Anyone done weatherstripping here?

[Turbo6Smackdown]

I looked around here and found nothing in regards to this, which was kind of surprising. At any rate, when doing the roof rail weatherstripping on our cars, 1. Is it hard? 2. Does all sorts of other shit have to come off when I do this, or is it a straight remove the crap, prep, and replace w/ new type of job.
If I remember correctly there were four popular companies doing weatherstripping for our cars. If I remember it was GM oem, soff seal, metro moulded, and steel rubber products. When I was initially researching this project about 8 years ago the going trend was that everyone but oem sucked bad & to stay away from them, but now I'm coming across weatherstripping with the "gm restoration parts" stickers on them, and the company says soffseal in the corner sooo... is soffseal getting the restoration contracts from GM now? Anyone have any ideas?

 

[87GNSteve]

I did 3 or 4 cars. I used Metro, and Soff seal I like the fit Metro had on the hard top car, the Metro on the T top was awful, had gaps and misaligned holes.
Metro had a closer feel of OEM material
The soffseal was not as close to the material of OEM but maybe that is what they were going for.
If I had to do one again I would have no problem getting the Metro brand.

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

That's good info, thank you! How was the removal? Was it hard? Is there a lot of crap that has to come off or is it a pretty straight deal. Also, how do you like that 323 rear end gear?

 

[Steve V]

GM restoration weatherstripping is not as good as OEM, doors don't have molded ends and plastic inserts but fit pretty good. I have a set of roofrails but I am going to let my orginals get worse before i tear it all out as they seal well at 30yrs old.

 

[earlbrown]

It is a major pain the ass to do it right.

Before you get started get a wire wheel for a Dremal tool, some beer and some black trim paint.

Cleaning all that gunk out of the channel is slow and nerve wracking. I don't know what kind of glue GM used in the 80's but every single molecule is going to fight you before it comes off.

 

[robertf]

Not to intentionally hijack the OP's thread but weatherstrip related so it may help others, I just ordered these for the lower doors.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/370766056333?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

For $70.00, I'm willing to take a shot on fitment. If not, I'll hunt down a pair of OEM. Hopefully someones tried them, if not I'll post some feedback when they arrive.

 

[gusszgs]

It is a major pain the ass to do it right.

Before you get started get a wire wheel for a Dremal tool, some beer and some black trim paint.

Cleaning all that gunk out of the channel is slow and nerve wracking. I don't know what kind of glue GM used in the 80's but every single molecule is going to fight you before it comes off.

Earl's correct........it's a tedious job getting that old glue off. Just take your time and be patient. I did this on DS last year with NOS GM. Fit perfect!

 

[GNONYX]

Not to intentionally hijack the OP's thread but weatherstrip related so it may help others, I just ordered these for the lower doors.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/370766056333?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

For $70.00, I'm willing to take a shot on fitment. If not, I'll hunt down a pair of OEM. Hopefully someones tried them, if not I'll post some feedback when they arrive.

For the price and fit I got the same one and it fits really good.
They will provide with a hard plastic grommet and plastic thumb pins, ( I didn't use the pins, but did used the grommet).
One thing, when I installed the weatherstrip, I removed the old ones (keep the sheet metal screws), clean the rubber residues, place no 3M Super Weatherstrip Adhesive, just install one side with the plastic grommet and sheet metal screw; start to work around pushing in the weatherstrip pins into the door pilot holes.
After all of the weatherstrip pins are in place use the 3M Super Weatherstrip Adhesive according to the directions of location.
At first the door won't close all the way, and what I did I spray silicone, force the door close and don't open it until couple of days.
The longer the door remains close the better the weatherstrips will fit to the door.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/370766056333?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

 

[robertf]

Thats good to know. I love the OEM stuff but when you find it, you gotta dig deep in your pockets.

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

That gm resto weatherstripping; was that from soffseal? I'm seeing that printed on some wrappers. Is that true?

 

[Frederickdav]

I just replaced the passenger side roof rail strip. Because I have health issues, it took me a week or so to do the job. That was working an hour or less at a time. Yes, the removing all the old stuff is a real pain. I have read about all the rust issues other guys have found and feel great that I have none. I used plastic tools to do most of the scraping. I ripped the old strip off until I could get to the screws holding the channels on. It's much easier working on a bench instead of the car. I used Kirbans weather strips. The replacement is a little larger than the original so I will replace the drivers side in the spring. The door closed alright with the window up so it will stay that way until it comes out of storage.

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

I see. Lots of good intel here. Thanks guys. Keep it coming. Lots of challenges ahead I see, with regards to quality, fitment and removal of the old stuff. Are there any chemicals that would soften the old adhesive up maybe? Acetone? Goof off? Gas?

 

[robertf]

It's been years since I've replaced the window stripping. Are the rails held on by screws? Would'nt it be better to remove the rails to clean them if so?

 

[Frederickdav]

Turbo; 3M makes an adhesive remover. I used it with mine and can say it works better than nothing. There still is a great amount of muscle needed to do the job. Robertf; yes the rails are held on by screws and it is much easier to remove them to clean the rubber and glue.

 

[earlbrown]

It's been years since I've replaced the window stripping. Are the rails held on by screws? Would'nt it be better to remove the rails to clean them if so?

They are held in by screws. It's the stack order that gets you.

The screws are covered by rubber and glue.

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

so they have to go on in the exact opposite order they came off?

 

[87GNSteve]

That's good info, thank you! How was the removal? Was it hard? Is there a lot of crap that has to come off or is it a pretty straight deal. Also, how do you like that 323 rear end gear?

I have done 3-4 cars but I have parted out more than several and I can tell you the factory must have had surplus glue days, and days they were they were trying to stretch it. Because cars that have a lot of glue are a long drawn out process. And then I have had cars that had very thin long strip of glue and the weatherstrip comes off almost intact!

As for the 3:23 gears not much difference but then again I haven't driven the car very much plan on changing that soon since the nicer weather is here and track days are scheduled.

 

[Frederickdav]

Mine must have been assembled at the end of a shift when they had to finish off the barrel of glue. It was loaded with glue!

 

[earlbrown]

so they have to go on in the exact opposite order they came off?

Yep. You'll see when you get in there and start ripping off rubber.

What's real bad is if you want to remove the trim on the A-piller, all that stuff has to come off to get access to those screws. So if your a-piller trim need a touchup make sure to be ready to prep and paint them first.

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

The screws for the weatherstripping on the outside are only accessed from screws on the INSIDE???