Vent Seal Replacement

by Dave Souza

I recently installed a set of Series III vent seals on my defender. We get a lot of rain here in Florida, and I was tired of getting my feet wet every morning on the first turn. As my SW stays pretty dry otherwise, I was really wanting the stop these from leaking. Jimmy Cartier of Seminole Rover told me that the Series III seals fit perfectly, so I ordered up a set from Rovers North. Part # MUC 4299 (sold individually).

The install takes about an hour, but you need to leave time for the adhesive to cure, then reassemble. Start by taking the roll bar section off. Then open the vents fully, and remove the 2 bolts attaching the vent door to the opening mechanism. Then remove the door hinge pins and remove the vent doors.

Looking at my existing seals on the doors, I could see they were not quite fit properly, and had permanent indentations where they touched the vent. At one corner the glue was not holding it at all. It was obvious that these seal would leak, and actually looked like they always had. I scraped off the foam seal on both doors.

Then I test fit the new seals. Where the old D-90 seals glued to the vent door, these Series III style seals glue to the vent itself, on the vehicle. They seemed to fit quite well, so I ran a bead of Liquid Nails adhesive around the vent. I then carefully fit the seal around the vent. I used a little too much adhesive, and it seeped out around the rubber seal. I used mineral spirits to clean up the excess.

After waiting a couple of hours for the adhesive to set, I reinstalled the vent doors. Getting those little bolts back into the mechanism is a pain, and the seals are much tighter and difficult to fully close. I still can see some of the adhesive around my finished vent seals, but I'll try to clean that up later. It does seem to make a good fit, looks pretty good too.

The real test, no leaks! They are quite difficult to fully close, and if I don't fully close them, I still get some water in. But when they are completely closed, no water at all inside the truck. Definitely worth the effort to get 'em closed!