Hi,

I am putting new weatherstrips purchased from MSA for my recently painted 1978 260Z. They have been going on fine, but I just want to confirm how the weatherstrips go on the hatch (tailgate) apperature. My Wick Humble book just could not confirm.

The inner is on, and there is a top outer and two sides. Both seals are roughly "L" shaped with a slot in the upright to fix to the lip of the apperture. Now, does the flat part of the L go in the bodywork channel, or does it float in the apperature space.

I think it is glued in the channel, but I just wanted to ask (maybe stupidly).I did not want to have to try and remove it and glue it in properly.

Thanks

Not stupid at all. I would like to know the exact same thing. Mine has what looks to be a dealer installed rear louver, the channeling of which appears to be sandwiched in the hatch glass molding. I'd like to remove the louver system which will mean pulling the rear glass out, something I've never done before. Can you say "paranoid"?

...snip.... Both seals are roughly "L" shaped with a slot in the upright to fix to the lip of the apperture. Now, does the flat part of the L go in the bodywork channel, or does it float in the apperature space.

I think it is glued in the channel...

The "L" analogy may need a bit more clarification. Think of that "L" as lying down on it's upright (vertical) post, and the bottom (horizontal) leg as having an insert groove in it. The groove is what gets put onto the metal lip and glued. The part that's "lying down" gets glued into the bottom of the "gutter".

The piece looks somewhat like this (in profile) gutter ___|¯| interior

The side pieces are flat on all edges, whereas the piece that goes across the top has a bulb (round tube) on the tip of the grooved part that gets glued onto the metal.

The piece looks somewhat like this (in profile) gutter ___|º| interior

(Sorry about the legs showing past the bulb. The bulb actually is an added piece to the side gasket piece.)

As far as the louvers, typically they were either mounted onto hinges that were screwed onto the upper part of the hatch metal above the window, and latched below the window with slide bolt mechanisms. Or they had the base of the hinges inserted underneath the rubber and above the glass. This inserted metal was flat with a pair of minor hooks elevated to grip the rubber, and only went in as far as the glass did. To remove these all you have to do is use a 1-2" scraper to insert between the metal and the rubber, lifting the rubber off the hooks and then slide the metal out. (check to make sure they didn't also glue the metal to the glass).

A very few hinge set-ups actually had a metal clip that clipped onto the glass and then the rubber seal went around it, but these were the very rarest. This metal was actually a U clip, with one of the "legs" being longer so that it extended past the glass rubber molding and then the hinge was attached at that point. Unfortunately, the ONLY way to remove these clips from the window is to remove the glass from the car and the rubber from around the glass.

Hope this helps

Enrique

It does help, thank you.

RIP260Z