Replace Your Old Weatherstripping

It's too bad the technology to create weatherstripping that would endure the life of the car does not exist. Over the years, there have been numerous scientific advances in the production of rubber products, adhesives, and sealants allowing us to seal our car up tighter than when it was new. Today, weatherstripping has never been better, so there's no excuse for putting up with the drafty old leaking stuff.

This '70 Camaro showed signs of wear and tear typical of any 30-year-old car. Somewhere in the Camaro's past, someone did a poor job of replacing the original weatherstripping with low-buck pieces. The window seals were not properly seated in the door channel, so water and air leaked at the upper corners. The installer had used both silicone and brown weatherstrip adhesive to try and glue the leaking rubber instead of using the proper pins to secure it in the factory location. The cheap rubber began deteriorating and cracking, allowing water to creep in whenever the car got wet.

Replacing the Old

A good place to start is the window's rubber seal in the door frame. Remove the pins securing the ends of the rubber to the door frame, and then the rubber can be pulled out of its channel by hand. Use side-cutters to get under any remaining plastic pins' heads and pull them out. Scrape the channel to remove the remaining rubber residue and adhesive and clean inside the channel using lacquer thinner or 3M Release Agent (PN 08971 from Classic Industries) sprayed on a clean cloth. Don't spray the solvent directly into the channel because overspray could damage your paint. It's not critical to get the channel spotless, it just needs to be clean, smooth, and free of loose dirt, oil, and contaminants. We cleaned our channel with a stainless steel brush dipped in lacquer thinner and wiped the channel down with a clean, dry rag. Don't forget to cover your seats and carpet with heavy blankets to keep residue and solvent from damaging them.

The door rubber is just as easy to remove; you should begin by removing the pins holding its corners in place. The door seals are secured with plastic pushpins running the entire length under the door. Just rip the old rubber off and pull the pins out using the side-cutters. Again, scrape and wipe off the old adhesive before installing the new rubber, and be careful not to scratch the paint.

Before installing the new rubber, use a steel punch or a drillbit to clean and smooth the pushpin holes; this will make inserting the new pins easier. We hammered a tapered 1/8-inch punch into each hole first, which made pushing in the pins a snap. You should also glue all corners of the door seals and the entire window seal into its channel using 3M black weatherstrip adhesive. The stuff is super sticky, but any leftover mess can easily be cleaned up with lacquer thinner before it fully cures. Also, before the adhesive cures, it’s safe to use lacquer thinner to wipe off any excess adhesive that may have gotten onto the rubber sealing surface. Make sure not to close the doors or windows for a couple of hours until the adhesive fully cures so the rubber doesn’t glue itself to the door or window. Replacing your old weatherstripping is inexpensive, easy, and takes only a couple of hours. By replacing it, you can turn your old car’s noisy, leaking, uncomfortable interior into a first-class cruising cabin.