Passenger door Rattle.. AZ.ONLY

Maybe they left a screwdriver or something inside the door.  Take off the interior panel and check.

JPC:

Still at it?

Door rattle is pretty common on any car that has a rod from the inside handle to the door lock. Your car does. The fix is to put a piece of rubber host on the rod where it comes in contact with the inside of the door.  Manufacturers in the 50' & 60's did this at the factory because it was going to rattle.

Door rattle:  Is is the striker plate rattling or inside the door itself ? 

My VS rattled when I bought it. The quick fix was to wrap the post on the door jamb with electrical tape.
Later on I’ll get proper weatherstripping to hold the doors in tighter.

Maybe it's the window roll-down mechanism?

GM cars built on Friday sometimes had beer bottles hanging on a string inside the door.

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@Kevin - Bay Area posted:

My VS rattled when I bought it. The quick fix was to wrap the post on the door jamb with electrical tape.
Later on I’ll get proper weatherstripping to hold the doors in tighter.

I'm voting for Kevin's explanation.

I've posted about this before. My VS doors rattled from new, too.

I added extra weatherstripping all around and no difference. None. More sleuthing and it turned out to be the latches. Like everything else, the latches are repops of a solid, German design. My old 2002 had a very similar design and worked flawlessly, with no adjustments, for 23 years.

The metal piece in the door latched to a surface in the door jamb faced in tough, but resilient nylon. No noise.

The repop in the Speedster has some hard material where the original nylon was - and lots of noise. Like Kevin, I wrap the jamb with tape and buy a few months of quiet at a time. There's probably a better way, but there are usually more pressing things that need attention.

Anyway, it was the latches, not a lack of weatherstripping.

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And obviously a latch issue, not a "AZ.ONLY" issue. These are hand built cars from sometimes questionable components. A new Honda they ain't.

One more episode in JPC's 20. He just put it in a new thread this time.

@DannyP posted:

And obviously a latch issue, not a "AZ.ONLY" issue. These are hand built cars from sometimes questionable components. A new Honda they ain't.

I think a lot of guys that find their way to the hobby aren’t really “car guys” or at least rabid ones and, as such, they have an unreasonably high expectation of plastic cars.

Having grown up with BMC products and plastic fantastics like Lotus, TVR, and Turner, I was never burdened with such illusions.

“No top, no wipers? No problem.”

My early Beck came with MG-TD door latches and the passenger one rarely works right. It’s on my list, but it’s not even on the first page.

Assuming you have the same VW style latches as most, and assuming they aren't just a bad part out of the box, here is some info:

These latches are designed to rotate past the point of latching and then spring back against the internal "stop".  This only works if it has enough tension against the rubber seal.  If it is not tight against the rubber seal, or not touching the rubber seal, then it has no outward pressure and will rattle like mad.  If the door is properly adjusted or at max adjustment, then the fix is to either use a thicker bulb seal or to stiffen the bulb seal or add a 2nd rubber stop to add the required tension.  One inside tip is that if you cannot get a larger seal, you can put a small slice int he rubber bulb and slip in a greased piece of rubber hose to make it stiffer.  Just close the door and look far a few spots where it is close but not compressed and add the insert at those locations.  You can leave the slice int heseal bulb or you can close it up with a dab of super glue.

"You can leave the slice int heseal bulb or you can close it up with a dab of super glue."

3-M Weather strip adhesive works well, too.......

And like Super Glue, don't get any onya.