Doorbeam water trap

[KevW]

I've been meaning to mention this for a while. When rustproofing the door beams on my current and previous Excels I came across a fist sized wedge of dirty sponge packed up against the door beam. The sponge can't be seen even with the interior door inspection panels removed but if you put your hand inside the door and reach up and forward towards the hinge it is possible to feel it and, with a bit of a struggle, remove it piece by piece. I imagine the factory stuffed it in there to prevent wind going in through the edge of the slot where the door beam enters the door but to me in wet weather or even after washing the car it's just a way of keeping the door beam permanently damp. Maybe this is why door beams rust to the point of failure on some older Excels.

After removing the sponge I couldn't notice any increase in wind noise. In fact it think if wind does get into the door cavity via the door beam entry slot it might even help to prevent rusting by ventilating the area.

[John]

Thanks for the tip, something to bear in mind if messing with doors. I used to work at an automotive supplier to Jag Landrover, and they did loads of foam for Noise Vibration Harshness insulation. Maybe Lotus used the foam to soak up some squeaks or rattles from the doors?

[reluctantgardner]

Couldn't agree more Kev,

I have just refurbed my drivers door beam and the sponge was wet through, like you I took the view that ventilation would be better to keep the beam dry than the feeble attempt at an "engineering solution" to keep the water out I wonder why Lotus didn't galvanise the door beams when they took the decision to do the chassis, perhaps the added weight of the galvanising was considered too far away from Colin's principles for me I would have gone with the weight of the galvanising and lost the weight of the foam

I also found the leading edge of the door beam, next to the hinge, had been sealed up with silicone and all this appeared to do was retain any water that had gotten inside the beam which then rusted the beam to the point that I had to have it plated.

Anyway beam is now all refurbed, tetra sealed on the inside, zinc primed and painted on the outside and all potential water entry points sealed and greased. Don't know whether it will have more wind noise as its not been out in the cold yet mind you the wind noise from the door seals is loud enough to mask any further noise from the inside of the door.



Cheers
Pete

[swiftcruiser]

Similar situation, plated front bottom corner of near side beam put grease nipple into beams to grease shaft and have sprayed bilthamber S50 into beams with extension pipe supplied. However am undecided whether to seal up forward end of beams or leave open. One concern was wind noise or will that not be an issue ??
Robert

[KevW]

I really couldn't notice any difference in wind noise after I had removed the sponge Robert. In my experience 90% of noise at speed is from around the door window frames.

I'm happier knowing the door beam isn't almost always damp now that the sponge has been removed.

[swiftcruiser]

Thanks for reply appreciated, found also that sponge has also been used at build to pack out between the body of the door and door beam , can't imagine 30years on a manufacturer could get away with that now !!!!!
Robert