No, I should be able to get them in. I have another parts car with the seal intact I can use as a reference. You confirmed they were installed correctly on the parts car, so I'm good to go. Thanks.
I'm still trying to figure this out..... If I push the clips in from the top, it would appear that the clips remain visible from the top. I can't figure out how to bury the tops of the clips in the rubber. It sure won't look good if you see a bunch of clips. ?????? Maybe those pics would help.
I took a look at my new weatherstrip last night and now understand your question better. The new seal does not have the holes pre-punched for the T-clips. I still have my old seal, and comparing them found the new seal is actually shorter than the old one .
So, my plan is to find the center of the new seal and locate the places for the holes and make my own holes based on the center of the car marking where to make a small hole for each clip based on the holes in the cowl. The T-clips insert with the flat top of the "T" portion of the clip inside the seal with the round end pointed down. The round ends push into the holes on the car to hold the seal on. I am not going to stretch the seal to make it the right length as I am sure that won't work (the seal would just come apart from the clips).
As for the seal itself, if you look at the end of the seal, it looks like an "8" with one loop of the 8 being larger than the other. The larger one is the top, the smaller one is the bottom that will seat on the cowl. You will need to make very small holes just through the bottom of the 8 and work the T clips through the hole at the right intervals as described above. It was too hot out yesterday to actually do this, but if I get to it in the next few days I will try to capture a few pictures to detail what I am doing.