The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Door weather stripping

OK, I installed the new weather stripping on my 49' 3600 and hung a door. With the new stripping I can't close the door enough to latch it. Yes, it's installed facing the right way on the door. Anybody have this problem? I had a feeling with all of the new rubber things would be tight but this is ridiculous.

I had the same issue. It depends on what rubber you got. The first time around with mine the profile was almost perfect but the rubber was way too hard not allowing the door to close all the way no matter how hard you pushed. The rubber that never worked for me was from LMC trucks.

I got another roll from a local classic truck shop and it works perfect. The rubber is much softer and has the exact stock profile.

I think mine came from LMC also. I ordered it a while back as I was stockpiling parts, just now got around to using it. This is a nasty thing to find out now that I've finish painted the door and re-installed......two steps forward one step back.

I did some research and also found that there are couple of different seals with the right profile but different heights. Mine is almost 3/4" tall. The same profile is available .5" tall so I cut a 1/4" off the backside of mine and going to give it a try.

You are lucky to have a resource like this locally. I might try Steele, as they are suppose to be the best. I don't know if it will fit my budget though. Steve

I had the same problem on my 49-3100 doors and used Steele part # 70-0331-73 which has a lower profile. It corrected the problem.

The Steele 70-0331-73 is what gave me the idea to cut a 1/4" off of the back of the high profile I had. I installed today and it is much improved. Now I'm fiddling with the door latch/strike. I can get the door to latch but it has to be slammed hard. I know the problem is that the strike plate isn't rotating the latch cam far enough to make it latch easily. There isn't any in/out adjustment on the strike plate, only up/down. The latch is brand new. Strike plate is original but does not look worn. Any ideas would be appreciated.

there should be an in/out adjustment on the strike plate... at east with my 54' there is. up/down, in/out

The plates are different in a 54' than a 49'

I should also clarify the door jam is different. In a 49' the holes in the plate and the door jam are flared for a counter sunk head. It's the counter sinking of the holes with the plate into the door jam that prevents in/out movement as the jam is only elongated for up/down movement.

The in and out movement of the '49 striker is accommodated by the movement of the threaded bars on the inside of the cab which the striker screws are threaded into. The countersunk screws don't have anything to do with the adjustment.
Take your strikers off and find out why the threaded bars aren't moving in and out.
Carl

The threaded bars are free and float just fine. The countersunk design of the striker plate holes will only allow very minimul adjustment in/out as they pull themselves back to a centered position in the door jam hole when tightened. Once you start to tighten the screws and the countersunk hole edge of the striker plate hits the edge of the door jam hole she pulls it back centered as far as in and out adjustment. The door jam hole is only elongated for up and down movement, not in and out. I only need a smidgen more adjustment to get the door latch cam to finish rotating into the latched position without haveing to slam the door to make it happen. I'm out of any more in/out adjustment left in the striker plate. Just wondered what other guys might have tried. I have a few ideas to try yet, just bouncing it out there to see if someone has a "duh why didn't I think of that" simple solution that I'm being blind to.

Yours has a wrap around on the striker with two rubber bumpers that go into the two holes. Armchair Troubleshooting.. I can think of just elongating the bolt holes on the cab so those metal bars can move a bit better? Good luck. Let us know how you solved it!

Deve, that is one of the thoughts I had. I haven't gotten back to the truck to try it. I had also thought about heating the striker holes, off the truck of course, and flattening them out just a bit. Then re-drill the holes. Take some of the flare out of them so they don't center into the door jam hole as much but leave enough for the screw head to grab.