surgical tubing, would be the quickest, cleanest, and most reversible and adjustable plan. So if you don't like it, just pull it back out.
That said, I'm pretty sure just the surgical tubing alone would work fine.
Last edited by Dash01; 08-21-2015 at 03:45 PM.