I posted this on the Australian surf forum, but though it was worthy of sharing.
My 2nd gen doors rattled - seals were in good shape, but simply did not offer the resistance needed to hold the door firmly against the frame. I worked out that in the OEM rubber there are insertion slot points for the top section.
This turned out to be a really easy fix. Scored from the hardware shop 2 meters of
13mm "Foam Backer Rod" - its round, flexible, continuous length of cross-linked, closed-cell polyethylene foam for use as a backing material for hot and cold applied sealants. $1 a meter its cheap. To do the job you need about 1.7 meters for each font door, silicon spray and a set of pincher pliers helps.
The upper part of the rubber door seal sits in a seat or channel and is not clipped in, but the rubber is designed to lock itself into the seat. Whilst the rubber appears meant to be slid in, a bit of pressure the rubber can be pressed back easily into the seat.
At the points where the door seal exits the channel and begins to be held by pins (near the door latch and near the mirror) there are accessible slots already in the underside of the rubber to feed the foam in.
So leave the seal in place first off and gently remove the rubber seal from the first pin below the seat near the door lock button - where the rubber seal does a little dogs leg. The pins are like a big T shown below - so carefully stretch the seal downwards over the bottom part of the T, then upwards over the top part of the tee not to tear the hole in the seal. The first entry point lays just above this first Pin hole and you feel it rather than see it - the seal basically changes shape at that point, and you find the opening there.
So next I sprayed the foam backing tube and with that fine nozzle in the slot the inside of the seal with silicon spray - this is to make the foam slide in easier. Then its a matter of feeding it upwards. As its a pretty straight path, with pincher nose pliers I was able to push and feed the backing foam upwards pretty easily up to the top bend, then cut it off and reclip the seal back on the first pin.
Next the Top section to the mirror - the entry point is a nice defined slot in the seal just at the bottom of the seal seat channel near the front lower window opening, and it looks like this with the seal handing down (but I left the seal in for the first part of the feed). Its just before basically where the seal changes its shape:
Again spray the foam backing tube and into the slot to fill the inside of the seal with silicon spray. Then its a matter of feeding it in. As its a big bended run from the front window opening to the top door corner, I only managed a short feed at this point upwards with the seal still fitted.
So I removed the top part of the seal from the seat by gently prying it out of the seat, and removed the seal from the first few pins near the door stopper. This is a shot of the seal hanging down.
As its along path, the trick is feed in as far as you can first with the seal fitted. Then with the top of the seal removed, feel the seal and find the tip of the foam tube. Pinch that tight and hold with your fingers the seal and foam tip, then stretch the seal an inch or two to make more foam go in, and whilst stretched pinch and hold both seal and foam at the entry point together, then release your pinch at the tip. The seal then contracts and as you are holding the foam and seal at the entry point the tip of the foam is forced in further. Repeating this about 5-6 times the foam will go all the way up to the end without any issues. Then cut the foam when fully in up to the top bend and refit.
Its easy then to press the seal back into the top seat. Finished the door seal looks basically no different, but close the door and its a nice firm fit and no rattles on corrugated roads ( or even rough bitumen as my passenger door was really rattling) . A bargain easy fix - just do it !!!!.
Linear Mode
