Installing hatch rubber seal on dc2

[crobaa]

Hi guys, bought a new weather seal from Honda for my dc2 hatch. The one that does around the perimeter of the hatch. I was under the impression that it should just press on but I'm having an incredibly large amount of trouble pushing it on. Has anybody installed a brand new one before? Whats the technique?

[cbauto]

i've pulled my old one off and pushed back on, no troubles........

cant see why new would be different.

[Baby Face]

maybe try some heat?

make sure its right way up?

[crobaa]

Pulling old one off and back on is super easy, brand new one is like clamped shut. I tried spreading it a little first but didn't help much. There's also a yellow dot on the new one which I assume is a locating point, I guess it either goes top and centre or bottom and centre but don't really know either as the rubber hasn't formed any shape yet

[Baby Face]

heat gun?

[crobaa]

I've considered it, will be a last resort just incase it ruins the rubber. I'd like to know how the pros do it

[markismaximus]

given pinchweld is designed to do exactly that, "pinch" I can imagine the new seal would be hard to install.

Are the profiles identical on the old and new seal?

have you tried placing a towel over the seal and knocking it on with a rubber mallet?

[crobaa]

Tried with a mallet, no good, best results I have had are just pressing with my hands but it takes about 30min to press in 10cm. There's no bends in the new seal, it's just a big round loop, the old one maintained its bends because it was installed for so long

[markismaximus]

only other thing I could recommend is maybe use a plastic scraper from bunnings (http://www.bunnings.com.au/products_product_scraper-plastic-abc-100mm-pure-line-at10100_P1660095.aspx?search=door&searchType=any&searchSubType=products&filter=categoryname--Painting+Tools), push it into the seal and then push both the seal and scraper onto the boot edge.

With the scraper pointing down into the boot.

Then you are only getting friction on one side of the seal, as the plastic scraper is smooth. Give it a try anyway. If that doesn't work you might just need to suck it up and spend a week doing small sections at a time.

[grifty]

have you tried putting some grease on the metal first to help out?