After sealing the leak in my fire wall (around the hood-pull) I went looking around for other potential trouble spots. Turns out that the backings for both interior liners are wet, slightly mildewed, and pretty much being held together my the vynil. I discovered this by pulling the corner away from the door without too much effort to see the degrading backing. They are presumably getting wet from the inside.

I've got a 2 door, so finding replacements will probably be slightly challenging. I would prefer not to take these one off to find the leak(s) for fear they won't want to go back on. There is no visible rust, so my guess is that water is running over the cardboard type backing, and out to wherever it goes.

But, I would like to stop the leak(s). The only thing I've been able to come up with is that the exterior window seal (where the glass slides down into the door) comes about a 1/2 inch short of the frame, and water could be running in there. But its like that on both sides. As far as I know, it is the original stripping. Did the rubber shrink, did Volvo come up short here, or is this the way it's supposed to be? If so, what are my other options? I've checked the door-locks and handles and both seals seem to be good. Like I said, this is all complicated my my preference not to take the lining off and look from the inside.

Sorry for the long post, and thanks for your help.

Thanks for the suggestions. I might just try to get in there & check for the plastic. Some fiberboard & ducttape should be good for now, and I'll go ahead and replace the seal.

242 doors are longer than the 4 door variety.

If your do pull the door panels, you might try to stop the mildew (and odor) using some chlorine bleach on the fiber. Alternatively, a solution of liquid Lysol and soapy water.

Follow each with a treatment of Fabreeze.
--
"Can't understand why people abort Volvos, either"

As Niel said, there should be liners glued to the inside of the door frame. In my case, they were paper (original) from Volvo, and as you can suspect, not very good at keeping water away from the fiberboard of the interior panels. I managed to piece together the paper liner and used it as a template to make new liners from plastic. I then put these on the frames using duct tape. It seems to be working fairly well. If you take the interior panels off (carefully), you should be able to dry the fiberboard out and reinstall until you can find better panels from the nearest yard.

Good Luck,
Jeff

On my 144, my father added wide rubber seals between the glass and the door body to prevent water from getting in. I've also read somewhere (here) that the rubber does shrink.

Inside the doors should be plastic sheets to cover the holes on the inside door body. Often this get ripped or pulled off when someone installs speakers, or it can catch on the window mechanism. The purpose of this plastic is to guide any water that does get in, away from the door panel.

Are the 242 doors different from the 244 doors? I would not think so.

Can you tell us where your father got the "wide" seals for the windows?

It was in South Africa (I'm now in New Zealand with the car). I'll find out.

Just to make it clear again, the wide rubbers are fitted to my 144. The 240 is narrower OEM.

If the wide weather strip is still available i'd be interested in researching the possible applications an post the results here.

My father responded that the rubbers on my 144 are OEM, and rather he fitted Volvo rubbers to our 1976 Mazda F1000 "bakkie" (That is Afrikaans. Called UTE in New Zealand. Like a very small pick-up. Had a 1 liter engine.) to prevent water from getting into the doors. Sorry about the misinformation, but the 144 was bought 2 years before I was born, and the Mazda when I was 3 years old.

Last night, in the dark, I've compared the 1971 144 door to the 1988 240 door. What I could feel, was that the 240 has a ledge before changing into a curve, where as the 144 has a flat before changing into a curve. The 240 ledge feels like a strip of plastic, and the seal feels very narrow compared to the 144 (also only a dust brush instead of a rubber seal?). Since one of the seals on my 144 is coming loose, I can pull it off tonight (before dark) and see how it would fit on the 240. I'll post a new message, since this one is already very far down the list. You should be able to get the 144 strip from www.gcp.se who are the guys that buy (from Volvo) all the molds and dies for classic Volvos. If the molds are damaged or not available any more, they make new ones off original Volvo drawings. Slightly expensive, but not for the service they provide. Unfortunately the 240 is not yet a classic, only up to the 140/160.

Eventually the Mazda panels gave in due to blocked holes in the bottom of the doors, but my father was very handy in making new panels out of hard board (brown panel of compressed wood fibers, used as backing panel for cupboards, etc.). My mom glued nice material onto it, and it looked very smart. Much better than the original vinal. The plastic handle straps broke also, and my father made new ones out of an old leather belt. So the Mazda had leather in it! Also transformed with a Mazda 323 1.3L engine, 5 speed, and Honda bucket seats, but that is another story. You had to jack up the engine under the gearbox to change the oil filter...

Long post, but thought it is a nice story.