Pete Whitstone
True Classic
The window fuzzies (felt, weatherstripping, whatever you like to call it) on the 037 project were completely shot. The car uses some fairly unique shaped fuzzies that are not likely to be found in the general aftermarket. The Monte Hospital has a kit for the "drop glass", but I don't think that would include the vent window stuff. So I tried to see if I could find something that might fit and look good, and be easier to obtain than sending overseas.
Here are the profiles of the stock stuff.
On the left is what seems to be both in the movable glass area and the vent window area, with the exception of the forward facing part of the vent window. That particular strip is much shallower, so that's going to be difficult to match. That's the stuff on the right.
Notice that both of these profiles include a "lip" that extends past the opening, and covers about an eighth of an inch beyond the opening. I was not able to find anything like that. Since my car had been painted previously, peeling that stuff back showed a strip of the original color, apparently the window fuzzies were just masked and not removed. So when I repainted the car, I made sure to completely remove this stuff, so the color comes all the way up to the window fuzzy channel.
On the movable glass stuff, I found a product at Grainger that I thought would work.
This turned out to be a good fit. Getting it installed was a bit of a chore. Even with the old fuzzies completely removed and the window detached from the winder, I could not find any way to get the glass out, it is essentially trapped between the front and rear channels. And the channels are welded in place, as far as I can tell. If anyone knows the secret, let me know.
Anyhow, I worked around it and although it was a PITA, almost rising to the level of a RPITA, I did manage to get it all installed with the glass still mostly in place. Here are some shots of the finished installation.
Some lithium grease for the winder, and all was good.
Now, for that vent window. I got some of this product, also from Grainger, based on the dimensions.
Although the specifications list the color as black, this is only partially true. The fuzzies are black, but the metal C shell the fuzzies ride in is chrome (stainless steel, whatever... shiny). That might work for some applications but I wanted all black. But first to see if it fit. I cut off an inch of the stuff and tried it in the cars channels. The forward channel it sat in fine.
However, the very shallow channel on the other side of the movable glass, not so much.
Since it needed to be black anyway, I masked the fuzzies and painted it with SEM Trim Black. I could install it as shown and let it sit a little proud of the channel. From the outside it would probably not be very noticeable, since the channel it sits in is also black. From the inside of the car, it will be a lot more noticeable, since the channel is body colored on that side.
With it painted black, I test-fit it into the channel to see if I was going to like it or not. I would have liked it if it sat just a hair more down, but it was acceptable from both the outside and the inside. It sat proud about how far the window fuzzies on the other side sat.
That completes this side. Not a bad result for not too much money. In the end I needed 3 of the 6 foot strips of rubber window fuzzies, and 2 3 foot strips of the metal channel. Honestly I would have liked to have found a rubber product of the same dimensions as the metal product, it would have been a lot easier to fit it into the curves, and no need to paint it as it would have already been black. But in the end I'm satisfied, it worked out pretty well for about $50 spent.
Altogether it's coming along nicely.
Here are the profiles of the stock stuff.
On the left is what seems to be both in the movable glass area and the vent window area, with the exception of the forward facing part of the vent window. That particular strip is much shallower, so that's going to be difficult to match. That's the stuff on the right.
Notice that both of these profiles include a "lip" that extends past the opening, and covers about an eighth of an inch beyond the opening. I was not able to find anything like that. Since my car had been painted previously, peeling that stuff back showed a strip of the original color, apparently the window fuzzies were just masked and not removed. So when I repainted the car, I made sure to completely remove this stuff, so the color comes all the way up to the window fuzzy channel.
On the movable glass stuff, I found a product at Grainger that I thought would work.
This turned out to be a good fit. Getting it installed was a bit of a chore. Even with the old fuzzies completely removed and the window detached from the winder, I could not find any way to get the glass out, it is essentially trapped between the front and rear channels. And the channels are welded in place, as far as I can tell. If anyone knows the secret, let me know.
Anyhow, I worked around it and although it was a PITA, almost rising to the level of a RPITA, I did manage to get it all installed with the glass still mostly in place. Here are some shots of the finished installation.
Some lithium grease for the winder, and all was good.
Now, for that vent window. I got some of this product, also from Grainger, based on the dimensions.
Although the specifications list the color as black, this is only partially true. The fuzzies are black, but the metal C shell the fuzzies ride in is chrome (stainless steel, whatever... shiny). That might work for some applications but I wanted all black. But first to see if it fit. I cut off an inch of the stuff and tried it in the cars channels. The forward channel it sat in fine.
However, the very shallow channel on the other side of the movable glass, not so much.
Since it needed to be black anyway, I masked the fuzzies and painted it with SEM Trim Black. I could install it as shown and let it sit a little proud of the channel. From the outside it would probably not be very noticeable, since the channel it sits in is also black. From the inside of the car, it will be a lot more noticeable, since the channel is body colored on that side.
With it painted black, I test-fit it into the channel to see if I was going to like it or not. I would have liked it if it sat just a hair more down, but it was acceptable from both the outside and the inside. It sat proud about how far the window fuzzies on the other side sat.
That completes this side. Not a bad result for not too much money. In the end I needed 3 of the 6 foot strips of rubber window fuzzies, and 2 3 foot strips of the metal channel. Honestly I would have liked to have found a rubber product of the same dimensions as the metal product, it would have been a lot easier to fit it into the curves, and no need to paint it as it would have already been black. But in the end I'm satisfied, it worked out pretty well for about $50 spent.
Altogether it's coming along nicely.
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