Hello All:
As some of you who were at the Maine United in October will remember,
one of the tech sessions was about replacing the front weatherstrip and
rear window on the later hardtops. For the demo, Jim Armstrong and Gary
Fish used my hardtop (RHIP) and the results were greatly appreciated.
When I got the hardtop home, I continued with its restoration by doing
the side window gaskets next. Initially, I had a great deal of
frustration making the gaskets stay in place once they had been
positioned. The problem seems to be that the depth of the gaskets and
their shape on the inside is such that they want to push themselves up
off the flange. It is no mean feat, also, to get them over the flange
and in place since they have to be spread apart and then carefully
fitted on both the inside and outside of the flange. In my frustration,
I contacted Jim and Gary and Gary pointed out that it is important to
push the corners of the gasket tightly into the corners with a piece of
wood or some such at the beginning. However, Gary did not remember
having the difficulties I was having with making the gaskets stay in
place. Jim has pointed out that, as time has passed, replacement parts
are sometimes not exact replicas of the originals and I think that may
be the problem in that the gaskets are just a little too deep to fit
comfortably. (I noticed a similar effect recently with a replacement
wheel cylinder which would not accept the lever arm that pivots in it,
necessitating a little bit of grinding.) In any case, the solution to
my dilemma was to get some 3M heavy duty trim adhesive and apply it
around the flange before installing the gasket. The process goes much
more easily and requires many fewer harsh words, to the point that I
would recommend its use as a standard procedure when attempting the
installation. Just thought I might save someone else the frustration of
another encounter with our favorite oxymoron, "English Engineering".
In a closely related subject, does anyone know where to find the screws
that hold the side trim pieces and the rubber mounts for the hardtop?
The ideal size seems to be 6-32 x 1/4 (#6 UNC x 1/4). I cannot find
anything in that size shorter than 3/8. Thanks.
Tod
B382002384LRXFE
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