<VV> Engine compartment seal for LM's with AC

[kaczmarek at charter.net]

Greetings all;

DISCLAIMER---VENDORS PLEASE NOTE!!!!

This post is in no way intended to denigrate the seals that you sell, or the manufacturers you buy them from. 
Nor is it my intention
This is merely a contrast/comparison done at the request of a CORSA member, With whom the 2 major vendors has likely discussed this matter with at some length previously.  

If you do not own a LM Corvair with AC, your Engine Compartment seals as purchased from the major vendors work fine in all respects. Continue reading only if you are interested in a very fine point of contention regarding LM's with the original Factory Condensors located in their original places. 

 I had a talk with a member recently who was concerned about the seal on the engine compartment lid on LM vairs with A/C. Apparently, the concern was that the reproduction
Engine compartment seals offered by the 2 major vendors did not conform well to the GM Factory original. 

 The contention was that the shape (cross-section) of the repro seal differed from original, as well as the overall
height of the seal. 

Apparently for owners of LM cars with A/C, the factory original seal also did not allow for a proper seal of the lid against the body, causing air leaks that disrupts the proper flow of air through the upper air plenum below the backlite and over the condensor, whether it is the 65 (mounted over the engine) or the 66 and later
(curved to fit in front of the plenum). 

Yesterday I recieved a box with sample cross-sections of a GM Factory original LM Engine Compartment seal, A Corvair Underground U-3110, and a Clark's Corvair C805RR. 

If the three cross sections are set side by side (this is IMO the only timewhen VV is a pain, you can't post pics with your post.), there are some differences, and I will briefly describe them

1. The Walls and GM seals have a bit of a "dip" in the part that goes into the channel, where the Clark's piece is straight across. 

2. height: the Clark's piece is the shortest height of the three,with Wall's next, and the GM being the tallest of the 3.
This I believe, was the reason for the controversy in the first place. 

There are subtle differences in the overall shape of the rest of the cross sections of the Clark's and Wall's reproductions, but they are benign to the issue at hand IMO.