Weather stripping for targa bar/sail panels

Tom Ginefra

Tom Ginefra

True Classic
Does anyone have any experience with MWB's aftermarket weather stripping? I remembered my old X leaked like a sieve until I replaced it with new OEM rubber. I can't tell from the one photo they have on the site, but the profile doesn't look to be that close to OEM. I haven't had any luck elsewhere. Anyone have any suggestions?
 
Hi Tom,

As a matter of fact, I just installed this MWB weatherstripping in my 86. You need two pieces, one for each side. Each piece will install from the top of the A pillar, down around the door frame, then up the targa sail and finishes at the center of the targa bar. The stripping is a simple round bulb style, but it seems to work really well for not being the stock formed stripping. If the car was here at home, I would take picture with the door open. :(
20180621_112735.jpg


I installed the stripping before I took the car to the MWB open house a couple weeks back, where it rained off and on Friday and Saturday. The car did not leak and the fit of the stripping seemed pretty good considering it isn't the stock item. The windows sealed well enough to keep the rain out and went up and down smoothly. The doors close without having to force them. It looks very nice compared to the old torn up stripping it replaced.

In short: I was happy with the fit of this stripping and I would use it again if I needed it for another X.
 
Last edited:
Thanks Jim. I was a little skeptical with the profile of this replacement stripping being considerably different than OEM. In fact I was thinking about ordering a completely different set (for a different car) based on how similar it looked to the original, but it was pricey. I saw the set that Karl Mead got from Holland, but when I clicked on the link the site was no longer active. Is that site "no more"?
 
JimD said:
Hi Tom,

As a matter of fact, I just installed this MWB weatherstripping in my 86. You need two pieces, one for each side. Each piece will install from the top of the A pillar, down around the door frame, then up the targa sail and finishes at the center of the targa bar. The stripping is a simple round bulb style, but it seems to work really well for not being the stock formed stripping. If the car was here at home, I would take picture with the door open. :(
View attachment 12923

I installed the stripping before I took the car to the MWB open house a couple weeks back, where it rained off and on Friday and Saturday. The car did not leak and the fit of the stripping seemed pretty good considering it isn't the stock item. The windows sealed well enough to keep the rain out and went up and down smoothly. The doors close without having to force them. It looks very nice compared to the old torn up stripping it replaced.

In short: I was happy with the fit of this stripping and I would use it again if I needed it for another X.
Click to expand...
BTW..the car looks GREAT! What color is that?
 
Tom Ginefra said:
BTW..the car looks GREAT! What color is that?
Click to expand...

Tom,

I had it painted in the Arancio color that was available on the 2016 Fiat 500X. I wanted a non-metallic, Fiat color that wasn't common on the X1/9. It does stand out, which is what I wanted. It looks more red in the indoor garage pictures. Here is an outdoor shot next to a yellow X where it is easier to see the orange.
20180622_204921 (2).jpg
 
I'm psyched to hear that, as mine is Rosso Arancio (171) as well. I only hope when I'm finished cutting and buffing the original paint, it looks half as good as this. Found a few minor spots of surface rust that I have to sand prep and paint. I've been scouring the internet for reliable sources of touch up paint. There's a zillion of them. But obviously I'm concerned about matching the original shade as closely as possible. One of the PO's had installed some generic molding as a door ding protector, just below the bottom of the horizontal indent in the center of the door. (There's a name for that but at the moment it escapes me.) Anyway, when I first saw the ad for the car on Craigslist you could see on one side the trailing edge of the aftermarket strip was hanging off a bit. Someone must have said something to him and "prior to me looking at the car and ultimately buying it" he had elected to "glue" the ends of the molding back on to the doors. Unfortunately for me, he used gorilla glue. Not the instant stick superglue type, but the kind you'd apply on a wall to stick up sheets of paneling! 80% of the strips came off easily with a little heat, but where he worked his magic the glue remained. The only solvents available that would make a dent in the Gorilla glue are far too harsh for the original paint (which I'm pretty sure is single stage Acrylic Enamel). Unless I revert back to another disgustingly ugly rub strip, my only option at this point is to mechanically remove the residue with sandpaper and refinish/re-spray this 1" wide strip that runs across the entire width of the door. The only thing I'm hoping for is (if I can find a close enough match of touch up paint, in both liquid and aerosol) the area affected is on a little flat that appears just before the door skin begins to curve downwards towards the rockers. It appears I may be able to mask off just the area with a "hard line" that I wouldn't really have to worry about blending with the rest of the door. Again, the success of any attempt at a spot spray (however favorable the area may be "optically" would rely heavily on how well I could match the paint to begin with. Whether I start on the paint repairs first (or not) my plan is to cut and buff the rest of the car, see what the color ultimately winds up looking like, and either start getting samples of touch up paint to test and compare, or bite the bullet and go to a proper paint/body shop and have them custom blend one for me. And of course, similar to what I've read in posts from many of our members, I'm doing all of this on a very limited budget.
00z0z_9LLwOjpY5io_1200x900.jpg
 
