Belt Weatherstripping Replacement

I have replaced it in my '71 Chevy truck, but not my 63 wagon yet. I am looking at the same kit as you, from Dearborn Classics too (they seem to be a bit cheaper than Steele Rubber). If I get mine ordered, I'll share what I go through.

Have you found a source for the rear tailgate rubbers? I found one reference to sourcing some through a blog entry, but nothing available. I am going to send the guy in the blog an email and ask where he sourced them from.

 

I ordered my belt line weatherstripping yesterday. Supposed to be here tomorrow. Now if it will only warm up enough to try and install it. They say it is supposed to be 67 degrees on Thursday, I may try it then. If I do I'll take pictures and let you know how it goes.

 

The belt line weatherstrips came today and the weather was gorgeous. So I started the replacement. It's pretty much like you said in your post above. I ordered my kit from Eckler's, and it is a Repop FD-110 that they sell. So here we go:

First step is to remove the door lock knob, and the upper inside molding.

Once that is removed, then remove the window cranks, door opener handle, and armrest. Note that I don't have remote mirrors, if you do you may have some extra steps.

I used a 2" putty knife (per the Shop manual, ha!) to go around the perimeter of the door panel and pop the clips out of the holes.

Once the door panel is removed, at the back of the door, is the window stop block. This has to be removed to allow the window to come down far enough to replace the outer wiper.

Gone!

Note that I pried the heck out of this stop, and finally got it to come out. Who would've known that the bracket was slotted closest to the outer door to allow it to SLIDE out instead of being pried out!

Then the window rolls down far enough to pry off the outer wiper. Mine had rivets at the very ends that I had to carefully pry out (tearing the metal backing of the old strip). My strip was help in with clips open at the bottom, so it was a matter of easing them up with pressure and gently pulling away from the door towards the inside.

Once I got that out, I compared the strips. The new one was quite a bit longer, and was straight, not bent at the vent window division post like the original.

This required some trimming with my Dremel tool and a reinforced cutoff wheel. I simply held them together, marked the new one based on the old one, and cut it. No pictures of that. Make sure your clips line up in the hoes when going to install it. Here is a shot with it installed where I put the bend in it at the division post. I used a Sharpie marker and will clean that off, I promise.

The outer strip installed.

The inner fuzzy strip is stapled. I used the Dremel with the cutoff wheel to cut the staples, but you could just as easily (although more slowly) get the inner strip off with a flat screwdriver and a pair of sidecut pliers. I then used vise grips to hold the new fuzzy in place and drill through the holes in the new strip, through the inner molding, using a 1/16" drill bit. For whatever reason the old holes and the new holes don't line up. Nothing a drill won't fix. (No pictures of the vise grips and drilling).

I then inserted the supplied staples through the newly drilled holes, and using small needle nose pliers, started to bend them inward. I finished the job up with a pair of channel lock pliers. Here's the final crimp:

It was then just a matter of reverse order putting everything back together. It got dark on me so no finished pictures, I'll try to get a few tomorrow if you want them.

A couple of things to note: This is the driver's side front door. I also did the driver's side rear door and it was easier than the front due to the fact that I didn't have to cut it to fit, it fit well enough. I also knew about that dang slot in the window stop bracket which made getting the stop block out much faster.

My panels had apparently been off before, because there was no seal. no surprise but if yours is original and still there, take your time getting the seal off and make sure you can put it (or a suitable replacement) back. I will pull my panels off again soon and use them as a template to cut heavy clear plastic and use adhesive to put it on, to protect the panels from moisture.

Take the time while the panel is off to vacuum out the bottom inside of the door. I think I got at least 30 years of build up out of it. Make sure you unblock the four drain holes at the bottom of the door while you are in it. Also take the time to grease your window roller.

The insides of my doors were in decent shape. However, when I put in teh plastic seal, I am going to paint the insides of them with POR-15. I am also going to do this to the tailgate when I get there as well, just to keep everything sealed up and moisture resistant.

I hope this helps. I didn't get pictures of everything, but hopefully enough to give you an idea of what's involved. If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask and I'll answer as best I can.

 

Thanks Don, I hope it helps you out. These new pieces make everything else look bad. Now I have to replace the division post felts and window channel, vent window gasket, door seals, etc. etc. etc. ;-)

Never worked for Chiltons or Haynes, but I'll take that as a compliment. I just took my time figuring this stuff out and took pictures where I could to explain it. Let me know how yours goes when you do it.

Oh yeah I gotta say you're right about it never raining in Seattle. It's a wonder you aren't in a drought all the time.

Steve

 

Glad you found it helpful.