A Real Pain In The ......

Virtual

15 Year Member
Dec 19, 2013
150
72
49
Northern Virginia
I dunno who else out there has done this but I decided to try and replace the vertical weatherstrip on the quarter window on my vert. The old weatherstrip had split and there was no longer a seal between the dir window and the quarter window.

The part is cheap enough, there is also a youtube video from our buddies at CJPonyParts about replacing this. No tools need, supposedly! You'll be back on the road in 1/2 an hour.. Yeh right! If you watch the video (just do a youtube search for mustang quarter window weatherstrip) you'll see some clues as to the PITA factor. But of course they want to sell product so they don't let you see how hard it really is.



Getting the old weatherstrip off was hard enough. You have to use pliers to rip out the old weather strip, which is rubber with a thin metal core, and sits in a groove attached to the quarter window. It takes a twisting motion and comes off in small chunks..


photo 1.JPG


And then you need to push the new weatherstrip into the groove, which is a tight fit. I lubed it up with WD40 as suggested in the video, but only managed to get it "almost" in, at the expense of ripping the skin off my fingers, and getting several blisters. At the moment, I cant get it all the way in, and I'm not sure I can get it out again either without having to go through the process described above, which would destroy it.

Here's a picture of as far as I've gotten it after about 2 hours of messing with it, and beating the crap out of my hands by trying to inch it down a bit at a time. Eventually I just had to give up for now. At the moment my hands are beat up so I'm not sure how to go forward from here? It's such a straight forward relatively little thing to try and fix.. But it's turned out to be a real pain!

WeatherStrip2.JPG


If anyone has any clever ideas, let me know.
 
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Well, I'll be feeling your pain in a week. I'm redoing all my weatherstripping that I got from LMR. I heard Vaseline might be better to use? :shrug:

Try it out and see how it works. I know WD-40 evaporates quickly so something like Vaseline might work a tad better.
 
Yeah I've done it a couple times. Lubricating is a must. Like someone mentioned up top, I also applied Vaseline. I put it in the track on the glass in an attempt of keeping it off my fingers. I also learned that if you pull the new seal down in from the bottom instead of pushing it in the track it works better. When you pull in down from the bottom it seems to stretch somewhat making it a tad smaller and goes in easier.
When pushing it down from the top it seems to bunch up making it tighter. I pulled from the bottom and pushed from the top, worming it in so to speak. Either way it will put up a fight but pulling did seem easier.

Anyway good luck, hang in there. You'll get it.
 
Thanks for the suggestions and encouragement. dnbonds.. I hope you fare better than I have on this.

I went at it again today with the intent of just taking the weatherstrip off so I could try one of the other lube options. But as I suspected, I can't even get it to come off at this point. It's pretty wedged, and all my of the pulling seems have gotten the window out of whack. I'm probably going to have to pull the rear seat and interior panel off so I can fix that! I'm also bending up the top part thats still sticking out (which has a metal strip inside it), so it may never go on smoothly anyway!

This is what my finger looks like this morning. Doesn't stop me from getting a grip on the thing, but does hurt like the dickens while I'm tugging at it, plus I've got blisters on other fingers. So FTM concede defeat to a stupid piece of rubber. At this point I'll pack it in for the weekend and revisit it next week when my hands feel a bit better. I know... I'm a being baby! I'm starting to think that I'd have been better off buying a whole n-used quarter window with weatherstripping on it that was still in decent shape.

finger.JPG
 
Well I'm ripping my panels off anyway for dyeing in a few days. I'll probably take off the quarter windows and replace the strip with it being outside the fox. My passenger side quarter window is broke anyways. I have to assist it when putting it up or down. Don't know whats causing that but i'll find out shortly. I think I'll use vaseline in the channel and then WD-40 on the weatherstripping itself. Hopefully I can get it in one single motion. I only have a time frame of 3 days to get my interior done because its my daily driver. Don't want a piece of rubber keeping me from driving it lol.
 
Well I'm ripping my panels off anyway for dyeing in a few days. I'll probably take off the quarter windows and replace the strip with it being outside the fox. My passenger side quarter window is broke anyways. I have to assist it when putting it up or down. Don't know whats causing that but i'll find out shortly. I think I'll use vaseline in the channel and then WD-40 on the weatherstripping itself. Hopefully I can get it in one single motion. I only have a time frame of 3 days to get my interior done because its my daily driver. Don't want a piece of rubber keeping me from driving it lol.

Thought about taking the whole window out to work on it, but decided I'd actually have less leverage that way. Maybe if you have a good way to clamp it securely that will work.

As far as the window itself is concerned, if your window motor still runs fine then its' probably the gear. The window motors have plastic gears in them that don't wear very well, but at least are easy enough to replace. They're something like $15 from LMR. In my case, last year my passenger side motor stopped working entirely, so I just replaced the whole thing. You spend most of the time getting to the thing, and 2 minutes doing the swap.
 
I am afraid of breaking or bending parts by putting an intense amount of force pulling/putting the weatherstripping on. I can always barrow a second set of hands to hold it while I pull it off lol :nice: I also have some clamps but I don't think they would be suited for glass.
 
I just finished replacing these the other day. I already had the quarter windows pulled out because my quarter windows had the floppy window syndrome and the motors had the plastic gear problem. I decided to purchase the Convertible Quarter Window Guide Resto Kit along with the new quarter window vertical weatherstrip from LMR so I could replace everything and not have any problems again.

