Motor vehicle with at least one door

A combination of several seals at the juncture of a vehicle door engaging a resilient sealing strip on the lower portion of the vehicle door.

The invention relates to an automotive vehicle with at least one door 
inserted in a door cutout limited at the bottom by a side rail, a weather 
strip covering, when the door is closed, the upper zone of the side rail 
being arranged at the outer, lower edge of this door. 
An arrangement of such weather strips to cover the lower zone of the door 
cutout and to prevent soiling of the side rail in the region which could 
come into contact with clothing of the vehicle's occupants when getting 
out of and into the car is known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 
3,726,559, and has the disadvantage that, in case of certain weather 
conditions, the weather strip freezes to the side rail, so that opening of 
the door is frequently possible only with the destruction of the weather 
strip. The invention is based on the object of overcoming this 
disadvantage. According to the invention, this object has been attained by 
providing at the side rail a sealing strip equipped with a cavity, the 
free end of the weather strip contacting the outer cavity wall of this 
sealing strip. 
By means of the invention, an elastic contact of the weather strip against 
the sealing strip is attained, without impairment of the sealing action, 
so that, with the weather strip being frozen solid, the door can yet be 
opened readily and without destroying the gasket. Besides, it is 
advantageously possible to provide the weather stripping according to this 
invention also at those locations where a relatively great distance must 
be bridged between the outside lower door edge and the side rail, because 
on account of the sealing strip at the side rail, the weather strip can be 
made shorter and thus in total more elastic.

A sealing means 3 is arranged at the lower, inner rim 1 of a vehicle door 
2, this sealing means, when the door is closed, being in contact with the 
side rail 4 defining the lower door cutout. For purposes of providing 
additional sealing action and for keeping the region of the side rail 4 
free from dirt, which could come into contact with car occupants' clothing 
when getting in or out of the car, a weather strip 6 is attached at the 
lower outer edge 5 of the vehicle door 2. This weather strip sealingly 
contacts with its free end 7 the outer wall 8 of the cavity 10 formed by a 
sealing strip 9 attached to the side rail 4, in such a way that the outer 
wall 8 is urged by the weather strip 6 inwardly into the cavity 10. 
A metallic reinforcement 11 is located within the weather strip 6, this 
reinforcement being fashioned in the zone of the mounting of the weather 
strip to the vehicle door 2 as a decorative molding 12 visible from the 
outside. As shown in the drawing, this metallic reinforcement also serves 
to attach the weather strip 6 to door 2 due to the flange-like edges 13 
being secureable to flanges of a fastener indicated generally at 14.