[dmjlambert]

Now the door. I scanned a picture of the original rubber material and printed it in actual size and cut a template. I then traced the template onto a rubber sheet and cut it out with an X-acto knife.

I was shopping online trying to figure out the best rubber sheet material to buy. My wife is a big time crafter so I asked if she had any. The answer was yes, a big ol' roll. It is magnetic on one side. For making signs, refrigerator magnets, etc. She uses it to hold steel cutting dies steady while running them through a press. Well, I wasn't terribly interested in the magnetic properties, and it is only weakly magnetic. But I tried it out on the door and it works great. I decided to put the magnetic side toward the door opening that goes to the heater core box, because when I am running the A/C I don't want any loss of air and I want to send all the air through the A/C evaporator.

I did some reading online and came to the conclusion the best glue for rubber sheet is super glue. You need to use just enough to glue it, and apply pressure while it sets. Since the area where it lives is recessed, I had to think about how I was going to clamp it down while it dried. I cut a few more of the same shape as the rubber, only this time with cardboard. So my plan was to glue the rubber sheet onto the door, and stack cardboard and then I would be able to press it down. I put a bag of fertilizer on it while it cured. I put the whole thing on some plastic wrap before gluing, and that kept it from gluing the whole door down to the table, in case I had some excess glue in some spots. I'm glad I did that, because yes I would have glued the whole thing to the table.

I am very pleased with the results. I hooked up the motor to a battery and flipped the door back and forth. It works great, and makes a very good seal and sends all the air to the A/C evaporator.

In the pictures below the metal door is painted a dark grey and is almost the same color as the rubber sheet. The rubber sheet is the one that has holes cut in it, so it fits down in the recessed areas of the door (the areas that were originally submerged in the liquid rubber back in 1969).