Q: How do I deal with my door weatherstripping - the whistling noise
drives me crazy while I am cruising down the freeway?
A: There are a few variables. There are multiple seals and
there are vehicles with chrome trim strips and vehicles without
them. Here we will try to map out the various plans
of attack. The most common seals that wear are the outer
window scraper (Driver,Passenger) and the main felt channel that runs up the back of
the glass and across the top. In most vehicles, these two
parts (per door) contribute to most if not all of the wind noise, the
rattle of the glass when it is slightly open, and the intrusion of
water into the door when it rains. These seals are easy to
replace. You can remove the old ones by simply prying them
out with a screw driver and pop the new ones in by lining them up and
then tapping them in with your hand - no special tools and no fancy
mechanical abilities. This is straight forward if you have a vehicle
that does not have the chrome trim strip that circles around the
perimeter of the door glass (ones with the chrome strip we will discuss
in the next paragraph). You can, however, get more in depth and replace
more seals. There is the inside window scraper (D,P),
the wing window seal(D,P),
the forward
vertical felt channel that lays
in the rear of the wing window frame, and there are the door perimeter
seals if you intend to fully restore the rubber weatherstripping parts
on your doors. These parts are all still available, so it is
wise to thoroughly inspect all of the seals in your doors before
ordering as each vehicle will show varying degrees of wear and tear on
these various seals.
Chrome
Trimmed Vanagons
But I have that chrome strip so where does that leave me?
Again there a number of items to discuss. If you retain the
chrome strip then you have to buy special weatherstripping parts that
are harder to find and more expensive but have an extra groove in them
to accept the chrome strip. Keep in mind that they do not
come with the chrome strip, but simply allow your original chrome strip
to still be utilized, so if you choose the path of keeping them, make
sure that they are still in very good shape. Purists may want to retain
these strips but they really don't add much visual flare to the
vanagon, and I think they look cleaner without them. Should
you be willing to jettison them, you have two options. You
can carefully and cleanly cut the strip as it passes the wing window
frame on the top and bottom with a hack saw or die grinder so that it only remains for
the area around the wing window and then install the two common parts
that are discussed above (the outer window scraper and the felt
channel). You might think that it looks weird to only have
part of the chrome trim, but it looks perfectly natural. The
other option is to replace the wing window seal (style designed to be
used without the chrome strip) in addition to those two parts
listed. That would eliminate the need for any chrome strip,
but the wing window seal is an extra expense, more difficult to
replace, and is usually not worn.
Tips
for Chrome Trimmed Vanagons
While I am giving you chrome strip people some economical hints, I have
another tip. If you have the chrome strip door windows then
you also have those unsightly plastic trim moldings in all of your
regular window seals for all of the rest of the Vanagon. They are
likely discolored and cracked. Maybe they looked nice when
the car was new but 15 to 20 years down the road they sure seem like a
dumb idea. Don't pull them out, your windows will be loose
and the seals will leak as they keep tension on the seals to keep them
snug. We recommend taking a can of black
paint and a small paint brush and going around the van, and just
painting all of them black. They blend in with the rubber
this way and your eye won't even pick up on the cracked ones or ones
that are missing chunks unless you look for them. Certainly
if at some point you are replacing the windshield or any of the other
windows, or you are getting a paint job, then it will make sense to
replace the rubber with non-trim strip window rubber, but until then
the $5.00 fix removes the eyesore. |
