These photos show incorrect tubular door seals which I struggled with for many years after first restoration in the mid 1980's. These photos were taken after 20 years and 200,000 miles of service. The pictures show the top ends of the door seals, the first two with the end caps in place, and second two with end caps removed.

Notice the tubular cross section of the rubber part of the seal. When new these tubes were nearly round like a rubber hose. Near the striker plate the rubber part would completely fill the space between the body flange and the striker with additional interference fit. On one side it would be trapped between the plates of the lower hinge and had to be cut away to clear the hinge plates to allow the door to close at all. The tubes were so fat that it was nearly impossible to close the door, even using considerable force. I had the hinges and latches adjusted for maximum gap and still had to slam the door hard with two hands to get it to latch. This was so severe that the car soon had dents in the door skins near the top rear from the force of the heel of my hand when slamming it shut from the outside.

When driven on a rough road the latch would pop loose. When the latch pin and/or striker became a little worn it would pop loose a lot easier and more frequently. I was installing a new striker on the driver side about once a year (~10,000 miles), and changing the latch or latch pin every second year (~20,000 miles). With time the tubular seal eventually took a compression set in a more squashed position, but it never did relax enough to allow normal closure of the door. After 10 years and 100,000 miles I could usually close the door on the first hard slam without denting the door skin. After 20 years and 200,000 miles I could close the door with a firm slam with one hand, but it would still pop the latch regularly on a rough road. I was so happy the day that I finally removed these door seals and installed the correct thinner FurFlex and foam rubber seals (see next page).

On 31 December 2013, Chuck Schaefer, in IL, USA wrote:
"You can try cutting the seal with a razor blade to reduce the pressure required to collapse it, and the resultant pressure on the door latch. It worked for me some 13 years ago".