Mathius
06-04-2005, 07:02 AM
My '76 Malibu has a leak in the opera window. As a short term fix, I think I'm gonna clean out some of the old sealant and put some clear silicon in there to seal the leak.
Long term, I was looking at the windows, and I think they have a poor design. The outside of the window sheet metal has large gaps between the outside panel of the car and the place where the window is actually sealed against the panel. This is because of some rather thick chrome trim that's supposed to fit in there, but it also leaves large channels for water to sit in when the chrome trim isn't there.
Right now the window is sealed from the inside of the car. I'd like to remove the windows, and weld a channel in to allow the glass to sit nearly flush with the outside panel of the car. My question is, what kind of weatherstripping can I use?
I'm looking for something like the way the windshield is sealed on third gen camaro's, just a thin strip of weatherstripping that's only a few centimeters wide and sticks out only a few mm's more than the glass and sheetmetal. The same type of sealant was used on the extended cab windows of my '89 Ranger. Lots of cars use it, but these are just two I remember specifically. Is this something you can buy in custom sizes and mold to your size, or is it something that's designed for specific sizes and shapes?
I don't have any good pictures of my opera windows, but there are some here:
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
I can get closeups later as necessary.
I need to figure out how this weatherstripping is fitted, so I can figure out what kind of channel I'll need for the glass, and how much the glass will need trimmed.
Here's a pretty good shot of the weatherstripping I'm talk'n about:
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
Thanks,
Mathius
Long term, I was looking at the windows, and I think they have a poor design. The outside of the window sheet metal has large gaps between the outside panel of the car and the place where the window is actually sealed against the panel. This is because of some rather thick chrome trim that's supposed to fit in there, but it also leaves large channels for water to sit in when the chrome trim isn't there.
Right now the window is sealed from the inside of the car. I'd like to remove the windows, and weld a channel in to allow the glass to sit nearly flush with the outside panel of the car. My question is, what kind of weatherstripping can I use?
I'm looking for something like the way the windshield is sealed on third gen camaro's, just a thin strip of weatherstripping that's only a few centimeters wide and sticks out only a few mm's more than the glass and sheetmetal. The same type of sealant was used on the extended cab windows of my '89 Ranger. Lots of cars use it, but these are just two I remember specifically. Is this something you can buy in custom sizes and mold to your size, or is it something that's designed for specific sizes and shapes?
I don't have any good pictures of my opera windows, but there are some here:
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
I can get closeups later as necessary.
I need to figure out how this weatherstripping is fitted, so I can figure out what kind of channel I'll need for the glass, and how much the glass will need trimmed.
Here's a pretty good shot of the weatherstripping I'm talk'n about:
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
Thanks,
Mathius