I'm looking for the rubber weather stripping that goes below the roof pillars. Does anyone know if they produce this ? Thanks
You and everyone else needs this part, but it is not reproduced at this time. Do a search and find the post about using a ford aerostar sliding door weatherstrip. I did that and, believe it or not, it works pretty well. You'll have to get some black weatherstrip stuff in a tube and kind of glue it together with that stuff, but it is MUCH better than the dried out, cracked, leaking weatherstrip that was there before. I can actually keep water out of the rear now.
And probably never will be. The number of these cars is slowly decreasing, not increasing, so the potential market is getting smaller, not larger. If any company was going to jump in and reproduce this part, it would have happened by now. I've heard that before about the Ford Aerostar weatherstrip, but I never looked into it while I had my clamshell wagon. It's a good thing to know.
Seen an Aerostar lately? Yea, me neither. You know it's getting pretty bad when the vehicles we're using to cobble parts together with are disappearing too.
try restoration specialties for the extrusion. don't say never all it takes is for someone to invest for the first one that will be in the $2500 - $4000 range after that one they can be reproduced in a run of several hundred for a lot less and then sold. almost 15 yrs ago when I did my 59 chevy not much was available. day by day new parts are produced
Of course the models are disappearing from everyday use, but that doesn't mean the aftermarket support for them has as well. Ford made the Aerostar from 1986 to 1997, which is much more recently than the clamshell wagons were made. Plus, they were Fords, which tend to be much better supported in the aftermarket than Oldsmobiles, and they were made for 12 model years instead of only six. I went to the Rockauto website just now, and sliding door weatherstrip is available for all 12 of those model years.
I hope you're right, but you're talking Chevy, which lives in a whole different universe than does Oldsmobile when it comes to aftermarket support, especially for anything that isn't a '68 to '72 Cutlass or 442. Olds station wagons get the shortest of the short shrift.
That's not the point. He was talking about his 1959 Chevy and how parts have become available for it. My point is that Chevy lives in a different world from the other GM makes when it comes to aftermarket support, and parts became available for his car because it's a Chevy. You can't use the fact that parts became available for '59 Chevys to assume that they will also now become available for clamshell wagons. My point still stands. It's now been 46 years and counting since the clamshells were introduced. If anyone was ever going to reproduce the rubber weatherstripping for these cars, they would have done it by now. The market size is too small and the overall interest is too low for it to be financially sustainable to do so. I would love to be proved wrong on this and to one day have to eat my words. But I'm going to guess that I won't have to.
You are exactly correct...all were the same across all clamshells for all years. Please point me to the sliding door weatherstrip...that's the one needed to repair the clamshell weatherstrip. I see the front door weatherstrip from various manufactures, but no sliding door weatherstrip. I would love to find a brand new one to save back...I must be overlooking it.
You are right! My mistake. I saw "door weatherstrip" and assumed it included sliding door. It does not. They show only front door weatherstrips at Rockauto. So much for that idea. The search goes on.
cut a sample slice look at the restoration specialties catalogue and see what is close. the only problem is the molded corners
I'm not here to start a pissing match but you stated parts are easier to get because it's a "Chevy" but in fact the part I'm looking for is the same as a Chevy...
