Window channel felt

[matria]

Has anyone done any business with Restoration Specialities and Supply? I was going through their catalog and saw this item # AS1264, listed at $11.00 for an 96" piece. 9/16" wide X 17/32" high. I would post a pic but it would not work. With a piece for each side, $22.00 seems alot better then the $60.00 I have seen.

http://www.restorationspecialties.com/

[TomoHawk]

I thought the Z had rubber channel stuff inside the door window frame? Mine got all hard and shrunk a little.

[MikeW]

I thought the Z had rubber channel stuff inside the door window frame? Mine got all hard and shrunk a little.

It's actually felt-covered rubber. Perhaps your felt wore off. I got mine from MSA recently at the same time I got a weatherstrip kit.

[hls30.com]

On one of the other clubs I ran across an article from a guy who replaced the seals in question with a specific part # from JCWhitney. Suprisingly, he said it made a huge difference in the wind noise in the car, and was the most effective modification he had made.

I can't find the article, but if someone else saw it(Carl, Tomohawk, Enrique, MikeW...), maybe we can get the part number.

If it was really that superior, I want to use it, and others might as well.

Will

[Bambikiller240]

Here ya go Will, everybody:

WIND NOISE BE GONE

I have put up with wind noise and a cold left ear for a long time. Most of us with 25-30 year old cars have also. I ve looked at replacing the window channel felt, but was turned away because of price. Dealer parts were way too expensive and the best price I had found was with Victoria British at $13.00 per side. That was until someone on the 240zclub-email list mentioned that he had found the part at JC Whitney for cheap. He even gave the part number and price. I thought I d hear an uproar on the discussion list of people thanking him and expounding on their experiences with replacing this little serviced but greatly needed part. But low and behold I never heard a word. That thread stopped as quickly as it had begun. I however, didn't forget to print the ordering information and called JC Whitney to order the parts for my 73 240Z.

I have to tell you that replacing this window seal was the second best improvement/modification I ve ever made to my car. Second only to installing the GM HEI electronic ignition. The wind noise has disappeared, the glass doesn t rattle within the frame, and there is no cold air blowing on my ear. Quite the improvement.

So here s how it went. The entire job for the driver's side door took me all of 35 minutes. I used an ice pick to pry the old hard rubber channel out of the metal frame, working it out in a single piece. I wanted to use the old seal for a template to cut the new one to length, and to copy the notch in the corner.

The channel felt doesn t extend all the way down into the door, but stops about 1 ½ " down past the window glass seal and the inner fussy trim. Because you can reach all this from outside, all you have to do to replace the channel seal is remove the inside door panel. (Although, when I did the passenger side, I left the door panel inplace and had no trouble completing the job) This will give you more room to work. You don t have to pull off the metal channel piece. I cut the new channel seal to length and then marked and cut a notch in it where the upper most 90-degree corner is. This notch should not cut all the way through the seal, but rather only notch the sides so that when you bend it, it will form the 90-degree corner. You ll have the old to use as a pattern, so just copy it.

I noticed that the original did have a bead of adhesive holding it from sliding, so I got out my trusty 3-M weather-strip adhesive. I applied a thin bead inside the metal channel and along the back of the new seal, let it dry, and the reapplied to the rubber only.

Now all you have to do is fold the new seal together and slip it into the metal channel, starting from the corner, and pushing the new seal up tight into the corner. Then work it into the channel down the backside till it s inside the door, and do the same thing along the top, and down the front. When the new seal is in place check to be sure it s not twisted or off center, and then roll up the glass and make sure it slips into the slot. I had a place where it folded over on the backside, down below the door lock, so I rearranged it and carefully rolled up the glass to seat the seal. After that it never moved again.

The only thing left to do is to replace the inner door panel.

I recommend this to all first generation Z owners. If you haven t done this yet, do it now. The JC Whitney information is listed below. These seals will fit all 240 Z 260 Z & 280 Z cars, 1969 through 1978.

