Sheeze, why is life sooooo complicated?
Here's why I posted the request for a Neoprene sheet rubber source.
There are all of these piddly little jobs I want to finish up before
putting my car back together. One of these jobs is replacing some badly
chewed up and oxidized rubber pieces on parts currently removed from the
car. At the top of the list are the spring seals. Cobras have
transverse leaf springs. These springs are wrapped in grease
impregnated cloth and go through opening on each side of the engine
compartment. These openings have rubber sheets with flaps which press
against the spring to seal the engine compartment from the front wheel
wells. The pedal box has a similar sealing arrangement. It has a cover
on top with slits for the pedals to go through. These slits have rubber
flaps which close around the pedals and seal the inside of the pedal
box. Finally the windshield has about a 2" wide rubber strip along the
bottom which seals against the body.
A no brainer I figured. I would just go to the local hardware store
where I had purchased Neoprene rubber sheet in the past and buy a piece
big enough for all of the above. I figured a piece about 12" wide by
about 5' long would do the trick. Of course the store was out, but some
would be coming in on Monday. But of course it didn't. No problem. I
would go to one of the other stores in the chain and get some there.
After the forth store I got the message. They were all out and were in
no rush to re-order. Well, not completely out. Most had a few scarps
of 1/4" thick pieces, and one had some 1/8" pieces- all way too thick
for my needs and none even close to big enough.
So far I have received 12 responses to my request, for which I'm very
grateful. Thanks everyone. Several responses recommended web sites and
I've checked a couple of them out. As a result I'm having second
thoughts about what type of rubber to use. I initially picked Neoprene
because of its resistance to grease and oil, but according to the
comparison chart on the McMaster's site (http://www.mcmaster.com/),
Neoprene may not be the best choice, at least not for the spring seals.
In fact, the hands down best choice appears to be Polyurethane. It has
better resistance to oil than Neoprene, better abrasion resistance,
better resistance to tearing, better weather resistance, better
oxidation resistance and better Ozone resistance. Perfect! Well,
Polyurethane does have a couple of draw backs. The biggest is the
price. A piece big enough for the spring seals will probably cost about
40 buck! The second is that it doesn't come in 5' lengths. However,
that length is only required for the windshield piece, for which some
other type of rubber can be substituted, I suspect.
Anyway, I'm going to mull this over a bit longer and very carefully
re-measure all the piece that need replacing. Nobody said it would
be easy, but nobody was wrong.
Again, many thanks to all of you who took the time to respond.
Roland
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