Upper Cab to Door seal project

Here's an update on my progress with trying to remake a upper door seal.
During this vacation I was able to spend some time on this project.
The second try turned out much better than the first with some exceptions.
Here is a picture of the mold (4 pieces) and the part.
http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/817...try2001vo7.jpg
Here is a picture of the part itself, just out of the mold.
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/352...try2005wh4.jpg
The shape ended up pretty nice, even the really thin 1mm rib came out of the mold without tearing. As you can see, the color isn't right. The hardener I used was slighly old, and for some reason lost it's black color. The result is this translusant molasses colored part shown. Try 3 will be with some fresh hardener so the parts should look like the original rubber parts.

Don't know when I will get another chance but when I get some results, I will let you know.
-Brian (and Angry)

Keep going, you've almost got it there. I'm impressed. Please put me down for a set definately. Maybe two.

Now that's some cool stuff there! Nice work, AT!

I was just out looking at my truck (not too long it is -14 deg!) and I didn't recognize this part. Where does it sit?

Scott

It goes on the upper corner of the door. Follow the rubber till it gets to the top corner and stops (drivers side: Upper RH corner). These widgets are made of unobtanium, can't get-em anywhere. This guy is really on the beam here. Wonder could he make fuel tanks too? And filler necks, and brake blocks and NP205 drop-in kits and......

That does look much better..amazing what skills some people have!

That is far superior to the rags I have stuffed in the doors now...

Well, I hadn't driven in the rain before with this truck, so I didn't realize that I was missing them. I do see where they would go now.

Scott

So the last time I was working on rebuilding my truck (in 2008!) I got partway through the problem of re-making the rubber upper door seal:
https://i.imgur.com/Szs1DP4l.jpg

I got distracted by a couple of kids for a while but this winter I retreated back indoors to finally get this problem sorted.
To rewind - 14 years ago, this is what I ended up with:
I had access to free 3D printing at the time, so I printed a 4 piece hard mold (I eventually replaced the small wedge piece with a welded metal block). I only made one side at the time
https://i.imgur.com/CtzJfMbl.jpg

I used 2 part urethane rubber and made this:
https://i.imgur.com/Vesq0Sjl.jpg

(I messed up the colorant, so it is this translucent molasses color). I boxed the project up and put it away for those 14 years. I recently pulled it off the shelf and found that the urethane part was still in really great shape. It hadn't hardened or broken down. Granted, it was kept on a nice, cool, dark shelf in the basement.

So fast forward to today...
This time around, I didn't have access to free 3D printing, so the cost of making 2 hard molds kept me from trying that route again. I decided to make silicon molds from a pattern that I got 3D printed.

The first step was to re-model both sides in CAD. My old models were really old .STLs that I could work with, so I had to re-make them.
https://i.imgur.com/oEEHjBXl.jpg

I then had the patterns 3D printed. The quality of the prints is really nice, resulting in just a slightly textured surface. Here they are next to the original parts from my truck:
https://i.imgur.com/NQWf6DQl.jpg

(continued in the next post)

The 3D printed pattern was then used to make a silicone mold. The part is kinda difficult to mold because of the weird 90-deg shape. I tried this layout for the driver's side part, I might change it up for the passenger side. Here it is partway through the mold-making process. The base is some modeling clay. Silicone is then poured over this to make one half of the mold.
https://i.imgur.com/GnVTzQul.jpg

The mold is then flipped over, the clay is removed and another layer of silicone is poured.
https://i.imgur.com/iy4CFIVl.jpg

After curing, the mold is separated and the pattern is removed.

The part has a simple metal part that is overmolded, so I made that and coated it with shellac to help it bond to the urethane:
https://i.imgur.com/jV0jBpul.jpg

That part gets placed into the mold and then I mixed up some 2-part urethane rubber and poured it into the mold. After curing, the mold halves are separated:
https://i.imgur.com/htXffLZl.jpg?1
You can see the metal piece partially exposed in this first molding try.

Here is the first try part removed from the mold (it still has the molding sprue). You can see the slight texture from the 3D printing reflected in the part:
https://i.imgur.com/p26xSOcl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/2a4vxmHl.jpg

Here is the original, the pattern, and the first try of the repro:
https://i.imgur.com/LlZ6l4cl.jpg

The first try has a few bubbles that created voids due to my mold style. I made a couple of simple countermeasures for that and tried another shot, we'll see how that turns out. Once I have this side molding well, I will repeat the process for the passenger side.