Bulkhead/Bonnet Rubber Seal

[trymes]

Folks,

Long time, no see! My car has a very old, very brittle, and very ugly rubber seal on the bulkhead that seals against the rear of the bonnet. This seal was listed for a time in the club spares catalog, but is out of stock. I checked on the Wolseley 1500 forum and it seems that they face the same problem.

Has anyone found a good replacement, or perhaps someone has a sample that could be sent to Woolies, East Kent Trim, Scott's Old Auto Rubber, and others to be reproduced, perhaps? Maybe an existing extrusion could be made to work? Depending on the cost, maybe we could all pitch in, with extras going to club spares, and there's a lot more Wolseleys out there than 1.5s. Toss in the Morris Majors and we might have enough to justify a group buy, even.

I'd send a sample out to the various producers, but postage from N. America to the UK and Australia isn't cheap.

Thoughts?

Tom

[cjthorley]

I am also looking for the same rubber seal and happy to contribute to the cost of making them. If anyone has an example we could copy that would be great.

[tjt77]

if you are describing the seal that goes across the back edge of the bonnet (rather then those seals for the bonnet hinges) Try one from a jaguar Mk2 saloon..its not quite the same but is very similar in cross section and should work fine.. suppliers such as SNG barratt or david manners ltd carry them..

[tjt77]

one supplier for sponge rubber seals that has good reviews is  'sealsdirect.com' in Uk..   some of my jaguar/daimler colleagues state that the door seals they supply are better then those of the competition.. )know issue with varied suppliers is ;- seals too hard , making door closing difficult.. seals too soft causing durability issues..  most seem to comment that those from 'seals direct' are preferable .. 

[trymes]

Thanks, Tim. The seal on my Daimler V8-250 (Mk2 body) is only about two feet wide.

[tjt77]

Tom, true enough.. but the 'rail' on which the seal mounts is basically same angle and direction.. the riley 1.5 uses a 'T 'section seal and the jag/daimler one is different in cross section,but far more effective as regards actaul sealing ability.. hence, a length of extrusion for the jag/daimler from an established automotive seal supplier will work for you..
the seal on the 1.5 and its variants is somewhat of a compromise as there does not seem to be anywhere for the water to drain .. the ends of the rubber are often 'sealed' where they join the wings/fenders with a product that was originally sold as 'dum dum'.. ( a black water resistant putty used to seal seams) .. there is a 3m equivalent seam sealing putty commonly sold packaged in strips ... there are a lot of shortcomings when it comes to blocking water for draining into undesirable place on several of the riley cars ( 1st series Pathfinders had some truly awful shortcomings in this area.. and commonly the lower section of the A post rots away due to this oversight which allowed water to build up in that area, and also seeping on to the carpets causing further long term corrosion of floor corners)
Id suggest its prudent to do some modification to allow water to drain to a 'safe' place .. allowing the water to escape by running down the face of the bulkhead/firewall.. but be careful to ensure water cannot drain inside of car, which would then allow water to get under carpets..
Mk2 and onwards 1/5s have a very different (internal) hinge arrangement and often have problem with water injestion into front footwells of car as a result of hinge seals deteriorating..

one thing to be on the lookout for with the 1.5 is the area at top rear of front wings/fenders.. which suffer from early corrosion, particularly in the uppermost corners.. the factory filled these areas with horsehair and then gooped underbody seal all over them ( spray application from a body undersealing gun) and it was a counter-productive measure, which forments water and moisture build up in that area, which then causes the top corner to rot out from the inside ... always wise when doing routine rust prevention servicing such as pressure washing the build up of road crud, to get in there and remove that horsehair..then after cleaning up as best one can, coat the whole area with water repellant grease to prevent air/water contact with the metal..