Vehicle door and water deflector
AssigneeThe Excello Specialty Company
InventorWilliam G. Bradac
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vehicle door construction having an outer door panel and an inner door panel with a trim panel joined to the inner door panel by attachment hooks extending from the trim panel into hook openings in the inner door panel. A plastic water deflector sheet is positioned between the trim panel and the inner door panel. The deflector sheet has through apertures corresponding to the locations of the hook openings in the inner door panel. The sheet also has a portion adjacent each through aperture that is laterally deformed to extend through the associated hook opening and form an awning-like hood over the corresponding hook.
Claims17
In the formation of a water deflector sheet from thin plastic for use in vehicle doors, a method of forming an access opening through the deflector sheet with the access opening having a laterally deflectable awning-like portion of deflector sheet adjacent thereto comprising:
- forming an array of side-by-side corrugations in the sheet at the desired location of the awning-like portion adjacent the location of the desired opening with the desired opening through the sheet extending transversely of the array of corrugations.
A water deflector sheet for use in a vehicle door for protecting an inner door trim panel comprising:
- a flexible sheet of plastic film having a size and peripheral shape to overlie the area which it is desired to protect;
- an opening formed through the sheet;
- and,
- an array of individual closely spaced side-by-side corrugations formed in an area of the sheet adjacent the opening with a majority of the individual corrugations extending in a direction generally transverse of the opening and intersecting a periphery of the opening.
In a vehicle door construction having an outer door panel and an inner door panel with a trim panel joined to the inner door panel by attachment hooks extending from the trim panel into hook openings in the inner door panel, the improvement wherein a plastic water deflector sheet is positioned between the trim panel and the inner door panel, the sheet having through apertures corresponding to the locations of the hook openings in the inner door panel with the sheet having a portion adjacent each through aperture being laterally deformed to extend through the associated hook opening and form an awning-like hood over the corresponding hook.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.