Upper Door Edge Seals

[AcampoDave]

If I remeber right, knee knocker trucks came with an additional weatherstrip around the actual door. Some squarebody trucks had them too and you can still buy the seal for those. https://www.soffseal.com/ss-9352 I wonder, have any of you guys tried adding this additonal seal to the doors of a '64-'66 truck? It seems to me that even with the top quality press on seals installed cabside, these trucks still could still benefit from the additional door edge seal with regard to both water intrusion and wind noise. Also, I suspect that air conditioned trucks traveling at freeway speeds in hot climates would likely gain a modest improvement in the cooling efficiency simply due to less hot air intrusion. Has anybody ever tried it?

[cwcarpenter98]

I'm not sure when exactly GM stopped using those seals on the knee knockers, but my 63 doors show no evidence of any seals like that. I have seen those seals on multiple 60-61 trucks though, so maybe it was just those 2 years and the 62-63 doors didn't get them? I'm not sure, kinda just speculating at this point.

It would be interesting to see if any benefit could be provided from them. The doors that I've seen them still on sure have rusted out around that seal though

There's 2 attachment clip looking pieces that are screwed into the door on each end. The rest is just glued in. Would not be too invasive to give it a shot. If it doesn't work, only 2 small screw holes that would need fixing

[AcampoDave]

So I'm gonna try it. They are for a squarebody but what the heck, maybe they'll fit and they're only around forty bucks. ( that's equal to about half a tank of gas where I live) I'll let you guys know how they do. It may take a little while though.

[AcampoDave]

Update: The squarebody upper door edge seals arrived from Sofseal in a timely fashion and this morning I put them on. The initial quandry I had was which way to orient them. They are a peel and stick type deal and I basically had two options. Put the adhesive side on the door edge facing the window channel or put it facing outboard with the longer sealing flange up. Since they were plenty long, I snipped off a short piece and goofed around with it. It's kind of difficult to see inside there to verify a good seal, but closing a piece of paper in between as a feeler gauge revealed; adhesive facing outboard with the long flange up was going to be the ticket. Installation was a breeze. I cleaned the door with alcohol then just pulled the backing a bit at a time sticking it on as I went. (Dont strech it.) Then, I used some pressure on my fingers to ensure it was good and stuck. Since the door still closed easily I thought, "This stuff doesn't even contact the cab." However, the "paper feeler guage" revealed that it certainly did, and pretty much all the way around too.
Upon driving I did notice a reduction in wind noise but it was not a "night and day" type difference. It certainly worked, and opening the kick panel vent with the windows up was clearly a quieter affair. (It seems doing that pressurizes the cabin and the excess air used to escape noisily around the door edges. Not so much anymore.)
I do think it was worth the 40 bucks including shipping but I wouldn't do it if the truck wasn't a "garage queen", because as cwarpenter98 already aluded to, they certainly could trap plenty of moisture and cause rust to form underneath. I see these as that "little something extra" which takes things one step beyond what a high quality press on cabside seal can do.
Now for a couple of pics:

[cwcarpenter98]

That's cool that it worked for ya. I think the water issue would probably only be an issue after another 50 years or so, especially if you have good paint underneath