47-55.1 Soffseal door rubber

[Jemezcrusher]

I bought a soffseal rubber kit for my 50. The door seal seams to be a universal type and has a peel and stick adhesive. Soffseal says I don’t need to put any seal adhesive on the door before attaching and the stickem on the seal is sufficient.

I am not that confident and wondering if anyone on the forum has experience with these

[vintovka]

Soffseal is good. Clean surfaces first, One H-lluva easier way to put in seal and they work. The old 3m and install is a major PITA

[Jemezcrusher]

Thanks Vintovka

I’ll give it a whirl

[MiraclePieCo]

The adhesive is VERY good. Once you apply it, it will never come off. Better than weatherstrip adhesive in the tube.

[Zippi]

How did the Soffseal work out? If it worked out fine can you post a link to where you bought it? I'm looking to do my doors on my 49. Thanks.

[Jemezcrusher]

Originally Posted by Zippi

How did the Soffseal work out? If it worked out fine can you post a link to where you bought it? I'm looking to do my doors on my 49. Thanks.

I decided to order door rubber from Precision. Worked out well. The seal i referenced originally was supposed to be for my truck (50 3100) but I bought it over two years ago. Turns out it was the right rubber for the windshield and rear glas, but universal for the doors. It also had window channel for a 51 and up (no window frames) so I had to order the epidermis channels and whiskers too.

Lesson learned was to double check everything when it shows up. I had a hiatus from the project and thought all was well, but when time to actually put it together, was too late to return it.

In the end, I used the 3m weatherstrip seal on weatherstrip and doors, then stuck them together

[65blackfleetside]

I tried soft seal. Maybe I got the wrong stuff but steel rubber worked better for me. They sell 2 different thicknesses. I went with the thinner stuff. doors work great.

[Zippi]

Originally Posted by 65blackfleetside

I tried soft seal. Maybe I got the wrong stuff but steel rubber worked better for me. They sell 2 different thicknesses. I went with the thinner stuff. doors work great.

Was that the peal and stick you got from Steel Rubber? By using the thinner one did it stop a lot of noise from coming in the cab?

[65blackfleetside]

No peel and stick on the thinner steel rubber product that I purchased. I had to use the black 3M weather strip adhesive. Advanced Auto Sells it. Its easy to put this stuff on backwards so make sure the orientation is correct. My problem with the soft seal is that the doors would not close all of the way after installing it. I know all of these cabs are different. Maybe it will work fine on yours? I realize The tolerances were all over the place from cab to cab 70 years ago.

I tried for hours to re adjust the doors after installing soft seal- I gave up.

I have no wind noise at all after using the Steel Rubber. If I remember correctly is was more expensive than the others?

Watch a few You Tube videos on how to install . Make sure you apply the 3M Adhesive to both door and weather strip. And extra set of hands really helps.

Get your doors adjusted good first before you install the weather strip.

[Zippi]

Originally Posted by 65blackfleetside

No peel and stick on the thinner steel rubber product that I purchased. I had to use the black 3M weather strip adhesive. Advanced Auto Sells it. Its easy to put this stuff on backwards so make sure the orientation is correct. My problem with the soft seal is that the doors would not close all of the way after installing it. I know all of these cabs are different. Maybe it will work fine on yours? I realize The tolerances were all over the place from cab to cab 70 years ago.

I tried for hours to re adjust the doors after installing soft seal- I gave up.

I have no wind noise at all after using the Steel Rubber. If I remember correctly is was more expensive than the others?

Watch a few You Tube videos on how to install . Make sure you apply the 3M Adhesive to both door and weather strip. And extra set of hands really helps.

Get your doors adjusted good first before you install the weather strip.

Thanks for the info. My doors are on the truck so putting the adhesive on is not possible. Can't get my fingers in around the hinge area. Steel Rubber does sell the peel & stick so I guess that's my option at this point. My cab is a 49 and the doors are 52. Steel shows 7/16" & 11/16" for a 49 and only the 11/16" for the 52. At about $5.50/ft. not sure which to go with. I've read it takes 14' per door. Any way to take a measurement to get a rough idea of which I would need? 1/4" between the two is a lot.

[Jemezcrusher]

Originally Posted by 65blackfleetside

No peel and stick on the thinner steel rubber product that I purchased. I had to use the black 3M weather strip adhesive. Advanced Auto Sells it. Its easy to put this stuff on backwards so make sure the orientation is correct. My problem with the soft seal is that the doors would not close all of the way after installing it. I know all of these cabs are different. Maybe it will work fine on yours? I realize The tolerances were all over the place from cab to cab 70 years ago.

I tried for hours to re adjust the doors after installing soft seal- I gave up.

I have no wind noise at all after using the Steel Rubber. If I remember correctly is was more expensive than the others?

Watch a few You Tube videos on how to install . Make sure you apply the 3M Adhesive to both door and weather strip. And extra set of hands really helps.

