Roof weather stripping removal?

[88nStillAlive]

Has anyone ever removed the seam seals on the roof? How would I go about doing this? And does anyone know how they are connected to the roof?

[ECCustom]

Get in touch with bravekozak, he has done this before, he gave me some advice on it and told me if you remove them you better have some replacements ready as you will most likely destroy them during removal,consequently I did not remove mine.

[jfd64]

Man, looks like you are pulling an all nighter on the festy tear down. Sorry i didn't get back on that mirror,my wife was beckoning.I am curious as to why you would remove those?

[88nStillAlive]

Well, I wanted to remove them for painting purposes. The steel skeleton inside of them looks very rusty. I accidentally broke the rear of it off looking at it. They look very brittle, and badly rusted internally.

[jfd64]

I wonder if the ones on my parts car would come off clean if they were heated with a heat gun.

[88nStillAlive]

I was stupid for trying to peek at them to get a glimpse of how they are attached. Because they are very very fragile at this age. I'll have to send you a picture. They have a metal skeleton (probably to keep them rigid) and the metal skeleton was rusting apart, at least on the rear that I can see. So they are starting to seperate from the middle. I wonder if any other vehicle weather stripping would work. I put a good few hours into it last night. Maybe if I can pull these off and get a look at them, it would give us an idea of how to "safely" remove another pair without damaging them.

[jfd64]

Do you think they are they glued in?

[88nStillAlive]

I couldn't get the best look. They seemed to be "T" shaped and where the bottom of the "T" might just be pressed in. I found universal "T" moulding on google.

[william]

Not sure how they come off but I'm sure at 23+ years old they will break when you try ito remove them. If there's no replacements I would say a good 2 part seam sealer would be your best bet. Wouldn't look factory but would hide the seam.

[88nStillAlive]

Not sure how they come off but I'm sure at 23+ years old they will break when you try ito remove them. If there's no replacements I would say a good 2 part seam sealer would be your best bet. Wouldn't look factory but would hide the seam.

I would have to agree. I've been looking online and I'm finding a lot of universal call moldings. Some are the "T" shape. I think a roll of that with some good rtv silicone would probably seal up nice and look nice too.

[bravekozak]

Here are the 3 door ditch (roof drip) moldings you seek

KKY0150621B
KKY0150626B

E8BZ-7151726-A
E8BZ-7151727-A

Aloha.

[88nStillAlive]

Ah, sweet, we'll those are cheap. Glad I can still get them. So how does one go about pulling them out?

[jfd64]

Hopefully someone with experience on this will weigh in otherwise you are left to trial and error.My thought is ist remove the upper layer with the embedded metal perhaps with an air chisel to separate.If it is indeed pressed into and glued into a channel i would then try a heat gun and something small and pointed and pry and pull the end of it up and work it out from there.Perhaps it would be better to leave the strip intact and just start with the second step.I would try to avoid coming in sideways and prying but stay straight with the groove.Keep us posted.

[88nStillAlive]

Well it looks like they might just be pressed in... I suppose now that I know I can get replacements, I will probably just try pulling them up! lol trial and error at its best! jfd64, I would like to take the windshield out as well, I thought I read somewhere that you had already done this? Is it hard? Can I make the tool?

[jfd64]

I am in the process of pulling one and have a current thread going on this part of the forum.I just picked up the trim tool yesterday at horrible freight for 7 bucks and successfully popped the trim without breaking the clips.There is a pic from a member in that thread of what the tool looks like.I an waiting on a jy to secure the paperwork on a festy that has a badly cracked windshield.The one i am pulling i believe is mint.If i remember right yours has flaws but could be considered usable.I may would be open to a swap on that if that interests you.