T-Top Weatherstripping - Technical Question

[odium]

I am about to replace my t-top weatherstripping and I see a lot of it is held together with what look like black studs.

The GM replacement weatherstripping did not come with new black studs and I would like to know how to safely remove them.

Are these plugs supposed to be reused or should the kit have come with new black studs?

 

[kh440]

Ae you talking about the 4 push pins on the ends? Most of the time they can be reused. I don;t remember if they are available in the Motormite "Help" section, but if you have a decent auto body supply store they should be able to get you new ones if you need to go that route.

 

[odium]

What's the best way to remove them w/o breaking them?

 

[kh440]

If you're careful needle nose pliers will work. I used a salad fork, much to the chagrin of my (then) wife....

 

[Blown&Injected]

Good Question

Mine pulled out easily - just used a screw driver

 

[conn84gn]

Those are the easy part.
Getting the rubber out of the little channel is fun
Breaks easy and gets left behind, use a hair dryer to soften the glue.
Pull slow and easy you may find lots of rust under the rubber on the top of the windsheild

 

[MSDGN]

Here's a writeup I did many years ago...just break the clips...can get them at any auto parts that sells the Body-Tite stuff...#45613

T-Top Seal Replacement

 

[ffej]

scott thanks for the link to your write up. i removed my factory weatherstripping earlier this year and im still working on getting all the factory adhesive off,what a pain you also couldnt be more right about finding rust. my car only has 23,000 original miles and the center bar was rusted out.luckily there was no rust in the body around the t tops but when i removed the carpet i found a nice little hole in the floor board behind the drivers seat i guess the t tops leaked enough the little it did get wet to make the carpet wet. ive owned it since early 87 so this was a real bummer!!,jeff

 

[odium]

Well, I got it done today and it was a royal pain in the ass. I highly recommend taking the T-Top portion to a body or upholstery shop and paying them $2-300 to do it.

The weatherstripping that goes along the metal brackets was an oversight of mine, so for anybody reading this don't forget to get this strip kit as well. Also, the GM kit didn't come with replacement black push-ins and we had to reuse the old ones. The SoffSeal kits do come with these pieces.

I think if I were to do it all over again, I would go with the SoffSeal over GM. I had forgot that SoffSeal has good quality replacement seals for trifive chevys and went straight to OEM on the Regal.

My rig has 130k on the clock and it thankfully had only a little bit of surface rust.