Rear dutch door top weather stripping

ANYTHING FROM BUFFING YOUR PAINT TO REPLACING A DASH PANEL
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WE7X
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Rear dutch door top weather stripping

Post by WE7X »

On my '98 ( which i have only had for about 10 months), at the top of the hatch on the dutch ( 3 dr) door setup, there is a single weatherstrip across the opening, that is supposed to keep water from dripping down from the back end of the roof.
On mine, part of that lower lip had been rolled over and folded down for so long, that it had taken a permanent set and no amount of heating and taping would make it return to even close to it's original configuration. It was acting as a funnel when the rear hatch was opened with any rainwater caught in the lip.
The part has been unavailable for several years, so I decided to begin haunting the local P'n'P's.
I finally found a decent one ( I thought) on a barn door version, and then discovered what I thought were small screws, were actually like 'POP' rivets.
A trip back home to get a cordless drill and when I returned a couple of days later, there was a new Astro chassis one right next to the one I had previously found. It also had a decent weatherstrip in a 'dutch door' setup. I decided to get both, and did not notice the small difference until the last couple of rivets were drilled out. One had some cutout portions for locations of the upper hatch hinges , and the other does not ( barn doors have no upper hinges) I bought both, since I had then already pulled off the vans, and I figure if needed, I can trim the barn door version to fit the dutch door hinges if needed at some point.
Installation went poorly after removing my old warped weatherstripping.
First, the "POP" rivet tool decided to jam with a mandrel in it, and I could not get it to free up ( an old Harbor Freight or similar quality tool ). Dug out a second version, which had never been used, and found one of the mandrel clamping jaws was broken, right out of the package. That was a real BUMMER, because that plier appeared to be a higher quality cast assembly.
Borrowed a tool from a neighbor and finally was able to 'pop' some rivets, but my 1/8" grip range rivets were just a hair shy of being long enough, and would not hold reliably.
A trip to the hardware store to get the 3/16 x 1/4" grip range rivets and I finally got the replacement weatherstrip installed.
A planned thirty to 45 minute job took well over two hours, but it was warm and dry, so it was not too bad.
Hopefully now, when I open the back hatch in the rain, I will not get a puddle on the floor; and if I leave the hatch open, which I often do to use it for shelter, the weatherstrip will drain the water to one side or the other as designed.
.
WE7X aka Rod Johnson
Forest Green Metallic '98 LS AWD
Issaquah, WA
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