REFLECTOR: Door Seals

[jewen at comporium.net]

I recently fitted the door seals.  Before installing the seals, the pin tubes in the doors lined up and worked pretty smoothly.  After installing the seals the doors are very difficult to latch and unlatch.  Upon opening the doors I noticed the seals were much more compressed at the top in the area near the hinges (true on both doors.)  Upon further examination, I noticed the premolded doors (circa 1995)are thicker in the area of the hinges.  This added thickness is pushing the door up when closed making the pins and tubes misaligned.  The rest of the sealing surface on the doors seems to fit very well (flight testing will of course confirm or reject the fit observation.

Has anyone had this problem before and/or remedies?  The only fix I can think of is to reduce the thickness in the seal area to match the rest of the door; however, I assumed this area was thicker to provide additional strength.

Thanks,
Joe