Rear Hatch - Engine - 74 Bus One Piece Weatherstripping

[dr8track]

I recently had my bus painted and ordered the one piece gasket for the rear engine compartment from Wolfsburg West. It fits in the body beautifully, but the problem is the rear door will no longer close. I have the latch catch on the engine compartment moved all the way forward, but no amount of pushing will get the door latch to connect and close. I'm stumped on what to do to remedy this problem.
The gasket is a pretty firm rubber vs the gasket around the rear hatch to the interior. That particular gasket is pretty soft and. pliable.
If anyone has any thoughts about how to remedy my problem please let me know. I'm not sure is there is a different gasket that is not as thick and "stiff" that is available?
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1974 Westfalia Deluxe Campmobiles - Lake Stevens, WA

[busdaddy]

[dr8track]

No, still impossible to close. Here are a couple pics

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1974 Westfalia Deluxe Campmobiles - Lake Stevens, WA

[Starbucket]

Are there any vent holes to let the air out of the center when compressing? If not drill a few where the hatch wont cover them

[dr8track]

I tried both of these suggestions and neither worked. I can't believe I;m the only person to have this problem. I'm stumped on what to do to fix it. I'm still wondering if another company makes a seal that might either be thinner or made of a softer material? As i mentioned, the old seal on the rear door to the interior is a softer rubber.
Not sure what to do at this point.
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1974 Westfalia Deluxe Campmobiles - Lake Stevens, WA

[airschooled]

You’re not the only one.

The rest of us are just busy driving our late buses with shredded and leaky hatch seals.

For anything meaningful to change, we could try holding our parts shops accountable, but that would require them to listen and respond to our concerns without getting defensive and denying responsibility.

Robbie
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Learn how your vintage VW works. And why it doesn't!
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[Ceckert64]

I’ve had the issue too, I just slam it shut and eventually it gets better
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1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop

[jjvincent]

Adjust the striker plate?

[W1K1]

weird the 68-71 seal I just got from wolfsburg west is really soft

the one that came with the bus from CIP that was 20 years old was hard as month old Twizzlers
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http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/jim_martin_engine_build.php

1973 super
1965 squareback 1500E
1971 bay window westy- subi swap

[busman78]

Try loosening the hinge scews, there is usually a little wiggle room, pull back and tighten them. With max latch/catch clearance try closing the lid slowly, if you still need more the catch (part mounted to body) can be massaged back with a hammer, that is gently with the blows.

[Globespotter]

Just a thought - warm the seal with a hair dryer, then close it.

It may close and compress the seal over time.

I know my aftermarket seals are bad. I have to slam my passenger door so hard to close it, it's nuts.
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1977 Westfalia - October 2015 - Current
1971 Super Beetle - May 2012 - Current
1979 Westfalia - 1986-1991
1971 Super Beetle - 1977-1980

1971 SB Survivor Story: https://globespotter.com/
Road Trip Thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=511800&highlight=
My 77 Westy Thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=647114&highlight=

http://vw-mplate.com/mcode.php?lang=EN&id=30990
https://vw-type2-id.xyz/mplate/72067382

[dr8track]

[mikedjames]

Out in the market place there are hard black seals and soft greyer seals.
With a hard seal it will never give enough to close easily.
Complain to WW as they are selling crap.
Over here in the UK the usual way to tell is the same place will sell two choices, one less expensive than the other.

The more expensive one is usually the softer/good greyish rubber one.,

But for e.g front door seals you also get the choice of the Brazilian one that does not fit the same (needs lots of contact glue), but is extremely cheap (and soft and greyish) costing £25 compared with £100 for the correct fit soft rubber part. From that vendor the hard black one was about £50 AFAIR..
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Ancient vehicles and vessels

1974 VW T2 : Devon Eurovette camper with 1641 DP T1 engine, Progressive carb, full flow oil cooler, EDIS crank timed ignition.
Engine 1: 40k miles (rocker shaft clip fell off), Engine 2: 30k miles (rebuild, dropped valve). Engine 3: a JK Preservation Parts "new" engine, aluminium case: 26k miles: new top end.
Gearbox rebuild 2021 by Bears.

1979 Westerly GK24 24 foot racer/cruiser yacht Forethought of Gosport.
1973 wooden Pacer sailing dinghy

[dr8track]

The Wolfsburg West version arrived. And a reminder, I was mistaken about buying the other one from WW. I had them and Bus Depot check to see if I ordered it from them and I didn't. So at this time I don't know where I got it.

The first one is superior in many ways to the WW version. It's a one piece design with 90 degree corners and it fits in the channel perfectly. You wouldn't even need to use adhesive on it if you didn't want to. The problem is it's just too darn big. Nothing I did helped.

The WW version is simply a long strip of weatherstripping with no corners. Just one long piece. It's the grayish softer rubber. It also fits in the channel well and barely is higher than the actual channel. When test fitting it you discover a couple challenges. What exactly do you do at the corners? And, when you fit it in the channel it's about 1 foot short. So it's clear that it needs to be stretched as its being installed.
I considered cutting a V in the corners to see if it would make the turn better, but in the end I just opted to stretch it around the corner.
I got some weatherstrip adhesive and began the installation. One of the challenges is that it's hard to know just how much you should be stretching it to successfully have the two ends meet. I didn't stretch enough and it left about a 4 inch gap at the top. I may or may not add some rubberish weatherstrip I have to fill the gap.

So the WW version does work, but it's not nearly as professional looking as the black one piece that is too thick. The WW version is almost too thin. Had to move the striker plate all the way back. It barely compresses the wstrip when closed.
But at least it works. Glad to move on to the next task.
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1974 Westfalia Deluxe Campmobiles - Lake Stevens, WA

[W1K1]

I think I would call them, unless you bought a different one, it should have the formed corners, as per their website

https://www.wolfsburgwest.com/cart/DetailsList.cfm?ID=211827711C
_________________
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/jim_martin_engine_build.php

1973 super
1965 squareback 1500E
1971 bay window westy- subi swap