Hard top rear seal, favour

[Fonzey]

Hi Team, I noticed something on my car recently (took me long enough) - I think the seal running across the trailing edge of my hardtop has not been cut where it should be, meaning it doesn’t quite sit flush.

Referring to #7 here, it looks like it’s trimmed to sit either side of the scoop vent. Mine is a single uninterrupted seal going the full width of the roof, either my roof just needs slackening off and pushing back harder to close up the gap - or the seal here is preventing that from happening in which case 5secs with a craft knife will probably sort it.

Before I chop up a seal in the name of science, is there any chance somebody could check theirs and let me know how it looks?

Ta

[andybond]

I’ll check tomorrow morning and get some pics.

[Fonzey]

Cheers Andy!

[andybond]

Bit later than planned but [mention]Fonzey[/mention]

Lotus supplied and fitted Mohawk

[Fonzey]

Cheers Andy, that’s helpful and it is indeed different from mine.

It seems like you have one seal that follows the 'D of the scoop whereas mine has two seals - one runs the full width of the roof (so across the flat part of the D shape) and a second seal covers the inverted C part of the D shape, if that makes any sense?

So I think I do need to trim my seal so that the flat part of the D does not have any seal stuck to it - that should make my roof fit about 1mm flusher… priorities eh?

[andybond]

It might be worthwhile to wait to see if anyone else has another viewpoint?

[johnfishcurtis]

I can’t work out or remember if mine is one whole seal along the rear section.
Definitely a small seal around the (short) roof scoop.

[Fonzey]

Thanks John, your sort of looks similar to mine but it’s hard to make out the details against that colour scoop! Get an orange car pls and re-upload.

[johnfishcurtis]

I pretty sure it’s a complete seal across the rear, then a small seal around the scoop.

Photoshopped just for you

[andybond]

Is that even a photoshop? Would never have been able to tell?

[johnfishcurtis]

Nah, its a cr@p edit from my phone.

[lotuslee]

[lotuslee]

[lotuslee]

[lotuslee]

It annoys me too, currently have one on order

[Fonzey]

Thanks Lee, that’s useful.

Mine looks very similar to yours with the big difference being that the D shaped seal on mine seems to tuck under the main seal which goes across - which I guess is where the alignment issue comes from:

I think of all the variations of this in this thread I like the look of @andybond’s the most - with just one uninterrupted seal going all the way around. Think I’ll order some and see if I can emulate that.

[HOON]

Hi,

Mine’s a continuous length of seal running the whole width of the roof.

I had a 190 previously and someone had cut and fitted the seal as they are a bit of a fiddle to fit so it ended up being in 3 sections! . I ended up buying a new seal from B&C as it messed with my chi!

On my current Exige.

[Fonzey]

Cheers Hoon really useful.

I’ve got a new length of seal coming next week so I’ll chop around my current one to mock something up then fit the new one once I’m happy.

[HOON]

No probs Fonzey

I lightly applied the new seal and tested fitted the roof on the car to ensure that the intended position was the right height/curve.

The reason being this that the seal fits to a thin/curved edge so it’s best to check before applying pressure for a permanent bond.

[Fonzey]

I’ve switched my seal over now. It really does seem like every S2 I look at has a slightly different way for the seal to be applied - I guess it’s just one of those ‘quirks’, but armed with a fresh length of OEM seal I got brave and started over.

Mine had two pieces of seal, one applied the full width of the roof and one stuck to the rear clam on the vent aperture:

This created a bit of an air gap which both looked naff, but probably wasn’t doing any favours to the efficiency of the roof scoop pre-charge cooler.

I tore it all off, cleaned up the surfaces and applied one uninterrupted length of seal across the whole roof, including the scoop.

It now looks about 1000 better to my eyes, probably something that nobody else will notice… but hey ho, that’s life!