Door seals on Cessna.

Using only certified door seals, I have tried both methods and much prefer it on the airframe.
 
Lowe Approach said:
When you put the Home Depot I mean certified weatherstrip door seals on, did you mount them to the airframe or the door?

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I have a blog entry on replacing door seals realigning doors on a Cessna. The best stuff I found was door seals LLC mounted on the door and not the air frame. Though some here will claim any appropriate rubber seal you can find is satisfactory, as plains age the more malleable L-shaped seal works the best with the least amount of door interference. Does a special solvent needed to remove the old glue that works very very well.

http://welch.com/n46pg/category/doors/
 
Tried it on the air frame and experienced too much wear and tear. Applied it to the door and no problems at all. I have a Piper but same difference.
 
The OEM and afternarket seals tend to be too stiff. They feel soft, but get ten feet of it on the door and it will resist closing. On the doorframe it can get chewed up by people going in and out. The HD foam stuff will be nearly impossible.

The door hinges on the smaller Cessnas are often made of formed steel and sometimes are concaved a bit right from new. That makes closing the door difficult even with no seal. A shim under the hinge half on the doorpost helps with that. 182s and higher have cast aluminum hinges, and too thick a seal stresses the hinge and can crack it. You DO NOT want to do that. Unbelievably expensive to replace.
 
Just used the Door Seals LLC seal on my Cherokee. It is a good bit thicker than the original seal, and is mounted on the door. Pay close attention to the directions and be sure you don't mount it too close to the door edge..they're serious about the clearances they mention. We also replaced the.door bolts and clevis pins and rebuilt the latches. None of that was difficult or expensive, and getting the door to fit and align correctly is important. The seal was very tight and the door was difficult to shut, but after leaving it closed for a few days the seal formed to shape and it's great now.
 
NordicDave said:
I have a blog entry on replacing door seals realigning doors on a Cessna. The best stuff I found was door seals LLC mounted on the door and not the air frame. Though some here will claim any appropriate rubber seal you can find is satisfactory, as plains age the more malleable L-shaped seal works the best with the least amount of door interference. Does a special solvent needed to remove the old glue that works very very well.

http://welch.com/n46pg/category/doors/
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I really appreciate the detailed write up on your blog. Inspired me to remove and fix the door handles that have always been problematic. Now smooth and function well. Onto the door seals next.

I must admit that I made a clean spot and you know how that goes. Ive been stripping and repainting door jambs this last week and hope to put the seals on and be done with that but the shims under the hinges seems like a great way to improve the fit. I know that as soon as I do that, I'll want to mess with the cracked boots on the struts (since they are right there). Then one thing leads to another and next thing you know I'm ten projects begun but none complete.

I need to learn when to quit.
 
Lowe Approach said:
I really appreciate the detailed write up on your blog. Inspired me to remove and fix the door handles that have always been problematic. Now smooth and function well. Onto the door seals next.

I must admit that I made a clean spot and you know how that goes. Ive been stripping and repainting door jambs this last week and hope to put the seals on and be done with that but the shims under the hinges seems like a great way to improve the fit. I know that as soon as I do that, I'll want to mess with the cracked boots on the struts (since they are right there). Then one thing leads to another and next thing you know I'm ten projects begun but none complete.

I need to learn when to quit.
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I'm really glad the blog post was helpful. I got an ironic laugh reading your post thinking about the daisy chain "while I'm here" fixes and where to stop!
 
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