The International Cessna 170 Association

As far as I can tell, what George and Bruce said.
Just replaced the pilots side with the Piper style "P" seal. The fit changes at different points around the door. Add to the fit problems, the state of your door hinges. So, in my case tight around the top of the door, tighter at the bottom and not enough seal down the front but the door now closes better than with the hardened old seal.

Seals, tough to work with

c170b53 wrote:Seals, tough to work with

You just need a bigger club for the non-baby ones

Search youtube for the "penguin joke" and you'll find out all you need to know about seals.

How far does the Brown's T-9088 seal compress when the door is closed? N2699V came with some really thick half-round seal on the left door. The trailing edge of the door was over 1/4" proud, the lock wouldn't engage, and recently the door would pop open in turbulence. Last night in a fit of pique I removed all of the seal except for the leading edge of the door. The door closes flush now and the lock works. I took it around the pattern a couple of times and it stays closed and doesn't leak. At this point I'm tempted to just use the thin Home Depot weather stripping just to prevent chafing and call it good. I would rather "do it right" with the Brown's seal, but if it doesn't compress down to 1/8" I'm worried that I'll have the same issues with the door sticking out.

These doors are (obviously) not made of cast-iron. They are not as sturdy as automobile doors. When moving down the assy-line in Kansas.... every door was craftsman-fitted to the frames. Very few doors left the factory fitting exactly flush, and those that did were largely accidents.

Brian, in the case of the door jam and seal there is no one answer fits all 'do it right" method. My doors still have the original seal from Cessna. It does not and could never have sealed my door in a few areas.

Here is my rule with door seal:

1. It must be somewhat durable.
2. It must look like it should be installed on an airplane. (Sometimes you have to squint and look at the seal sideways from a distance to meet this rule).
3. It must seal out the coldest of jets of air that want to rush past the door and hit me in the face. (Not necessarily seal all the jets of air out.)
4. The door must close and latch 90% of the time with little effort and tricks and have little to no pressure on the door.

I've used as many as 3 different types of locally purchased "aircraft door seal" on one door.

Just replaced the door seals on 62C with seals from aircraftdoorseals.com (no product promotion intended). Followed the manufacturer's directions for install and the fit was perfect. See my latest post on our refurb below with photos of the seals.

http://www.cessna170.org/forums/viewtop ... 44#p133444

Brian