Thread: Door vibrations while driving 41 Willys fiberglass cab. how to stop it?

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I know it's been mentioned before by some of the guys who've built (or fixed ) these things for many years, but putting chunks of modeling clay on your door or door jamb and closing the door gently to gauge the space is a neat trick. Whatever type of stop or stripping you install is going to have to be able to compress to that thickness or you're going to be slamming doors and cussin' .

Another reason I prefer the Soft Seal and Steele products, many of them are available in different thicknesses. The modeling clay tip is a good on to pass along Roger, sometimes we "assume" everyone knows that one!!!!!

One thing to look at is that the door isn't made for suicide operation, the thicker heavy duty edge to supprt the hinges and weight etc is at the 'A' pillar, when people do the suicide thing they just bolt the hinge stuff to the orginal latch side and that part has to be thinner to accomodate the mechanisms and not intended to support the weight of the door. And that door is heavier than you think. Is it the truck that is based on a sedan and uses the sedan door, they were (maybe still are) made in Ohio?

Originally Posted by rspears

Seems to me that at some point you're going to have to start taking things apart enough to see what you've got. Heading into the cruising season is not the ideal time, but pulling your interior panels, etc, to see how it's built is likely going to be the only way you'll really know. That's assuming you're doing your own work, and that you want to know. It's not comforting, but shiny paint and nice interior panels can hide all kinds of issues if you didn't see a build book photo journal or know the builder.

Yea Im going to most likely tear into it and see, I have some good fellow rodder connections around here that will help me out if something structurally needs welded or fixed.

Originally Posted by 1923tbucket

Yea Im going to most likely tear into it and see, I have some good fellow rodder connections around here that will help me out if something structurally needs welded or fixed.

I hadn't really considered what OJH pointed out, that the doors on the truck were not suicide originally, so the extra "meat" in the doors likely is non on the back side to help with support. That's a very good point, and could well be a part of the problem.

Originally Posted by Hot Rod Nick

Here's one of the bumpers like I posted above pushed into the cutout in the body; there are two per door.

Thank you much for taking the time to get that picture for me! I wasn't visualizing where and how those went on there. Im going to start by ordering these and continue down the road from there with the other stuff that people have mentioned here.

Originally Posted by rspears

I know it's been mentioned before by some of the guys who've built (or fixed ) these things for many years, but putting chunks of modeling clay on your door or door jamb and closing the door gently to gauge the space is a neat trick. Whatever type of stop or stripping you install is going to have to be able to compress to that thickness or you're going to be slamming doors and cussin' .

I was thinking about this earlier today as well ironically, I'm checking out some of the steele products as well. The door its self may not have cracked due to the rattling by its self, but it didn't help Im sure.

Originally Posted by rspears

I hadn't really considered what OJH pointed out, that the doors on the truck were not suicide originally, so the extra "meat" in the doors likely is non on the back side to help with support. That's a very good point, and could well be a part of the problem.

Im not sure how they were actually designed to be hinged with the glass body and doors, I can say theres not alot to bolt to up front. The door its self may weigh about 75lbs without the glass in it. It is a truck body, the actual hinges and everything seem to work pretty well being suicide.

On my '35 I've chopped the top, and did NOT like the original sealing strips, so I decided to use what is called "bulb seal"-it comes in different thicknesses, and is designed to compress and seal (much like the one that rspears is suggesting, but it is a round configuration-like this:

McMaster-Carr

I'm using some like item #10 (under "rubber bulb seals")-you can get it in many different materials (rubber, silicone, etc.), and it comes in smaller thicknesses than what is shown on this page-Bob Drake sells it too, but he wants too much for his-

Anyway, I've been coming on here for days trying to find a Thread to respond to, and I can finally contribute! Good luck, and let us know what you do (we all like to learn!)-

Well Im going to wait to get the doors back, I think Ive changed my mind and I may go with this weather stripping first. My reasoning behind it is this, when I am going down the road and have that rattle (and it is just a slight rattle) there is an abundance of wind that come from the front of the door towards the bottom. So I know that I need some weather stripping there, my issue is that I have a small edge on the door. I think I should be able to mount some of that weather stripping on there though, and to me it should solve the rattle as it is not terrible....at least I hope.

Originally Posted by 1923tbucket

Well Im going to wait to get the doors back, I think Ive changed my mind and I may go with this weather stripping first. My reasoning behind it is this, when I am going down the road and have that rattle (and it is just a slight rattle) there is an abundance of wind that come from the front of the door towards the bottom. So I know that I need some weather stripping there, my issue is that I have a small edge on the door. I think I should be able to mount some of that weather stripping on there though, and to me it should solve the rattle as it is not terrible....at least I hope.

Use the modeling clay trick to see what your gap is before you pick your bumper or weatherstrip. It's very frustrating to get it in place and find that the doors won't close without a shot from an NFL linebacker.

Originally Posted by rspears

Use the modeling clay trick to see what your gap is before you pick your bumper or weatherstrip. It's very frustrating to get it in place and find that the doors won't close without a shot from an NFL linebacker.

Yea I do not want to end up cracking these seams again, I have to go find my play-doh...I had an abundance of it at one time.

Another spot to look at on them is that there is an area low on the door that when closed is face-butting against the riser for the floor etc. The floor dosn't go all the way down to the bottom of the door and i have seen the inside face of the door rub against this riser section.

I have a few questions, what door locks do you have ?, Are the doors suicide mounted ?, How far apart are the hinges ?, What sort of hinges do you have ?, Also post a few pics as that would help us diagnose your issues.

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It's a 41 Willy's pickup, fiberglass cab, and the doors have been mounted suicide.