Get your doors adjusted good first before you install the weather strip.

I decided against the universal peel and stick from soffseal. I just could not get myself to believe it would stay put, so I bought the correct style from Precision and used 3M. Hope it works and hope I can get the doors shut

[Zippi]

Originally Posted by Jemezcrusher

I decided against the universal peel and stick from soffseal. I just could not get myself to believe it would stay put, so I bought the correct style from Precision and used 3M. Hope it works and hope I can get the doors shut

Are your doors on or off your truck? I just don't see any way to clean or add the adhesive with my doors on.

[e015475]

I'm getting ready to put the door seals on my '49.

I tried to find the Soffseal door seals on their website, but couldn't so I gave them a call to see if they had a part number.

Soffseal says that PN 9971 is the original style seal for the door. It comes with a peel and stick adhesive. The cost is about $30 a pair. The Steele Rubber seal material is sold by the foot for about $6, and there's about 14' per side, so by the time you get it to your front door, it's about $170. Pretty spendy, so I'm hoping the Soffseal works!

From what I can tell, the Soffseal has 11/16" sealing lip - note that the longest lip goes to the outside of the door, not into the corner. The Filling Station and Brother's both have videos on Youtube that show the correct orientation of the seal (and both say that in the majority of instances, customers install the seal incorrectly)

I got kinda nerdy on this whole seal thickness business and found some modelling clay, rolled it into 3/4" balls and put them where the seals seat in the cab. I put them about 18" apart from the top of the window down to the floorboard and slammed the door shut. I carefully peeled out the clay and measured the crushed thickness where the seal would be, and found it varied from about .350" to .250". The 11/16" seal will need to crush about 50% but a Steele Rubber 7/16" seal would only crush about 15-20%.

I've got bearclaw latches and my doors shut pretty well, so I'm going to try the cheaper Soffseal foam seals.

[e015475]

Also, I'm planning on removing the doors to put the new seals on. I can't see my fat, arthritic fingers being able to get the seal in the front side of the doors. I've had the doors on and off a bunch of times and I just need to be patient and wait for someone to come wandering into the shop to help me take them off!

[Zippi]

Originally Posted by e015475

I'm getting ready to put the door seals on my '49.

I tried to find the Soffseal door seals on their website, but couldn't so I gave them a call to see if they had a part number.

Soffseal says that PN 9971 is the original style seal for the door. It comes with a peel and stick adhesive. The cost is about $30 a pair. The Steele Rubber seal material is sold by the foot for about $6, and there's about 14' per side, so by the time you get it to your front door, it's about $170. Pretty spendy, so I'm hoping the Soffseal works!

From what I can tell, the Soffseal has 11/16" sealing lip - note that the longest lip goes to the outside of the door, not into the corner. The Filling Station and Brother's both have videos on Youtube that show the correct orientation of the seal (and both say that in the majority of instances, customers install the seal incorrectly)

I got kinda nerdy on this whole seal thickness business and found some modelling clay, rolled it into 3/4" balls and put them where the seals seat in the cab. I put them about 18" apart from the top of the window down to the floorboard and slammed the door shut. I carefully peeled out the clay and measured the crushed thickness where the seal would be, and found it varied from about .350" to .250". The 11/16" seal will need to crush about 50% but a Steele Rubber 7/16" seal would only crush about 15-20%.

I've got bearclaw latches and my doors shut pretty well, so I'm going to try the cheaper Soffseal foam seals.

It will be interesting to see how yours turns out. Keep us updated. If your doors shut ok and stops a lot of the noise I'm ordering the soft seal.

[MiraclePieCo]

Originally Posted by e015475

I'm getting ready to put the door seals on my '49.

I tried to find the Soffseal door seals on their website, but couldn't so I gave them a call to see if they had a part number.

Soffseal says that PN 9971 is the original style seal for the door. It comes with a peel and stick adhesive. The cost is about $30 a pair. The Steele Rubber seal material is sold by the foot for about $6, and there's about 14' per side, so by the time you get it to your front door, it's about $170. Pretty spendy, so I'm hoping the Soffseal works!

From what I can tell, the Soffseal has 11/16" sealing lip - note that the longest lip goes to the outside of the door, not into the corner. The Filling Station and Brother's both have videos on Youtube that show the correct orientation of the seal (and both say that in the majority of instances, customers install the seal incorrectly)

I got kinda nerdy on this whole seal thickness business and found some modelling clay, rolled it into 3/4" balls and put them where the seals seat in the cab. I put them about 18" apart from the top of the window down to the floorboard and slammed the door shut. I carefully peeled out the clay and measured the crushed thickness where the seal would be, and found it varied from about .350" to .250". The 11/16" seal will need to crush about 50% but a Steele Rubber 7/16" seal would only crush about 15-20%.

