REFLECTOR: Door Trim

["Joe Stack" <joestack@technologist.com>]

Builders...

I've finally arrived to the point where I've almost got my doors fitting
satisfactorily.  However, from my experience with cars and spam cans I have
grave misgivings about the quality of the seal.  This is because it is
always such a horrific source of cabin noise.  Without resolving this,
there's no point in trying to resolve any other cabin noise problems.

I'll try to present the problem the way I see it and then I'll throw out the
questions.  I've scanned a sketch to which I'll refer in the hopes that it
makes my description somewhat more understandable.
Given:
  *  we have a fuselage wall constructed with glass over 1/2" foam
  *  we have a trim seal component with a 3/8" extruded bulb
  *  we have a door lip which, when closed, barely makes contact
     with the working surface of the trim seal bulb (and doesn't
     contact at all in some ill-fitting spots)  On some places
     between the door and the fuselage the door flange and the
     bulb are 1/8" away
  *  we have an engineering specification from both Trim Seal and
     Thomas which says that for "optimum" seal performance the bulb
     must be compressed at least 25%

The conflict comes because there is no way to compress the bulb in this
configuration.  As I see it, this leaves us with 2 options.  Either 1),
select a similar part with say a 3/4" bulb; or 2), put a fillet on the
inside lip of the door to force the bulb to compress when the door's closed.

Questions:
  * Are there holes in my understanding/analysis of the problem?
  * Does everybody have the same problem (I can't imagine not)?
  * Any other ideas about how do deal with it (other than live with it & buy
a good headset)?

Regards,

Joe Stack
N983SC - XL/RG

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