Window and door seals

[Fly Boomer]

11 minutes ago, wombat said:

I can't express how excited I am to have the door sealing well.

What was the SKU from aircraftdoorseals.com?  Did you trim around the hold-open?

[wombat]

The thicker one is meant for the bonanza.   It's ADS-1200-23

I'll try to remember to get a picture of the two profiles tomorrow.

 

No, I did not trim around the hold-open, although that is where I put the ends.

 

[wombat]

Got the new seal installed today.   It's touching the frame all the way around as shown by the silicone that transferred from the door seal to the door frame when it was closed.   (In the picture it makes it look like the door frame is slightly wrinkled aluminum foil or something.

I probably got the silicone on too heavy on the bottom (See picture) but it'll wear off and I can smear it around in the meantime.   The luggage door could probably use a little more.

Attached are some pictures mid-install, including the profile of the two seal models.    The one on the right is (of course) the one I'm now using. 

Having the new seal dry-fit with tape was really helpful.  I could then hold most of the seal in place with tape while I applied the 3M adhesive.  I was even able to line up the impression in the foam from the rivets to make sure I wasn't compressing or stretching it.   Last time, I just let the entire rest of the seal dangle and doing this as a lone person made it really messy.

There is a spot in the top back of the door where it wants to fold the seal over on itself, but I was able to put a little adhesive on that area and stick it to the inside wall of the door.

Can't express how excited I am to hear how well this works.  I'm flying at about 6:30 tomorrow morning.

[wombat]

Went flying this morning.  There is still one place (forward top) that has a bunch of noise coming through.  I think when the cabin has negative pressure compared to the outside so it pulls the door open a little bit.

As the rest of the seal compresses over time this might go away.   In the meantime I'll probably work on getting the inner door seal to press up against the door too.  I might also try to tighten the top door latch a little.

[Slick Nick]

Try opening the storm window and see if it allows the door to be pulled in a bit. Might be hard to tell if it’s any quieter because it’s noisy with the storm window open, but worth a shot to see if it makes a big difference. Also, how’s the adjustment on the latch pin at the top of the door frame? You can pull it in a bit by loosening the jam nut and giving it a turn. 

[wombat]

I did try opening the storm window, but as you predicted, I couldn't tell any difference because of the significantly increased sound.

 

My current plan is to leave the top door latch, but when I put the interior trim back on, put a thin (1/8" or smaller) shim behind the side of the door seal.  It won't be sealing against the 'outer' part of the door frame like everywhere else, but it should press up against the side of the door frame and seal that way.  And that is good enough for me!

[MikeOH]

After reading this thread my conclusion is that I'm VERY happy that mine seals well and is in good condition.  This project looks to be a nightmare and I hope I don't have to deal with it for a long time!

[Pinecone]

Some jobs are just better left to a professional. BYRON!!!!!

 

[wombat]

I've finally achieved success on this project.

After just stuffing a small thin piece of padding behind the 'side' of the door seal, it now completely seals all the way around and there is effectively no wind noise in the cockpit.   I used maybe 16" in several smaller chunks of the packing foam from some random thing's shipping packaging.   So pieces maybe 5 to 8 inches long, 1/4" thick by 1/8" to 1/4" wide.  This was not a precision cut or measurement, I just used scissors and hacked off a strip then shoved it back there with a flat head screwdriver.   But it works!!!  The plane is still loud if I take the headset off in flight, so I'm unlikely to start flying around the the handheld mic and speaker, but basically all of that noise is engine and and prop blade thumps instead of wind whistling.     

The first time I tried to close the door, it was impossible from the inside and really tough even from the outside.  But after even 15 minutes closed I was able to close it from the inside.   Now it's very much a hard pull and a lot of resistance closing the latch, but my wife can do it without struggling.   Nothing that feels like I am close to damaging anything.  The first time or two I was cringing though.

 

In the cockpit in flight with the Bose A20 headphones on it's a lot better.  I already fly with the volume all the way down on the Bose (and relatively low on the radio) so getting rid of the noise that makes it through the noise cancellation is nice.

[jcolgan]

On 6/23/2024 at 10:25 PM, LANCECASPER said:

Also it's one cotter pin to take the door slide off, which makes it so much easier to work on the door seal.

Where is this cotter pin?  
I am ready to start this project and would love to be able to open the door further. 1964 M20C. Parts manual is no help and visual inspection has not yielded a way to disengage the door slide, but I haven’t looked under any of the interior or door trim\fabric. 

[LANCECASPER]

2 minutes ago, jcolgan said:

Where is this cotter pin?  
I am ready to start this project and would love to be able to open the door further. 1964 M20C. Parts manual is no help and visual inspection has not yielded a way to disengage the door slide, but I haven’t looked under any of the interior or door trim\fabric. 

Where the arm attaches to the door

[PT20J]

It's inside the door.