I was looking through my Victoria British catalog, and the hatch rubber weather stiping stuff is 119.95. Why the hell is it so god damn much? This is the only piece of weather striping i need, and its the most expensive. Anybody know where i can get one cheaper?

Also, it says that it requires professional instalation. is this true? I think that is pretty much horse ****. but i guess ill need to get it done so my **** doesnt get all wet when i was my car.

 

No way you would need pro install. It is a tongue and groove type deal. The toungue is the metal and the groove is the rubber seal. I know that on Ebay, there is a company that sells the door seals for way cheaper than VB. I believe VB is 50 each for door seals and this company sells them for 60 shipped (something like that). It may be possible that they have the hatch seal as well.

 

The Mazda dealer was the cheapest I found, at something like $60.

Edit: Might have been $80-ish. I know it was cheaper than VB and MazdaTrix--everything is cheaper than MazdaTrix.

 

well. i just emailed the company that sells the door seals on ebay to see if the have them for the hatch. It said that i should have a reply with 24hours, so i will let you all know what the deal is. thanks for the info by the way.

 

i think that i've got one laying around ... in pretty good shape ... i can try to take some pics of it and maybe make a deal? pm me if interested

 

Pm sent.

 

The reason for the price: Low volume.
It's an extruded dual-durometer EPDM rubber (70 durometer w/ sponge bubble cross-section) with a lanced-carrier metal core. Scrap costs would be high for such a low volume production setup. Now, if it was for a high production vehicle (90,000+ per year), I'd estimate it to cost $0.05 an inch for material/labor and burden; including packaging but not including scrap and machine setup costs.
(Can you guess what my job is? *chuckle*)

 

my guess is that you work the ferris wheel in Disney land. Ha. Well, i guess that the answer i was looking for? or something like it. thanks, becuase that made alot of sense.

 

I got mine from the local Mazda Dealer for $94 Total(After tax, No shipping).

Ialso go there for transmission bearings, pilot bearings/seal, and other hard to find things. They are 10 to 40% lower in cost on average so far.

Just hit the parts counter and ask.

 

Would that be extruded with a hot feed or a pinbarrel ? Two different compounds ? Multi-baffle preform ? or is it a Steelastic rig that extrudes around the metal "core"?

You are in Rubber / Plastics industry. At least an operator, but more likely supervisor or higher or a chemist, IE, etc. What company are you with ?

 

Some days I wish I could grow enough ***** to mix up some PVC and Acetal and see if the hopper will actually blow off the press.... Damn that would be cool.

 

I.E. / Cost estimator.

 

Just buy a standard roll of replacement weatherstripping out of a JCWhitney catalog (or something similar). You'll have to look at the cross section of the stock piece and measure the dimensions (width, height, etc). Then pick out the closest one in the catalog. They have a whole page of them to choose from, so you should be able to find something close.

I found a roll of weatherstripping at my local Advance Auto Parts store that was almost the exact same dimensions as the stock gasket, for only $15-20. It is just a little bit too tall. You can smash the back window down enough to get it latched though. It probably gives a better seal that way than the factory piece does. The only downside was that it came in a roll, so after I put it all the way around the window I had to glue the two ends together with some superglue. If anyone wants I can snap some pics of it for a reference.

Jamie

EDIT: I believe this is the exact thing that I used. I'm not sure about the dimensions, but the cross section shape is identical. You can get a sample from JCWhitney too if you wanna check it out.

http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/P...p-3581/c-10101

 

That's a smart less-costly alternative that should work great. Certain adhesives work great on this rubber, and is often used during prototypes. Very simple to do; but for mass production with specified tolerances, leak-free, and visual quality requirements, and contractual obligations, injection molding would be used to join the ends. The OEM product, such as this rubber seal, is cut-to-length, deburred at the cut end, then injected-molded at the end to produce the loop-shape for a perfect, leak free fit.

It's amazing how a simple little rubber seal can actually be the reason for an entire automotive assembly line shutdown; even for cosmetic issues on a simple piece of rubber seal that end-buyers would NEVER NEVER notice! Sometimes they'll inspect rubber sealing components with a magnifying glass for visual flaws...no bull! And, a few minutes of downtime in an assembly plant can cost alot of money when it isn't moving. Now, you know why the cost of an automobile can cost sooo much!

(Well, there's a free lesson in rubber / plastics components for Automotive OEM supply economics.)

 

Chas,

I read above that you're an Industrial Engineer? Good deal. I'm working on my Bachelor's in mechanical enginerring at Purdue University right now. I enjoyed reading the info you provided. All of it is very true, and its nice to know that other people know about the junk I deal with day to day....

Any recommendation on which adhesive to use on the rubber to join the ends?

Jamie

 

That is a good idea. I think i might be going this route, for it seems to be alot cheaper...20 bucks+shipping is alot better then the 80 and up form mazda dealerships or what not. Thanks alot.

So you are going to be a mechanica engineer? What are the classes you need to take for that, becuase im interested in going into that after high school...im a senior right now...

 

Lots of Math, Physics, and Science mostly. I've taken 4-5 Physics based classes. Statics, Dynamics, Physics I, Physics II, that type of stuff. Up through Calc. II in math, and NUMEROUS science electives. Then you'll also take stuff like thermodynamics, fluid power, materials classes, problem solving & design classes, CAD, 3-D modeling. If you don't like math, science, computers, and solving problems don't become an engineer. If you do, then you'll like it a lot.

Jamie

 

Loctite brand makes industrial instant adhesives, with accelerators (which is basically water, btw) that bonds well with rubber. I'll check on the specific adhesive part numbers and post. I've noticed that we use Loctite Blackmax, too, for some applications.

The company I've been employed with actually makes some extruded rubber seals that are ultimately for Long Motor Corp. (Victoria British). Our distributor didnt tell me any specific vehicle applications. It could have been one of hundreds of the specialty cross-sections. I was hoping it was for our FBs, but Long Motor Corp. does alot of other vehicle aftermarket sales: GM Trucks, Z-cars, Triumph, etc. We also do all the major automobile manufacturers' rubber seals per tier one status.

Btw, as stated, start with CAD. CAD is fun and will get you interested in initial design. Practice lots of math, statistics, cost accounting, physics, physics, and more physics =) ...and most important: experience in problem solving: Engineers = Problem Solvers.