Tom, the car looks great. For the original paint it appears to be in amazing condition. So you should have no problem buffing it.
Personally I hate the "door moldings" people add to any car, and especially a car like the X. Mine has some that was riveted on (aluminum track with a rubber insert). So I'll have to fill all the holes. In that respect consider yourself lucky.
Considering you will likely have to do some touch up paint, I'd try every solvant I could first (to get the glue off). It can't really hurt any more than sanding, and if you get lucky it might remove the glue without harming the underlying paint.
As for matching the paint. I'd just have it custom matched at a paint shop. After you buff the whole car the color will change, and no matter what you do it won't be the same as it was originally. The odds of finding a correct match by trial and error are very slim. You'll likely end up spending more on a bunch of touch-up bottles.
Just my thoughts. Great car. Those side stripes must be part of the Hugh Hefner special signature Playboy edition? :)
 
Good luck with your paint Tom. It looks like it is in pretty good condition. My car is painted with the modern Arancio, not the old Rosso Arancio. There was a Rosso Arancio X at the MWB open house to compare with. They are different, but in the same family I suppose.
 
JimD said:
Hi Tom,

As a matter of fact, I just installed this MWB weatherstripping in my 86. You need two pieces, one for each side. Each piece will install from the top of the A pillar, down around the door frame, then up the targa sail and finishes at the center of the targa bar. The stripping is a simple round bulb style, but it seems to work really well for not being the stock formed stripping. If the car was here at home, I would take picture with the door open. :(
View attachment 12923

I installed the stripping before I took the car to the MWB open house a couple weeks back, where it rained off and on Friday and Saturday. The car did not leak and the fit of the stripping seemed pretty good considering it isn't the stock item. The windows sealed well enough to keep the rain out and went up and down smoothly. The doors close without having to force them. It looks very nice compared to the old torn up stripping it replaced.

In short: I was happy with the fit of this stripping and I would use it again if I needed it for another X.
Click to expand...


I installed new MWB weather stripping in the same manner. The only issue I found was it quickly tore at the harsh corner at the top of the targa sail where the stock rubber bumpers were. I'd recommend retaining the stock rubber bumpers and cutting the weather stripping to fit with them in place.
 
aarpcard said:
I installed new MWB weather stripping in the same manner. The only issue I found was it quickly tore at the harsh corner at the top of the targa sail where the stock rubber bumpers were. I'd recommend retaining the stock rubber bumpers and cutting the weather stripping to fit with them in place.
Click to expand...

Tom looks to have a 79. If he still has the stock weather stripping, the corner blocks were molded in from 79 on. So they are not really able to be reused. Of course he can buy a set of corner blocks from Ricardo or one of the vendors. You can see the integrated corner blocks in Henk's offering. And here is a picture I took of the driver's side stripping I took off my 85. You can see that the corner is not a separate piece. :(
late model corner block.JPG
 
Yes, thank you all. I was told that he car was stored indoors for its entire life, so the paint is in pretty good shape. I do have quite a bit of little touch ups to do. Typical scratches chips, etc., in addition to the glue residue issue. Jeff, there are solvents that will dissolve/soften gorilla glue, but they are very nasty to old single stage enamel. I've already exposed some of the white undercoat while mechanically scraping, and I can tell you the paint is not as thick as I would have hoped. If I'm going to risk going to that extreme, I might as well just buck up and sand and respray that area. Thanks for all the input. I've spoken to Ricardo about possibly purchasing a set of corner blocks from him. However, I was excited when I saw Karl's rubber (that sounds so weird!) that he bought from Henk. If not OEM, it looks to be the closest I've seen yet. Right now I'm primarily focused on getting my little baby road worthy. Everything works, I just can't stop! The parts list is growing by the day. I'll be starting the master cylinders soon, as well as all the brake, fuel, and vacuum lines. I discovered a rotted fuel line yesterday, so no sitting in the garage with the motor running. (I've been sitting in my car under the guise of checking the water temp gauge) just to have the feeling of driving it. I feel like a twelve year old who just got a new bike, but your parents said you can't ride it until some arbitrary date. I diagnosed a bad diode, on the left headlight motor, and sure enough when I removed the motor, the bad diode just crumbled off. That's an easy fix though, I should have that done tomorrow. Looking forward to getting her on the road soon, and in good enough running order to maybe join one of the local events, and meet some of the other guys. As good shape as she's in, I am most definitely in for a long haul. We'll get there eventually. (I'm sure I'll come to revise that statement) Thank you again to everyone. You are an awesome group of people, and it's nice to know there's still individuals out there so willing to help others. For those of us who have been "afflicted", this forum is amazing!
 