JC Whitney Auto Parts

1 JC Whitney Way

PO Box 3000

LA Salle, IL. 61301-0300

312.431.6102

www.jcwhitney.com

The catalog item number for the part is 18GA-4874U.

Now here s the tricky part. The letters in the catalog number can be different depending on which issues of the JC Whitney catalog your looking at. But if you call the order line and tell the person you want part # 18-4874, you ll get the right stuff. It s description is "Rubber Window Channel 9/16 " x 17/32 ". It comes in an 8-ft. piece. Which is almost enough to do both sides, but not quite. So, you have to order 2 pieces. The price when I ordered was $6.99 each.

[hls30.com]

Damn Carl,

You are as good as you say you are! I knew I saved that, but it must have been several hard drives ago!

Thanks for keeping that steel trap in working order!

Mine, evidently, has rusted shut-no doubt from being stored on the floor of this '72!

You truely are a good egg! My left ear thanks you, and my Z will thank you when it gets back under its own power, and off the rotisserie!

Will

[bartman]

Based mainly on the information provided in the thread I went ahead and bought the JC Whitney Window Channel Felt. I haven't had a chance to drive it aorund yet, but so far I have to say it was a good upgrade. My old channel felt was in pretty bad shape and it broke into pieces while I was removing it. The replacement pieces fit nicely and seem to provide a good seal to the window.

[Ramses]

They Cost me $10.99 each plus shipping today. I will repost when I get them and install them. ")

[New-to-240z]

Ramses, could you take a few pics too? Would be VERY helpful in donig this mod. I am more of a see it kind of a person then read it. Anything will be appriciated GREATLY!!!

[Carl Beck]

Window Channel Felt - Rubber ? They are both.

The Felt runs from just below the door panel, at the rear of the door - up around the window frame, to the front side. Below the Felt, on the rear of the door - there is a piece about 18" long that is rubber. I believe that the rubber supplies firmer grip on the window glass when it is all the way down. (just a guess)...

FWIW,

Carl B.

BTW - I thought that Bambikiller240 had removed ALL his Posts to this Site... yes deleted them before his death - were they restored from older archives - now that he is no longer here to protest?

[=Enigma=]

I believe a rare few still remain. I run across them from time to time. I doubt even Carl would have had the patience to remove ALL of them.

[EScanlon]

Carl:

You've got it perfectly, but you've reversed the terms.

The FELT is a formed piece from a straight piece of felt that has had two grooves cut into it. Those grooves are where the 90° bend goes to fit it into the channel. The grooves in essence then go on the "inside" of the U that gets made when you fold the felt. It gets placed on the lower portion of the rear window guide.

The RUBBER gasket, which has a "felt" or "fuzzy" surface and may be part of the confusion , starts immediately above the lower felt, up to the corner of the window frame where you will note there has been a "notch" or 90° angle cut in the rubber leaving a small connecting piece on the "floor" of the gasket. Sometimes this piece will come with that corner already glued, but you would have to cut it if you buy the weatherstrip channel in bulk length. The rubber then continues across the top and down the angled forward portion of the channel all the way to the end.

Proper installation is critical as it's easy to NOT do something that later causes problems. Most common is to NOT glue either the "floor" or one of the "walls" of the channel and then have it interfere with the window glass, or worse not make a good seal. I have a small paint stick that has been whittled down to just fit easily inside the channel and still allow me to slide it along it's length. Then I use the 3M Weatherstrip adhesive in black and lay a medium width bead from the corner to about the middle of the frame down, then with the paint stick I spread the adhesive carefully along the bottom AND sides of the channel. This gets repeated on the other side of the corner. Then once that's done, I insert the corner of the weather stripping by carefully pinching it closed. Then, again by pinching, you then insert the weather stripping through to the end on each side.

The weatherstripping generally has enough "bounce" in it to pop back into shape once inserted and then you can (if possible) slide the actual window glass into the frame. This will spread it to the full thickness of the glass and apply pressure to the glue/rubber contact area.

The felt gasket gets applied in the same manner to the lower edge of the frame. I leave this for last since you won't know until you have the rubber gasket in place where exactly to place it.

FWIW

E