I fixed the hinges on my 82 Corvette and I finally have a smooth opening hatch! I also needed to replace the weather stripping but I ended up doing a really bubba job on it. It's coming up in the corners and a little uneven in places. So I need to redo it.

Any tips on how I can do this job without making a mess again? I tried to do things in small sections and used 3m's weather strip adhesive. Most places it work out OK, it was just the areas like in the corners that needed just a little stretch in the rubber is where things went bad for me.

 

One tip I might suggest is to do the curved portions without tension. This will require careful test fit and marking.

The doors are a good example. The front of the door weatherstrip needs to be glued down first all the way down, working without tension and fully cured. Then the bottom straight section is stretched for a dry test fit and marked on both the door and the weatherstrip with blue painters tape exactly where the 2 will be attached when the job is done. The amount of stretch needed on the straight (bottom) section is just enough so the rear portion of the strip can be fit exactly where you want it to go ....but having no tension. The straight bottom portion is stretched to align the tape marks then glued on, secured with blue tape to hold it in place (maintain tension and position), and fully cured. If this was done right to this point, the rear section of the door strip should be able to fit the rest of the way easily without any tension. No tension means it will not fight you, especially on curves. Makes it all fit in place

This technique would work for other areas.

I have seen different gluing techniques and the one that works best for me is to apply glue to the body and press the strip in place just long enough to transfer the glue to the strip and spread it thin on both surfaces. Pull weatherstrip away as soon as it is pressed on to allow the glue to set up exposed to the air for a minute or so. Once it starts to dry a bit, you can press it back down for good but you will only get one shot so make it perfect. If the glue is dry enough, but not all the way cured, it will instantly stick very well. Let that cure up fully before moving on the the next section.

Be sure to wipe all the weatherstrip down with the 3M automotive adhesive solvent before you try to install them. The rubber has mold release on it and the glue will not stick well if it is still on the rubber. Also very good stuff for clean up if you make a mess with the glue and need something that will not hurt your painted surfaces.

 

Thanks for the advice stringr69. One thing I did not do was clean the weatherstripping. I did notice it the new adhesive didn't stick well at places. That may have been part of my problem.

 

What I do is use masking tape to mask off the body where you don't want glue. Apply the glue, let set then pull the tape off. You get a nice neat glue line w/o slopping it all over.

 

Press, peel back, let it tack off, then put back in place. You would have difficulty pulling it off.