US 5,511,344 AGranted

Molded wheelhouse seal for automotive vehicles

AssigneeGenCorp Inc.

InventorRonald E. Dupuy

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

An automotive wheelhouse sealing strip for providing a secondary seal to prevent infiltration and accumulation of dirt and mud in the gap between a rear door and a rear door opening in the vicinity of the wheelhouse of a four-door sedan vehicle includes a fully molded weather sealing member which is formed to accurately conform to the shape of the portion of the door opening to which the weather sealing member is to be attached, thereby providing an aesthetically pleasing tight engagement between the vehicle body and the sealing member. The sealing strip generally includes a weather sealing lip having a sealing surface which sealingly abuts an inner peripheral surface of a vehicle rear door when the rear door is in the closed position, and a base portion which is adapted to be attached to a vehicle body part at a peripheral surface generally defining the rear door opening.

Claims3

Dependent claims

In a vehicle including a passenger compartment, a rear door and rear door opening having a configuration partially defined by a wheelhouse, a primary door opening seal attached to said rear door, said primary door opening seal having sealing portions which sealingly abut inboard portions of the rear door opening to seal the passenger compartment, and a secondary wheelhouse weather seal which is attached to the wheelhouse and resides in a gap between the door opening and the door, the improvement comprising said secondary wheelhouse weather seal being a molded, unitary sealing member configured to accurately conform to a non-linear shape of a portion of the rear door opening to which the secondary wheelhouse weather seal is to be attached, said secondary wheelhouse weather seal being located along the door opening outboard from the primary door seal and inboard relative to an outer surface of the vehicle and extending upwardly and backwardly along the door opening.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.