Dr.Jeff said:
Tom, the car looks great. For the original paint it appears to be in amazing condition. So you should have no problem buffing it.
Personally I hate the "door moldings" people add to any car, and especially a car like the X. Mine has some that was riveted on (aluminum track with a rubber insert). So I'll have to fill all the holes. In that respect consider yourself lucky.
Considering you will likely have to do some touch up paint, I'd try every solvant I could first (to get the glue off). It can't really hurt any more than sanding, and if you get lucky it might remove the glue without harming the underlying paint.
As for matching the paint. I'd just have it custom matched at a paint shop. After you buff the whole car the color will change, and no matter what you do it won't be the same as it was originally. The odds of finding a correct match by trial and error are very slim. You'll likely end up spending more on a bunch of touch-up bottles.
Just my thoughts. Great car. Those side stripes must be part of the Hugh Hefner special signature Playboy edition? :)
Click to expand...
She's getting there.
20180708_203357.jpg
Nasty stuff!
20180708_203429.jpg
 
Shame that stuff like that is put on cars. If anything is worse than having side trim molding, its glueing it on that way. Still a really nice car though.
 
What’s worse?

Drilling a bunch of holes to hold the molding on with rivets is worse. Then choosing to add two rows of that molding, one above the inset and one below.

So not only do you have to paint but you also have to fill all the holes before painting.

FYI I haven’t yet bought the weather stripping, my car will need it in the future without doubt.

I would recommend getting the corner blocks to turn the corner at the targa bar.
 
kmead said:
What’s worse?

Drilling a bunch of holes to hold the molding on with rivets is worse. Then choosing to add two rows of that molding, one above the inset and one below.

So not only do you have to paint but you also have to fill all the holes before painting.

FYI I haven’t yet bought the weather stripping, my car will need it in the future without doubt.

I would recommend getting the corner blocks to turn the corner at the targa bar.
Click to expand...
Yikes!!! Between you and Jeff...I guess I'll stop complaining. I'm just really frustrated, because if he just hadn't glued those sections, a cut and buff would have restored 98% of the paint to what I would consider to be "perfect" for a non-trailer queen. And while my car definitely needs them, the weather stripping is down on the priority list, right now. But when I'm ready, I'm pretty sure I'm going with Henk's.
 
BTW...I'm absolutely amazed at how this color looks Red in natural sunlight, and "very" Orange under florescent lights.
 
Tom Ginefra said:
BTW...I'm absolutely amazed at how this color looks Red in natural sunlight, and "very" Orange under florescent lights.
Click to expand...

So Tom, I guess our colors are actually opposites. Mine is red in the garage and orange in the sunlight. :cool:

Your original paint is awesome. My car was in already in primer when I got it.
welcome_home_1024.jpg
 
Dr.Jeff said:
Tom, the car looks great. For the original paint it appears to be in amazing condition. So you should have no problem buffing it.
Personally I hate the "door moldings" people add to any car, and especially a car like the X. Mine has some that was riveted on (aluminum track with a rubber insert). So I'll have to fill all the holes. In that respect consider yourself lucky.
Considering you will likely have to do some touch up paint, I'd try every solvant I could first (to get the glue off). It can't really hurt any more than sanding, and if you get lucky it might remove the glue without harming the underlying paint.
As for matching the paint. I'd just have it custom matched at a paint shop. After you buff the whole car the color will change, and no matter what you do it won't be the same as it was originally. The odds of finding a correct match by trial and error are very slim. You'll likely end up spending more on a bunch of touch-up bottles.
Just my thoughts. Great car. Those side stripes must be part of the Hugh Hefner special signature Playboy edition? :)
Click to expand...

Thanks, Jeff. Don't know what other dealer installed options beside the luggage rack and the "factory stripe kit" were available in 79, but they must have seen the original owner coming from a mile away. The car also appears to have been rust proofed. (Thank goodness for "that" decision!) I've gone back and forth over deleting the stripes. I peeled a small section off (just about 4" wide) on top of the targa bar, using a blow dryer. The stripes are so friggin thin and fragile that they kept breaking into little pieces. It took me about 20 min !!! Not looking forward to trying that on the entire car! I'm going to wait and see. This Hugh Hefner "special edition" is starting to grow on me, I think. Might even get a new bunny decal to replace the old one!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top