weatherstripping question...
 

I am wanting to replace the weatherstrip on the driver bodyside where the door meets. I know its hard to find and its discontinued thru GM.

I can find one....but I dont want one thats been sitting on the parts shelf for a decade or more. I found an aftermarket option thru a company called soffseal.
Anyone tried them? They want $240 for it but thats still cheaper than all other options Ive found.

Im not really concerned about the price as much as the aftermarket option i would assume hasnt been rotting away on the shelf for years.

Any recommendations?

I've used soffseal before on my old Buick. It's good quality and the fit is pretty good. Just make sure it's warm when you put it on or it'll be a tight fit and want to pull away. Let us know what you end up doing and how it goes. Others will be in the same boat if they aren't already.

FWIW, weather stripping from this era is much better than stuff from decades prior. I wouldn't necessarily be worried about it having sat for years on a shelf (the originals on my low mileage '98 are still like new after 20 years), as long as it wasn't crumpled up horribly or kept in a very harsh environment. OEM original will almost always be the best fit.

Having said that, I've bought a few items from Soffseal before for my Nova. Seems like a quality brand/good products, but I have no experience with their 4th gen F-body stuff.

OK, i was wrong. I called them and what I was looked at was for the convertible. I couldnt find it on the site until she gave me the part number.

https://www.soffseal.com/ss-3196

$350! and Im still not sure its the right item. But its over $450 everywhere else if i can even find it.

My weatherstrip isn't showing signs of cracks or anything....the t top on the driver side just leaks a little where it locks into the pillars. And the rear of the window has a tiny gap like it doesnt push up against the weatherstrip hard enough. i can hear wind from it when Im driving. Ive tried adjusting the window a thousand times. Ive tried everything...new t top seals and sealant. Ive used silicone on the weatherstrip to try to get it "puffy" again. I dont even know if new weatherstrip will fix this and $400 is a hard learning curve.

Full stop. This isn't a weatherstripping problem.

You need to take the door panel off and check the window mechanism. If you have a gap at towards the rear, you most likely have this issue: https://ls1tech.com/forums/general-m...dow-guide.html

Thx for your input. I do not believe it is a weatherstripping problem either. The link you listed....i have not looked at that piece or the wheel on it yet. I will check it. But the only problem with window play....is when you open the door and look at the glass from the top, it moved inward and outward a little. way more than the passenger side window which doesnt move much. Ive adjusted the little guides on the top of the door (held each with one 10mm head bolt) but the window still has play.

since it moves, when you close the door, the glass doesnt push against the weatherstrip very hard. This is causing the leak I still have.

Don't do that! :) The adjustment for those things is non-intuitive and will probably make things worse. AFTER you get the problem sorted out, you'll need to re-adjust everything. Those window guides are the last thing to get adjusted and are not always in contact with the glass. (even though they look like they should be) http://shbox.com/1/adj_window.html


The broken roller I linked to is very common and constrains the window both in/out and forward/back. It's really an important part. The pictures in the thread I linked show the door with the vertical track (bolted to the inside of the door) removed.

If you do have that problem, it's not easy to fix. There are some shade tree ideas in the thread, but the textbook GM answer is to get a new bottom metal holder for the glass and install that. (You might have a better time finding a complete unit from a salvage yard with the glass, metal bracket, and intact roller all together. Either way, that's a major job, which likely involves removing the regulator, which is a whole different can of fun - depending on which way you are going to go with the repair.

IMO - Finding a good repair shop to weld the post back onto the bracket is probably the path of least resistance/work/cost.