spitfire iv window weather strips.

[lil-nicky]

Hi,

 

I'm now getting round to refitting the weather strips on the doors of my spitfire but I'm having a nightmare with it.  I get that i should be using a special tool or homemade replacement but even with that the little clips don't seem to want to come up and over the rubber and door lip to make the strip sit nicely.  Any advice would be great!

 

Thanks,

 

LN

[Pete Lewis]

yes the green clips are the best some are just too closed up and need prising open a bit  this is due to replacement seals being far thicker than the originals

 

there s technique i use which involes 16 pairs of hands 

 

make a simple metal flat bladed hook to sit the clip in and give a good hand hold outside 

tie a long  cotton to the clip so you can retrieve the sods when they fly off .

a short bit of timber as a punch and small hammer

 

method    fit clip with cotton in the tool /holder

drop it in the rear end of the door gap

slide along to where you want to fit it

make sure the clip is going to ride over the rubber seal and clip on the door down turned flange

then with the 'other hand '  hold timber on door seal  pull tool up to start to engage the clip on the seal and the door

and while pulling up , whack the timber to knock the seal downwards till the clip is fully up and seal is fully down 

have some tea then do the next

 

so you need some help to pull this together  its the only way to succeed  but this actually works 

 

then find cotton retrieve all lost clips 

 

Pete

[Htiek]

Having just done this job last week, I can pass on what worked for me.

 

• As Pete says, the clips are too closed up. I opened mine up by knocking them over the end of a large flat screwdriver, the taper opened them up nicely. Prying them off the screwdriver occasionally had them pinging all over the garage though!
• I put a dollop of blu-tack in the hook portion of the tool. This held the clips quite securely and let me manoeuvre them into position. 
• Then, as per Pete's method, make sure it is 'started' over the rubber, one hand pushing down on the seal and pull up on the tool with the other.

Not the most pleasant of jobs but, once I had found the 'technique', it went reasonably smoothly. The inner window glass 'brush' clips are a lot easier to fit than the outer seal thankfully.

 

Keith

[lil-nicky]

thankyou both, hold tight, I'm attempting today...

[Unkel Kunkel]

I tried using the little tool from Rimmers for this job which is a metal strip bent over at degrees as a hook at one end and formed into a ring handle to pull at the other.The idea I think is to balance the clip in the hook bit and pull upwards at the sane time as pressing the seal downwards.I found it really difficult and frustrating.Ended up positioning clip with long piece of 2x1 and tapping from above and below.

 

I wish I had thought to open the clips out a bit as per Pete and Keith and to use cotton / blue tack!

 

During the frustrating fitting session I did ponder ,"So how did they do this at the factory,then ?"

I cant think the production line slowed at this point to wait whilst cursing folk chased escaping pinging clips.Was there a special technique? a fiendishly clever gadget? or was it down to dexterity and a lot of experience -a thing we used to call skill?

[Pete Lewis]

erm.....yes   skilled  or semi skilled line operators now replaced with shelf stackers 

 

bill at rarebits stopped trading but he always had the green ones available  

 

come back bill  !!!!

 

as i said the OE was a thin metal coated  stip not a fat plastic one,  much easier to locate the

clips and heave Ho.

and door was probably trimmed on a fixture  not on the car so access was better .

 

Pete

[lil-nicky]

well, I tried and failed miserably! these little clips seem to want to cause an awful lot of damage!

at the risk of sounding like a complete idiot is it not possible just to silicone the weatherstrips in place?

LN

[Pete Lewis]

My guess you have the wrong clips

 

pete

[dougbgt6]

The weather strips on the Vitesse Pete and I went to see last week were glued on! I noticed this as one had come adrift, so not sure how durable this method is.

[DerekS]

Not having the correct tool, I used a 3" jubilee clip, opened up and straightened out, with the end bent over to suit the clips.

[Colin Lindsay]

well, I tried and failed miserably! these little clips seem to want to cause an awful lot of damage!

 

 

They do; when you think of it, the little burred ends are designed to dig into your paintwork.

Using copper grease or other weatherproofer as you slide them on may help preserve the scratched metal that little bit longer. Best tool of the lot for pushing them on is the tip of your finger, provided you can balance the clip long enough to get it up inside the door skin. It takes a lot of patience and balance but works well in the end.

[Pete Lewis]

patience and balance     something senior moments  start to  preclude

[Gully]

There are different size clips available, but both inner and outer weather seals on my GT6 are held in place with black sealer (done by previous owner, not me). However, the reason is obvious - when the doors were re-skinned the new skins have too deep a lip and protrude well below the bottom of the weather strips, so no clips were ever going to reach! The driver's side seals have never come adrift, but the passenger side outside seal did at the lock end, until a small self-tapper cured it...

 

Gully

[heraldcoupe]

There are a couple of issues at play.

 

Firstly, are your clips wide enough to accomodate the thickness of the doorskin and the flange of the weatherstrip? Don't rely on simple coloration, the green finish is simply a preservative finish, many different sizes are produced in the green finish usually associated with the correct clips. 

Secondly, have your doors been re-skinned? If so, the return flange which the seal locates onto is often deeper than on the original panels. Result is that you need a deeper clip than the original or the weatherstrip will at best be located by only the very tip of the clip, it needs to be driven fully home to work as intended.

 

The job can be unpleasant even with all the right parts, with the wrong parts it's likely to be a complete nightmare.

 

Cheers,

Bill.

[AndyTV8]

I have always had to bend the clips to open them outa little.... it's pretty obvious if you go too far! It does take some patience to find a way to works for you, I do have an old-style tool which does help, but it isn't going to change it from being a bit of a PITA. I think Chic Doig sells the tool on eBay sometimes.

 

Take your time and stop for a rest and regroup before the frustration get to a point where you may end up slipping and scraping some paint!

 

....Andy

[lil-nicky]

hola,

 

I've checked the clips and they are deep enough to fit up the door and weather seal. the doors are original with no work done to them.

the only thing I've noticed is the lip on the door is bent over quite far - I.e instead of down towards the floor it goes about halfway back on itself. is this normal??

[heraldcoupe]

I have always had to bend the clips to open them outa little....

 

You really shouldn't have to though. The clips should be broadly parallel from top to bottom when in situ. If you have to open them out at the top then they will still be too narrow at the base,

 

 

hola,

 

I've checked the clips and they are deep enough to fit up the door and weather seal. the doors are original with no work done to them.

the only thing I've noticed is the lip on the door is bent over quite far - I.e instead of down towards the floor it goes about halfway back on itself. is this normal??

 

Not really, there may be a degree of angling backwards, but the lip should not be far off vertical.

 

Cheers,

Bill.