Pulling the old vertical weather stripping out was the hardest part. I pulled at if with pliers for nearly an hour until I got all the old stuff out. To install the new vertical weatherstripping- @Onefine88 was correct when he said to pull from the bottom and worm it in. I sprayed a little WD-40 in the metal window channel and pulled from the bottom while wiggling it in. Slowly but surely it slid into its new home.

It's up to you if you want to remove the window for more leverage but it seemed much easier while it was off the car. Also- chances are your windows still have the original plastic guide rod mount and guide bushings. Might as well replace everything so you don't have to pull the panels and get in here again. Here's the resto kit: http://www.latemodelrestoration.com...ng-Convertible-Quarter-Window-Guide-Resto-Kit
 
Based on what the window did when I was tuggin on it, I'm guessing I'm going to have to replace the guide rod mount.

I haven't pulled the trim off yet, but before my fateful trip yesterday that ended in a boom I tried one more to move the weatherstrip. It was totally stuck. Eventually in the process of trying to pull it off, so I could try and re-lube it, I ended up pulling it's head off it (the top part). So it's trashed.

Seems silly to have to buy another pair just replace the one, but it looks like that's what I'm going to have to do.. Unless someone out there has a spare passenger side weatherstrip they want to sell me. Hopefully I'll do better on my 2nd try. I appreciate everyone's helpful comments so far, and hopefully if I apply them they'll help me get it this time.
 
It's dead thread resurrection time...

Alrighty.. In case you don't remember this thread, I ran into trouble trying to install the vertical quarter winder weatherstrip on my vert. After having broken my first attempt at installing this by trying to pull it off, I had to order another one (pair actually..). I tried to install the new one myself and ran into exactly the same problem, except that this time I was at least able to pull it back off in one piece. It's a bit of an excuse, but I have an arthritic joint in my one hand, and have golfers elbow (no.. I don't play golf) which basically seems to make me a bit of a wuss in the brute strength dept..

Shortly after that, I had a minor fender bender with the vert (that I whined about in a different thread) that the other driver agreed to pay to repair. I decided that this might be the opportunity to have someone else tackle the weatherstrip problem, so I convinced the shop that was fixing my bumper to try and install the weatherstrip for me. Unfortunately, when I went to pick up the car today, they told me that they couldn't install it either. Basically they got stuck in exactly the same place I did (see photo earlier in this thread). They think they might possibly do better if the quarter window was completely removed, but they didn't want to spend my money without asking first. So I suspect that my next move is to take the whole thing out.. Ugh!

So what's the problem here? Based on the comments above this should be a PITA, but not impossible, like I'm finding it to be. Now at least I feel somewhat validated that it wasn't just me, since someone else ran into the same problem I did. I have several options to consider, one of which might just involve buying a whole new (used) quarter window with a serviceable weatherstrip on it. Anyone know anyone here in the D.C. area who might have actual experience with this type of thing, so I can stop messing around with it?
 
I haven't even tried mine, I'm too scared :O_o:

I was gonna ask how you got on with yours.. I didn't mean my thread to intimidate you as to replacing yours :( At this point I suspect there's just something funky going on with the channel on mine, and I'm hoping yours will go smoothly like the ones that were reported by others. I clearly need help with mine, but this seems more anomaly than standard moda operandi.
 
Did you try the other side yet? Or does it not need replaced? You might be right with that channel being messed up. I know my passenger side A Pillar weather stripping doesn't fit in the grooves :fuss:. It just falls right back out. The driver's side was perfectly fine, fit perfect. And its not the screws holding the adjuster on either, the weather stripping is either too small or the adjuster is bent.
 
Finally success.. This really was a PITA..

I'll just document what worked in case it helps the next guy. Also thanks to the posters above who provided encouragement and suggestions along the way. Yeah..:SN:

I had a friend help me who is more experienced than I am, having had some similar weatherstripping issues when restored his Chevy vert some years ago. Who says Ford and Chevy guys can't get along.

What we decided was that I was probably having trouble because of some problem with the channel on the window where the weatherstrip slides in. Shining a flashlight down it didn't reveal anything obvious, but it's hard to see along it's full length. Since I had accidently destroyed the first replacement weatherstrip I had purchased and since they only come in pairs, when I bought a 2nd set I then had 2 weatherstrips for the driver side, but still only 1 driver side on my car.. So I decided to sacrifice one of them for the greater good.

We cut out a small 2 inch section of one of the driver side weatherstrips and tried to slide it through the whole channel. Being only 2 inches it doesn't inherit the friction of other parts of the weatherstrip 10 inches away from it as you slide it down the channel, so it was much easier to maneuver than the whole piece was. Sure enough though, it got stuck in exactly the same place where I got stuck doing my first install attempt . I conjecture that the process of ripping out the original weathertrip, which has a metal core to it, gouged the inside of the channel, creating some ridge or something. Fortunately trying to slide mini piece of weatherstrip going from bottom to top was eventually possible and it seemed to smooth out the channel to the point where we could then slide the mini piece up and down the whole length of the channel without too much trouble. So at that point we lubed up the channel, and the actual piece of weatherstripping I wanted to install with Vaseline (a suggestion mentioned above, and what my friend recommended) and were able to complete the install. I'm not going to say it was easy, but at least we were able to make steady progress worming it down, as opposed to the original try where it just got stuck in the one place and then wouldn't budge.

So long story short. Make sure the channel is passable along it's whole length, and then Vaseline seems to be the lube of choice.