I've got bearclaw latches and my doors shut pretty well, so I'm going to try the cheaper Soffseal foam seals.

Thanks, you answered every question I had! Steele Rubber's exorbitant prices have definitely eliminated them from any consideration, while the SoffSeal are reasonable enough that I can afford to take a chance on them.

[Jemezcrusher]

Originally Posted by Zippi

Are your doors on or off your truck? I just don't see any way to clean or add the adhesive with my doors on.

THey were off as that is the easiest way to put othe seals on from what I am told

As info, the rubber I bought from Precision for the two doors was 50.00 shipped

Will let you know how they flange up when I reinstall the doors next week

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by e015475

Also, I'm planning on removing the doors to put the new seals on. I can't see my fat, arthritic fingers being able to get the seal in the front side of the doors. I've had the doors on and off a bunch of times and I just need to be patient and wait for someone to come wandering into the shop to help me take them off!

I get my "son-in-law" to help, an aluminum 1 ton jack. just under the door edge in the center and slide


I just did the door seals on a 49, I included them in a bag when I sold the truck and tried to resist all the pleas to install them, because of how they change the way the doors latch. I used precision seals from LMC and glued them in the correct orientation (having done it before) and both doors required a lot more force to shut, but like any seal it will eventually wear in.

I did order soffseals for the truck I am working on last week, they havent arrived yet. I ordered steele for the windshield and rear window though because anything that saves me time is worth the money. I thought it was kind of hokey that they sold the door seals by-the-foot, as if there are so many different sizes needed

[Zippi]

Good idea with the clay e015475. Think I will try that myself. So we have two fellows going to be installing the softSeal door weather strip. Let us know how good the quality is and how that 11/16" thickness works out on the doors closing. Pics would be great.

[e015475]

FWIW I was at Goodguys in Scottsdale a couple of years ago and Precision Rubber had a booth in the vendor tent.

I asked the Precision rep about Steele vs Precision windshield rubber and the degree of difficulty getting them to fit.

He said they should be the same since Precision supplies their window rubber to Steele for the AD trucks.

YMMV

[e015475]

"..........the SoffSeal are reasonable enough that I can afford to take a chance on them."

The 9971 Soffseal door seals are $28 on their website and about $10 more to ship them.

I tried to order them from Jeg's with a bunch of other stuff so I could get free shipping, but they were backordered and not expected to ship before March 9th. Jeg's was $28

[jweb]

I originally installed the Precision door seals and they were too thick. Since I used the 3M weatherstrip adhesive they were a pain to remove.

Then I ordered 1' pieces from Steele and Metro Molded Parts of their " thinner" option to test before doing them again. I don't think SoffSeal had a thinner option at that time. The Steele and Metro were almost the same and I ended up using the Metro Molded seals because they were slightly cheaper.

At that time no one had the stick on seals, I wish they had since it's so difficult to glue them on. Those stick on seals use VHB tape which works really well. We use the VHB tape every day in our shop assembling aircraft interior parts.

Here's a video to show how they are glued on. I think it would be impossible to do this with the doors on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SajNpDzRTdU

[Zippi]

Originally Posted by jweb

I originally installed the Precision door seals and they were too thick. Since I used the 3M weatherstrip adhesive they were a pain to remove.

Then I ordered 1' pieces from Steele and Metro Molded Parts of their " thinner" option to test before doing them again. I don't think SoffSeal had a thinner option at that time. The Steele and Metro were almost the same and I ended up using the Metro Molded seals because they were slightly cheaper.

At that time no one had the stick on seals, I wish they had since it's so difficult to glue them on. Those stick on seals use VHB tape which works really well. We use the VHB tape every day in our shop assembling aircraft interior parts.

Here's a video to show how they are glued on. I think it would be impossible to do this with the doors on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SajNpDzRTdU

Thanks for the link. I've seen that video. Looks pretty easy with the doors off. Just don't want to take a chance with scratching or chipping the paint. I'm taking home some clay today from work to check the gap in my doors to see just how thick of rubber I need. My cab is a 49 and the doors or off a 52. No telling what I might see.

[jweb]

Originally Posted by Zippi

Thanks for the link. I've seen that video. Looks pretty easy with the doors off. Just don't want to take a chance with scratching or chipping the paint. I'm taking home some clay today from work to check the gap in my doors to see just how thick of rubber I need. My cab is a 49 and the doors or off a 52. No telling what I might see.

I have '50 doors on my '51 but I don't think that matters much. It seems like the tightest part was near the hinges. So I would try the clay several places.

The only way you might be able to install the seals with the doors on would be the self stick style. There isn't any room at the front of the door when it's open.

[Zippi]

I got some gap measurements this afternoon on my doors. I'm not sure how much the rubber will compress but it looks like I can probably use the 7/16" from Steel Rubber. I was hoping to be able to use the 11/16" SoftSeal but that may not let my doors close very easy. What do you guys think?