This article is a guide only. Use your own judgment when working on any vehicle.
Congratulations on purchasing your new Bedford CF Door Seals! These are some tips we have found helpful when fitting the new seals to our own vans.
Plan the work in advance and make sure you have all the tools ready before you begin.
Removing the Old Seal
The original CF door seals are fixed in place by small plastic clips which pass through holes in the door metal. To remove these, a notch ground into the end of a flat paint scraper can be useful (hat tip to Phil @ bedfordcf.org). Avoid damaging paintwork by inserting cardboard or other soft material between the tool and the door metal.
Slowly work around the door removing all the clips.
Once removed, this is a good time to give the door a good clean down and ensure all the clip holes are free from obstruction.
Fitment
Don't start clipping until you have dry fitted the seal in place and aligned the plastic clip holes.
Important! The seal passes around the door on the external side of the hinges, so make sure you drape the seal over the door from the outside as seen in the photo below!
We have found it best to one-by-one align and insert the tip of each clip into its respective hole, and use a blunt object to firmly push on the back of the clip through the seal.
The section of the seal that runs past the hinges is in a tight location. It is sometimes necessary to carefully lever with a blunt object against the vehicle wing with some soft padding in between in order to push the clips in. The photo below shows a top-down view of this process.
Tools
Use blunt tools only. Sharp tools will damage your van and the rubber seal. We have used the rounded square end of a socket driver to push the new plastic clips into the door on our own vehicles.
Well done, enjoy your new draught free cab!