FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

Recently I made the mistake of having my original seal replaced by someone that generally knows their stuff. Now admittedly the old seal was past its prime and did leak, but importantly, also allowed perfect alignment. Job done and I now have the lid sitting too high and the boot needs slamming in order to shut. Cannot live with it so I am going to give it a go myself. I have trawled this forum on related posts but they are a few years old. I think I have enough info on fitting so my main question is: are all the boot rubbers available from various vendors from the same factory and hence no difference in fit and profile? Or can anyone recommend one that is a better option? Any advice on this or fitting it would be appreciated. Sorry, I know this issue has been well covered in the past but wondering what the latest thoughts on it are.

Cheers, Ken  ???

 there is one,it is  either beta auto or thompsons that has a larger base on it  which makes it harder to fit and also
 sits to high ,   l fitted one of these to a club members car only to find it didn't fit well

   l ended up cleaning up the original ,or it might have been an old rare spares one and before fitting found that the square base
       that fits it the channel was slightly smaller

        made fitting easy and boot lid sat nice .  hope this helps

I had the same problem when I fitted new seals many years ago to my EK sedan. Boot lid sat up at the front corners particularly. The seals were from Rare Spares c 1989. The door seals were tight also. Everything settled down after a few months but there was always a tendency for leaking.


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Ditto. Same problem with the boot lid sitting high. Rubbers were purchased from Thompsons. Some came in RS bags, some in unmarked bags. I thought they were all from the same source(s) at the end of the day, each supplying different components to make up a full kit. Apart from the boot & the rear window I thought they were good. I have also considered re using the original boot rubber. The point about the old rubber square being smaller is interesting - would it allow more room for the rubber to squash down into shape?

  When l had both old and new rubbers side by side the base was larger on the new rubber
  which made the rubber sit higher .only because there was to much rubber to go in channel 
   different texture on the new one a lot softer ,more like sponge than rubber

      greg    (fcwagoon)

60 year old rubber will always be harder I reckon. I salvaged the 30 year old Rare Spares rubbers out of a shell I sold to reuse in my current projects.


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Stretching the rubber as you install it will help reduce the height and let it squash down easier only way I could get my doors and boot to close

Thanks everyone. Appreciate the advice. Any suggestions re what glue to use?
I'm thinking Loctite super glue gel at this stage.
Cheers, Ken  :)

I found Super glue good for joining end to end. I've recently tried Sikaflex-227 Auto and Construction Sealant. It starts to cure quickly so after setting up & testing the fit, I found sections were easier to manage & keep clean rather than attempting a large opening in one go. Once left overnight it's there for good unless you deliberately pull it back. It can be carefully pulled away from the rubber & paint if you really need to without causing damage. I had a couple of goes at some sections & found this was a real advantage.

Contact adhesive eg kwik grip


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Thanks everyone. Cheers  :) :) :)