Defender door seals - using the most modern techniques to work out the resistance of the seals 2 

"The Pen of Truth" -- love it!

:-) you may add a "Pen of truth" to the 'Shirt Collection' to come ;-) Cheers Axel

Mike, glad you are focusing on the material and exposing this scandal foisted on us Defender owners!

Hi Again, so I’m impress with your “pen of truth” method. A great little comparison tool. From my experience in a vehicle assembly plant, I can tell you that door close effort is considered to be the most difficult feature on the vehicle to achieve spec. This is because it’s made up from many complex factors. Door shape, door aperture shape, hinge alignment, hinge torque closing effort, the ability of air to leave the cabin when closing the door, and of course door seal shape and the force required to collapse the balloon. This feature is so critical that it’s usually subject to SPC. Great video

Mike.. excellent britpart joke..the door seal..put a cut all along the least significant edge...

keep that pen somewhere safe Mike, invaluable.

I had the same problem with a Britpart rear tailgate seal for my RRC - even pushing hard on each end of the tailgate, the latches wouldn't engage. But LR themselves have been struggling to find suitable seals for their Classic refurbishments and are conducting trials on one of their RRCs with new sources of seals.

Great video Mike... I just took a look at the seals on my 2015 Puma and although I didnt use "the pen of truth", (as i couldnt find a pen andonly had a pencil), they were very soft to compress compared to the seals in your video. I think you have nailed it with the aftermarket seals being harder.

Hi Mike thanks for the update and sharing this video 👍👍👍🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

Try GENUINE seals Mike!!

A great pity the Britpart pen broke 😁. E.C. D Automotive Design do Defender restorations - I wonder where they source their seals from. (They have a RU-vid channel)

This is the stuff I use, www.clarkrubber.com.au/high-density-closed-cell-epdm-sponge-strip-d-section-large-s-a-18mm-x-17-9mm, I apply it to the door not the door aperture, with the prong bit facing out away to the top of door aperture so that when the door closes it fills the gap between door and post.

Pen of truth! 😂

Have you a wrecking yard nearby? Take the Pen of Truth, and a tape measure, and look for a vehicle that has the correct type seal? Somebody must be using a viable alternative...

I've watched nearly all of your videos and couldn't work out what the hell a 'sharpie' was. Was it some exotic mechanic's marker, a welder's pencil? Yesterday my wife loaned ( note the word ' loaned') me a black marker. The brand name was ' Sharpie'. Dumb arse!!