Thread: fixing fiberglass door openings

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Has anyone had expereince with fixing door openings where your door seals go I have a fiberglass body where the previous owner cut the door seal flange off by mistake I think he did this to get the door to fit flush on the outside which I understand if you wernt going to drive the car But with out the weather stripping the doors whistle horribly at highway speed .I am currently trying to fix this and have a idea mabye someone can help if this is too complicated .... I pulled the interior out and put a 1/2 x1'' foam strip around the inside door edge and taped it to the door , then i took fiberglass strips and stuck the strips to the inside of the door opening ( the back edge of the opening ) were it wouldnt show after paint. and then rolled them down onto the foam strip to recreate the lip, then i plan on using "kitty hair" filler to smooth out the edges on the outside where the paint will go. I think the 1/2'' foam strip will give me enough gap to install a rubber gasket around the inner side of the door , Is there a better way to do this , this way is very messy and will proably require a repaint of the car to fix this

This is still just an idea, haven't tried myself yet. Using a strip of 20 gauge body steel, formed to a "U" shape, the steel strip can be screwed to inner door frame and rubber weather strip attached to it. Metal part can be painted to match car color, once rubber piece is installed, most of the metal strip is hidden from view. Slotted screw holes would provide some adjustment to snug it up to the door surface without being to tight. Sniper

thanks for that idea. I guess the hard part would be forming the steel into a U shape , by the way how did you get the drawing to post in your reply that is neet I want to learn how to do that I tried posting pictures along with this question but I couldint get them to upload .

Did the drawing, scanned it, saved it to my picture files. Then uploaded it when I posted my reply. Not difficult to do, just takes a bit of time. Yes, the corners would be the hardest part I would think. Suppose you could remove the inner section, make the bend, form the inner bend and weld it up. A tig, or torch, would work well in that instance, seeing how light the material is. Sniper

here are some pics of what Ive done so far. the first one is the door edge with the new lip fiberglassed in place with one coat of kittyhair and one coat of plastic filler. the second pic is of the oppsite side door opening without any thing done to it . when I bought the body I didnt notice this problem until I tried to install the weather stripping and the gasket was pointing twards the inside of the car

I see what your getting at now. No reason that won't do the job. Sniper