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

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So my Willys has yet another issue I am addressing. The doors have an issue rattling as I go down the road. The rattling has been so bad in fact that it has cracked the skin on the doors. The doors are now off and being fixed at the body shop, now I must address what caused it (or at least what I think caused it).

My first thought is weather stripping. The thing is that weather stripping is not exactly very pretty. While its not a show vehicle it does have suicide doors, which will be propped at shows. Maybe I can pull off some sort of weather stripping but I want it to look good. Im not to sure what else to go to in order to prevent this issue again. I have even thought about some sort of small rubber adhesive stop, but I am not to sure what will work and stay attatched. I feel like I am posting alot, but I have about 50 different projects going on with this truck at once.

You may have a structural problem. Can you describe the internal steel bracing in your body, how it ties to the body to frame mount points, and what type of latch you have up front? Your doors should be hanging from steel that's tied down to the frame via the body bolts, and latching to steel also tied down to the frame. While it does stop rattles, the weatherstripping is there mainly to stop water and dust, not to provide structural integrity.

On my '32 Brookville the doors rattled when I first got it. I found that the builder must have screwed up and left out the rubber bumpers that are supposed to be pushed into rectangular holes cut in the body in two spots and when I got those bumpers from Brookville and pushed them in, all the rattling stopped. Of course my body is steel, but I think if it was fiberglass such a rattle could cause cracking. If you don't already have cutouts for such rubber bumpers, I'd look into Dremel'ing a couple on each door sill, finishing up the hole edge per good f'glass practice (not sure what that is but I'm picturing a raw hole not being good to leave as is). If there isn't already a bumper designed for your specific body/door you'll have to be creative and find one that can be made to work and still let the door sit flush. Just for reference, here's what my bumpers look like:

Being that they are suicide doors, do you have the "dead bolt" type lock that goes from the front of the door into the jamb after you are in the car.
They might be the thing to help secure the door from vibration along with good rubber.

Good responses here thank you! Im not sure what the doors are tied into as I did not build the truck from the ground up, nor have I had the interior apart to see. They are however hung with some pretty heavy hinges in the back that must be tied into some steel somewhere as they are very sturdy and do not move at all. There are 2 hinges for each door as well. There is also metal bracing tied through the door and wood structure inside from side to side to strenghten the door up.

As for those rubber stops in your door sill could you post some pictures of those installed? I have nothing like that, its kind of what I had imagined.

I do have the deadbolt installed in the front with the suicide doors, its pretty solid as well. I need some sort of weather stripping or stop as was said here as I have nothing currently.

The inner structure isn't cracked as well, is it tbucket?

Originally Posted by 1923tbucket

Good responses here thank you! Im not sure what the doors are tied into as I did not build the truck from the ground up, nor have I had the interior apart to see. They are however hung with some pretty heavy hinges in the back that must be tied into some steel somewhere as they are very sturdy and do not move at all. There are 2 hinges for each door as well. There is also metal bracing tied through the door and wood structure inside from side to side to strenghten the door up.

Do you know who built the body you've got? It should be pretty easy to contact them and ask them to explain their internal bracing method for the door pillar on the body.

Thats the other thing there, so far no leads on who built the body. The truck was built by some shop in Kentucky, I can try and contact the former owner but he didn't know very much about it either. Its been kind of passed on and was never really finished right.

Originally Posted by 1923tbucket

...As for those rubber stops in your door sill could you post some pictures of those installed? I have nothing like that, its kind of what I had imagined...

I was just at the car earlier today but now I'm an hour away and can't go back until Friday the earliest. But I'll text my buddy who lives there and ask him to take a pic and I'll post it a little later.

Originally Posted by 1923tbucket

Thats the other thing there, so far no leads on who built the body. The truck was built by some shop in Kentucky, I can try and contact the former owner but he didn't know very much about it either. Its been kind of passed on and was never really finished right.

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.

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

I would suggest that you take a look structurally first, and if the truck is well reinforced, then go to Steel Rubber Steele Rubber Products - Quality Crafted Automotive Rubber Parts and Weatherstripping or Soff Seal SoffSeal Weatherstripping & Rubber Details go through their catalogs then install something that looks like it should work. Yeah, might not be pretty, but even quarter mill cars like Ferrari's and Lambo's have rubber seals.

Makes me wonder if those doors should have items like mine - about 1/2 way down. A tapered slide goes into a slot in the door that has rubber cushions and called dovetails. Look in any Ford resto catalog like MAC's for them- a good part number for a male dovetail is 40-35577 with female counter parts also available. My doors, and on a roadster have virtually no vibration although I also added a lot of tubular steel framework to cut it back as well even though it is a steel bodied car.

My 40 ford has those if you need a search reference.

'Bucket, I'm in the process of establishing gaps on my 'glass body for painting, and yesterday got the driver's side door pretty well done and I'm amazed at the change in the action of my door. Where before I had to close very firmly to get it to latch fully now it can be pushed in easily, but it also has some "rattle" to it after being closed. I'm going to be looking back at some SoffSeal weather stripping (No E725A has been recommended, placed on the door, not the body - SoffSeal Weatherstripping & Rubber Details ), or if that doesn't work some rubber stops at a couple of places to close against. I still have trouble thinking that the door can shake enough to delaminate though, but that may speak to a poor initial lamination process too, right?

Originally Posted by rspears

I'm going to be looking back at some SoffSeal weather stripping (No E725A has been recommended, placed on the door, not the body - SoffSeal Weatherstripping & Rubber Details ), or if that doesn't work some rubber stops at a couple of places to close against. I still have trouble thinking that the door can shake enough to delaminate though, but that may speak to a poor initial lamination process too, right?

That's what I used on 'glass cars Roger, most recently the Merc bodies, don't recall the part number for the seals but they worked very well on the doors and were built very nicely and didn't just hang there and look like an eyesore!

PS--I've still got a set of the "eyesore" door seals if anyone's interested!!!!!!!