Okay I found a way to replace the weatherstrips on my Sunbird convert that should work on anyone's Gen 1 or 2 J-body convert. I never posted pics here before but hopefully they'll come out okay. This isn't a super tough job but there is a little cutting and riveting involved. You use J-body coupe weatherstrips part #'s 20674276 (right) and 20674277 (left) and modify them to fit. They're only around $40 bucks a piece so it's pretty affordable. I can't be the only guy to have tried this so if someone has posted this somewhere before forgive me since I've never seen it.
Okay, take off your stock convert weatherstrip / top door trim molding and you'll see the weatherstrip is actually bonded to it. There are also rolled felt bumpers at the bottom that I'd imagine help guide the window. You need to cut the original weatherstrip off with a knife or something (it's probably mostly in tatters by now anyway right?) and keep going till the surface is flat and smooth.
The rolled felt things at the bottom need to come off too so use a pair of sheetmetal shears and cut them off as low as possible. Make sure this area is flat and smooth when you're done too.
The new weatherstrips have felt bumpers riveted to them but since our cars have them riveted to the doors already you don't need them. For whatever reason the passenger's side has a plastic guide at the front so take that off too.
So drill the rivets out and take them off. Take note here; my car needed a rear most door glass felt piece a little while ago since the original was worn out and scratched the crap out of my door glass. I made one from a piece of steel and industrial felt but that took a little doing. The felt bumpers that come on the new weatherstrips are a perfect replacement so if you need a felt piece just use one of those. I'm saving mine in case my home made one ever goes bad.
Next take the new weatherstrip and lay it over the old molding. The curvature of the front edge isn't exactly the same but it's pretty close so line it up as best as possible and clamp or vise grip it to the original in a few places. The original molding has a few cutouts to fit around the felt bumpers riveted to the door. I used a paint marker to mark all the cut outs from the old one to the new one. Once the marks are made cut the new one to match the old one so it'll line up correctly.
The new weatherstrip has a small lip on the side that is going to butt up against the molding (opposite the rubber that 'll touch the window glass). You can cut it off or just line it up right to the top edge of your original trim strip. I elected to keep it and line it up to the old molding at the top. Once you're satisfied it's lined up as best as you're going to get and you've trimmed both ends to the right length it's time to rivet it together. Start from one end or the other and drill holes every one inch or so and rivet the new weatherstrip to the modified old one. You won't be able to rivet where the cutouts are since there isn't enough metal there. You could make a U shaped clip or something to slide over both halves to clamp them together. I didn't do that but other than the slightest separation between the small rubber lip and the molding there are no other problems caused by it. I used a black super glue to glue the separation together.
When you're done pop it back on your car and you're done. I tried to boil it down as simply as I could and minimize pictures in this post. Call me a genius or call me a hack but my car looks a lot better now!
Tony
1987 Sunbird GT turbo convert
Ported intake, Fiero 53 MM TB, 52 lb inj, ported and flowed head, tube header, Mitsu TD06, ARP rod
bolts/head studs, adj cam sprocket, 4" x 12" x 31" FMIC, Paxton AFPR, modified 125 trans/LSD
unit/3.42's, custom chip tuning, Alky Control Methanol injection
13.61 ET at 101.44 mph, 262 WHP/350WTQ
2009 Pontiac Solstice GXP roadster, 2.0 turbo w/GMPP exh, CAI and turbo upgrade, 290 hp/325 ft lbs
1969 Olds 442 convert
400 Eng, 200-4R trans, 3.73 posi, power everything, OAI
Nice job. I was thinking of doing something like that myself. My question is, does the glass scrape the pop rivits at all? I was trying to find some adhesive to do the same job because I was afraid the rivits would scrape. Was the bend tough to do?
Nope, plenty of clearance. You don't actually bend the piece near the mirror. You match up the bend radius as best you can (it's within 1/16" of an inch) and rivet it together. After I wrote that up my parts guy friend came up with another set that looks like an even better idea. The part numbers are 20451776 and 20451777 and they're dead ringers for the stock convertible pieces except the last 2" near the rear side window has a small cut out where a hardtop would have the rear door frame. If you can live with that it looks like they would just pop right on in place of the convertible ones. Better act fast though they're already obsolete. He got me one from a dealer who has like 100 of them and the other side came from GM Obsolete.
Tony
1987 Sunbird GT turbo convert
Ported intake, Fiero 53 MM TB, 52 lb inj, ported and flowed head, tube header, Mitsu TD06, ARP rod
bolts/head studs, adj cam sprocket, 4" x 12" x 31" FMIC, Paxton AFPR, modified 125 trans/LSD
unit/3.42's, custom chip tuning, Alky Control Methanol injection
13.61 ET at 101.44 mph, 262 WHP/350WTQ
2009 Pontiac Solstice GXP roadster, 2.0 turbo w/GMPP exh, CAI and turbo upgrade, 290 hp/325 ft lbs
1969 Olds 442 convert
400 Eng, 200-4R trans, 3.73 posi, power everything, OAI
Tony-
What do I use to replace the outside rubber on the rear windows? A big chunk just fell off of mine
If you mean the rear window vertical weatherstrip Paul one of them is # 12392763 the other one I couldn't put my hands on or find the invoice for. If you have the dealer look up that number the other one will hopefully be within a digit of it. If not I'll look further in my Sunbird parts rack and the other one should turn up. I think they were readily available but were like $60 each.
Tony
1987 Sunbird GT turbo convert
Ported intake, Fiero 53 MM TB, 52 lb inj, ported and flowed head, tube header, Mitsu TD06, ARP rod
bolts/head studs, adj cam sprocket, 4" x 12" x 31" FMIC, Paxton AFPR, modified 125 trans/LSD
unit/3.42's, custom chip tuning, Alky Control Methanol injection
13.61 ET at 101.44 mph, 262 WHP/350WTQ
2009 Pontiac Solstice GXP roadster, 2.0 turbo w/GMPP exh, CAI and turbo upgrade, 290 hp/325 ft lbs
1969 Olds 442 convert
400 Eng, 200-4R trans, 3.73 posi, power everything, OAI
