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MG MGB Technical - UPDATE: Replacing Vent Window Seals

I was able to get the vent windows out, after removing the door glass. I had a real difficult time removing the old triangular window seals, they were basically petrified and as hard as rock!! Suffered a few stab wonds doing this. Now I need to install new triangular vent seals. By the looks of them and the difficulty I had just getting the old ones out I need some advise on how to proceed?? Is there a method to doing this? Should I start them at a certain point? or do I just pry/lever, force them into the channel. Any tips will be greatly appreciated.
Mike
MK Mike

Mostly, clean up the channels to get all the old seal remnants out, and then lube your new seals with some a heavy soapy solution ~ dish soap in a 2 parts soap to 1 part water works for me. The soapy solution will make reinstallation of most rubber trim that must be forced into a channel much easier.
Bob Muenchausen

Mike

I did what Bob recommends, First though, use the soap to wash the rubber. Mine came with some sort of white junk on them (mold release?) Once I got this off, the rubber slid a lot easier. I started at the lower 45 degree corner, Put one side into the grove and then used a blunt object to push the other side in and worked my way around. Once in, you can slide them a bit if you need to adjust.
BEC Cunha

I forgot to mention that something that has worked really well for me when installing rubber items is to soak them first in the rubber protectant of your choice. I still use Armorall, but there are probably better by now.

You would "soak" the seal between BEC's cleaning and installation. I just put the rubber parts into a pastic bag, dump in enough protectant to make a sloppy mess, but not submerge the items, and then shake around inside the bag, sorta like seasoning chicken parts. If at all possible, I let the parts soak up the protectant for at least overnight, or a few days, if not longer (this works great when you are buying parts months ahead of when you'll need them during restoration). This seems to really allow the saturated mix to move into the rubber or vinyl deeper than just applying it to the surface as when we clean and treat rubber/vinyl on a routine basis.
Bob Muenchausen

Bob- Phenominal tip, gotta give it a try. What is current board recommendation for protectants other than Arm-All?. Vic
vem myers

I did this process originally when I restored my GT, Vem, and since I got a terrific deal on the rubber parts (from a now non-existant company, MG Parts Centre, 1986), way before I needed them, I figured that this process might keep them "fresh" until I finally got around to using them a couple years later. Well, it did. Not only were the parts nice and shiny when new, but it seems to have really made a difference in their longevity over the almost 19 yrs since I installed them.

About the only rubber bits I have replaced have been the outside waist seals for the roll up windows, and their breakdown I blame more on mechanical fatigue from being so tightly pressed to the window glass and flexed hard, than from rot. I have since done this with many other rubber/vinyl items on all sorts of things since and it seems to work well for them too.
Bob Muenchausen

This thread was discussed between 25/04/2007 and 26/04/2007

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