Thread: Defender sill door seals upgrade question!

Hi Learned friends

I have the old sill mounted lower door seals on my Defender and the kids roll their feet over them every time they go in or out and they are totally trashed! and broken. I heard you can upgrade to the later type seal that mounts to the bottom edge of the door instead.

I lashed out and have purchased 2 seals CGE500350, some rivets ALR6280 and 4 foam blocks AWR3140. Apparently you need 2 foam blocks per door and was told 8 rivets per door but seals only have 5 holes each! Was also told to use seal as template and drill new holes in door.

The doors on my 1996 Defender 130 300TDi have rivets in the bottoms of the doors, holding them together!.

My questions.
Are these the same rivets? ie do I just drill them out and replace with the seal and rivets back through same holes?

Where do the foam blocks go? they are about 20mm x 15mm x 12mm with double sided tape on one side?

I believe they are standard on Defenders after about 2007

maybe a Photo would be the solution if anyone can oblige.

Thanks
james

Hi zwitter,

Both my 94 and 95 Tdi Defenders had the door mounted seals on them from the start, although the 94 didn't have the foam blocks. It sounds like those rivets are the rivets that are meant to hold the seal on (can you post a picture?). If they're into the bottom (so slightly sloped side) of the door frame there is nothing inside there for them to be "holding together" - that's just a single layer of 1.2mm steel. If this is the case, then I would say drill them out and use those holes for the rivets holding the seal, but like I say, if you can post a pic I can confirm this.

It would be a good idea to try to get the rivet ends out from inside the door if you can because they would have the potential to end up sitting over the already too small drain holes and combined with dirt or sand, end up blocking them up. Having said this I don't know how you could do this with the standard holes in the door. I've actually drilled an extra 3/8" hole in front of the drain holes in case of blockage.

The foam blocks go at the end of the rubber, although I thought they were only at the front corner of the doors to stop water blowing in, so I don't know why you were told you need two per door. But, it wouldn't hurt to have them there I suppose.