Big dust coming in the back doors

[Railvan]

I bought some weatherstripping from JC Whitney for the rear doors on my Suburban years ago, so I just looked at their website and found this:

http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/Prod ... rstripping

I bought a kit for the Sub back then, but I recalled seeing "bulk" stripping too, with several cross-sections available. At $35 to $55 for 25 feet, I'll have to order some up and see how it works.

And thanks for the heads up on the rear doors not having the extra seal. Knowing there were sold for RV conversions, it's hard to figure why they wouldn't include it. (Other than saving a buck...)

Brian

(Edit) Just did more digging and found this:

http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/Item ... 0000163408

Looks like it matches the side door stripping really closely.

[j.whitbread]

That would work. For the right configuration look at your side door.

I added a before/after pic in my gallery. Couldn't get it to post here. I have a tolerance of two tries pretty much.

[JoeyNick]

Originally Posted by j.whitbread

The seal fits perfectly on the spot welded body seam where the factory one would go. $75.00 No Mickey Mousing needed.

Any chance you have the part number?

[j.whitbread]

The part is actually the side door seal cut in half since it doesn't go over the door.

I was able to use my own VIN to order it. Then cut it to fit each side.

[adventureduo]

We must have got real lucky with our rig. Just finished 120 miles on dirt/dust and silt and the bumpers are covered with sand and dust. The inside of the truck is clean as a whistle.

[johnf]

This has turned into a little research project for me. I have had dust problems at the rear doors for a long time so I was very interested to read all of these posts and different ideas.

As others have done, I decided to add weather stripping to the pinch weld. I found some aftermarket weather stripping with the same size rubber bulb at Napa for $20 and cut it to fit the pinch welds on the sides of the van body at the rear doors. This seemed like a great idea but did not work on my van because it caused way too much pressure at the hinges and actually caused the doors to touch each other slightly at the top of the center gap between the doors when I closed them. I removed the weather stripping and the gap went back to normal.

I went to a Ford dealer to look at the rear door seals on several 2008 vans. It is true that the cargo vans do not have any seal on the pinch weld at the rear doors and the passenger vans do. However, here is the interesting part. The seal on the passenger vans does not come into contact with the rubber seals attached to the doors themselves (there is a small gap between them when the doors are shut). The seal on the pinch weld at the rear is for cosmetics only and it does not have a bulb as the side door seal does.

It appears to me that the seal on the rear doors of all Ford vans is made the same way, by the seal on the doors coming in contact with the van frame. It was never designed to be a rubber to rubber seal. This is different than the set up for the side doors where the seal on the doors was designed to come into contact with another rubber seal on the pinch weld around the van frame.

So, I think I am off to get some 3M type stick-on weather stripping to install similar to how Jeffrey did it.

For those who have added the bulb type seal to the rear pinch welds you might need to check the gap between your doors just to be sure nothing is rubbing there. For those interested in ordering the seal from Ford you must order the side door frame seal, as others have done, since the rear frame seal is not the bulb type. If anyone has any other thoughts on this I’d love to hear about it.

Thanks,

John

[johnf]

Using the 3M stick on weather stripping I have stopped most of the dust that use to come through the rear doors but now I can see a ton of dust coming in the rear slider windows that SMB installed. Does anyone else have this problem? Has anyone come up with a good solution to this?

Thanks,
John

[j.whitbread]

(Johnf wrote)--I went to a Ford dealer to look at the rear door seals on several 2008 vans. It is true that the cargo vans do not have any seal on the pinch weld at the rear doors and the passenger vans do. However, here is the interesting part. The seal on the passenger vans does not come into contact with the rubber seals attached to the doors themselves (there is a small gap between them when the doors are shut). The seal on the pinch weld at the rear is for cosmetics only and it does not have a bulb as the side door seal does. (End Johnf)

The side door seal does have the bulb, that's why I bought the side door seal for the backdoor. It seals and does not affect the door adjustment.

[Railvan]

I bought bulb type weatherstrip from JC Whitney and applied it to the side vertical sections of the rear weld seam. The doors were pushed out of alignment at the top, with the two doors almost touching at the top middle. I left it this way for a couple of weeks to see if the weatherstrip would compress some. It didn't, so I trimmed the bulb seal from the top half of the weld seam, leaving the U shaped part that covered the weld seam. This took the pressure off the door hinges, so they again line up OK, but I have not driven on any dusty roads since.

Brian

[deminimis]

I had dust coming in the back of my van like a log home in 1933 Kansas. I also have both of the factory weather strips. I adjusted the lower latch catch so the doors closed a little tighter at the bottom (causing the seals to engage better). The repair had the essential three elements that make a person's day: Free; Easy; Worked Great!