Window frame fit

[Pete Boole]

I'm doing a trial fit of the doors/window frames before the whole car goes off for painting. Which area of the window frame do you find hardest to get into good contact with the seal? Be very interested to see if it is the same as mine. I think I need to actually modify the body-shell of the Elite to have the slightest chance of getting a proper all-round seal. Can't remember what the body-shell was like on the Excel!

Pete

[Johnwindwood]

In our case undoubtedly the quarterlight section.

[tonypoll]

In my case it was not only getting the water tight seals but also making sure the windows still go up and down easily.
Tony

[MrCoolA]

I'm doing a trial fit of the doors/window frames before the whole car goes off for painting. Which area of the window frame do you find hardest to get into good contact with the seal? Be very interested to see if it is the same as mine. I think I need to actually modify the body-shell of the Elite to have the slightest chance of getting a proper all-round seal. Can't remember what the body-shell was like on the Excel!

Pete

Peter any excuse to fiddle. When I changed mine it was the top angle where the B pillar meets the roof line. Saying that, it is immeasurably better than it was.
Meets

[Johnwindwood]

In my case it was not only getting the water tight seals but also making sure the windows still go up and down easily.
Tony

Very true. When first fitted, ours worked well but now the drivers only goes half way down-somethings moved!

[DavidOliver]

Hi Pete. I have done a window frame refit on the Excel, and to protect new carpets have fitted a double seal around the frame/body joint, sometimes called an Esprit seal.
However your Elite is not an Excel, you have drip gutters and window finishers to fit once the body is returned painted, the Excel has none, and water sealing goes against these.
For the door upper horizontal(ish) frame the gap to gutter finisher is 6 to 9 mm (Page 68 of Elite Manual).
On my Excel I used the U part of the top of the frame to seat an extra D shape rubber seal (the Esprit seal) to stop water ingress mainly from water hose horizontal spray. You might consider this for the Elite, but the seal will be fitting against the gutter to be fitted after body painting.
With the Esprit seal the visual aspect of the car is more than acceptable, hardly noticeable and to non-experts appears to be a factory fit.

Dave the cog.

[Jason.goad]

Hello Pete.
, On both sides it's the front edge of the quaterlight that doesn't seal well. It seems as though the front leg of the window frame is too close to the door skin. I'll have a look if I've got any pics. Hope that helps.
Cheers J

[Pete Boole]

Thanks for all your replies! The quarter light is definitely the worst bit on mine as well. There are two areas on mine that don't fit well: The "angled" section of the quarter light that follows the line of the windscreen, and the top, horizontal bit. Both are caused by the body-shell not being the correct shape, or being ground back too far at the factory (mine is a very early car as well). The top section of the body has an 1/8th inch bow inwards (and the seal does as well, of course), and the bit that follows the windscreen has been cut down too much so that the seal sits too high, not allowing the quarter light section seat properly. The shape of the body/window frame at the top of the quarter light are simply not the same contours, so the best you can hope for is that the seal gets over-squashed at this point but still allows contact in all the other areas. I'm hoping to fix problems on mine by building up with fibreglass so hopefully this will help get a better seal. I haven't even tried the fit of the window itself yet!!

The extra seal in the outer channel of the frame sounds like a good idea as well - will look into that.

Thanks

Pete

[tonypoll]

Not only can you fit a D shaped piece into the slot in the window frame but you can also add an extra seal around the edge of the door opening, sort of around the Lotus door seal These D-seals are quite cheap, so you might want to experiment (like I did).
Sorry I can't supply a picture at the moment.
Like John, my frame appeared to fit OK when I did it some years ago. Last summer the windows started to stick, so I removed the door card etc. With the window lift motor removed I could easily find where the glass was sticking, so I played around with the penny washer between the door beam and the frame until the window moved easily. The glass went from being unable to go more than half down to dropping like a stone when I remove my hand
Tony

[Pete Boole]

I'll do a trial fit of the glass tomorrow - see what it's like.

Pete

[Pete Boole]

Body flange extended:





Still a bit of sanding and a skim of filler before painting, but seal now follows contour of window frame in this area And you can see Kylie's legs!!

Pete

[Pete Boole]

Good day yesterday! Decided I was going to get the window frame to fit properly if it was the last thing I did! Interesting: If you move the whole frame backwards until it touches the B-pillar it actually fits the body profile quite well!! . Not really an answer though. The part of the frame that fit most poorly is the top of the quarter light, as you know:




Much too close to the body in this position. So - out came the grinder:





Removed about 5mm depth at the offending site (added to the rear of course). The window frame profile now follows the body almost perfectly (door open slightly to show this):




Still needed to add an extra 8mm of material on the bend to get the seal to follow the frame properly:





Really happy with the result . just the other side to do now and that is even further out





A 1/4" gap at the top of the frame. I wonder why Lotus didn't fix this issue at the outset?

Pete