I put a new seal on the cowel vent today I think it's on there right with
the three little ribs on top.
It's electric and when I close it it stays up about a 1/4" on the front side.
It looks like the rubber is too thick.
anybody else run into this?

 

It's not uncommon for new, aftermarket replacement rubber parts to be of incorrect size. Since it's unlikely you'll be able to compress the cowl vent rubber to "break in" like you could a door seal, your best options would be to try a different manufacturer, or shorten the seal a little with a belt sander.

 

i had the same problem on my 55.. with time it has pinched closed more..
the electrical arm/motor doesn't had the torque the manual arm did..

Sam

 

The manual arm with a new gasket is hard to close perfect...but with some heat and time..mine have sealed up.

 

When I installed my gasket on my 53 I put a towel over the vent door and stacked quite a bit of weight on it [books it seems like] and let it set a few days. It now seal fine and closes tightly. Joe

 

I bought rubbers (vent seal & door seals) from LMC. The vent seal went in with some massaging, and the vent closed pretty snug. Looked like a good fit at first. It's been in a year now, and there is huge cracks in the seal rubber.

The door rubber was another story. Spent 2 months prepping and painting. Finally got new paint on my truck and then bought new door rubber. The rubbers were tooled to the door and fit in where they were supposed to go. so I glued them into position. After the glue set, I found out that the rubber is TOO HARD for the doors to close. Not even ballpark close. When removing the seals it destroyed the new paint. Now the doors have to be stripped and repainted. I am not happy...

Now, I know a little about rubber. My job has been molding rubber parts for 30+ years. I also know that there is no way those seals would EVER be soft enough for the doors to close. Rubber formulas vary. Once they are molded and cooled they have a set hardness & flexability measured by a Durometer. These parts from LMC were manufactured overseas (I think it was Taiwan?) and were made out of the wrong material. Don't ever use LMC rubber on your truck.

Joe at LMC was nice enough to credit me for the defective rubber without any hassle. Thanks.