Convertible A-pillar weatherstrip issues

Hey All!

Just picked up my first foxbody (and first project car in general). A 92 convertible and working through a large punchlist of little issues that have come up. One of the big ones was the weatherstripping all over was either in bad shape or nonexistent. Bought a kit from LMR and began doing the work last night but the weatherstrip on the A-pillar was non-existent and has been a pain to install and was looking for advice.

The way the weatherstrip goes on is there is a bracket that the weatherstrip slides down and it has channels for the weatherstrip to sit on and it's also glued in with weatherstrip adhesive. You screw this piece in to the pillar and then slide the stripping down it:

weatherstrip_bracket.webp


It is hard to tell from that picture, but the bracket is slightly curved but it's also wavy and kinda beat up. It gets installed here (a little hard to see the screw holes b/c the new door weatherstripping, but it is there, I promise:

apillar_no_channel.webp


But my problem is that the bracket is a bit wavy and I have clearance to slide the weatherstrip down at the top 1/4 and the bottom 1/2, but the second 1/4 of the way down it pinches on the frame/trim and slides off the rail.

channel_installed_annotated.webp


In the pic above I tried to point out the issue, but I cant figure my way around it. In the picture I removed the front windshield trim and I CAN slide it down with that trim gone, but it obviously has to be reinstalled too. I tried prying down on the pinch point a bit and didn't make much progress but was also afraid of really cranking down on it and creating a wrinkle and making my problem worse. I'd be willing to replace the bracket but I can't find any reproductions of this part anywhere online. Found a few used ones for sale on ebay, but worried about dropping $60-75 and having the same issue. If you know of the part number and anywhere I can buy a new one I'd very much consider that.

Any advice on how to get this weatherstrip installed? Just brute force and bend the bracket down? File down the screw holes and slide the whole bracket a few mm down? Just glue the weatherstrip on and forget the channel (this worries me that it'll fall off/tear soon)? Buy a used one on ebay and pray it's better than mine? Other?



And then to problem 2. As you can tell from picture above, I removed the windshield trim as it was mega loose anyway as whatever adhesive was keeping it on had failed and need to get it back on. What's the right adhesive for that? 3M trim adhesive? Butyl Sealant Tape? Other? I'm considering pulling it all off and sanding/painting it before putting it back, but want to make sure I have a plan before I go ripping parts off.

windshield_trim.webp
windshield_no_trim.webp
 
Is there any chance that someone else has been in there and they got the brackets flip flopped? By this I mean the driver side and passenger side swapped? I do not know anything about the verts so it may be that you cannot swap them. I was just thinking that this might explain the misalignment issues.