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Anyone have any tips for how to snap in replacement outer door seals for a '70 Coupe ? The old ones snapped out easy enough, and the new ones match the holes in the door, but for the life of me I just can't get the new seals to snap in. They push in, but then pop out, it's like I'm just not putting enough pressure on them or something, but there is no leverage against the shape of the outer door.
I went through the same on my 70 and read many threads of others with the same issue.
I purchased mine through Top Flight and frankly could only get maybe one button per side to pop in, others either didnt line up or button too big, I popped them off and used some small screws to attach them.
There is already a few screws per side holding the ends so I just drilled a few more holes in the moldings, lines them up on the door and marked the holes, put a stopper on my drill bit so I dont go too far and attached them with a few more screws through the middle
Here's a picture of the old vs new seal part. Spacing seems to be the same, and the basic shape and size of the clips seem very similar, perhaps slightly larger on the new one depending on which one you look at.
View of the hole in the door... all are similar and clear of obstruction.
Basic shape is similar, although the old is somewhat more oblong it seems.
old vs new showing spacing is similar. Also, depth of clip seems similar.
So I have the door panels removed, but the glass and related hardware are still there. Seems to be insufficient workspace to be able to drill holes and put in screws. Did you remove the glass in order to do yours ?
So I have the door panels removed, but the glass and related hardware are still there. Seems to be insufficient workspace to be able to drill holes and put in screws. Did you remove the glass in order to do yours ?
no I just loosened window adjusters and stops, I predrilled the moldings, lined them up and marked them, used a rubber tube to only allow about 1/4" end of the drill bit and no problems accessing the area on the inner door.
You can do a C3 search on Google and read many threads on this as its not uncommon, I even talked with Top Flight techs at the time... I've read others who removed the old buttons and attached them to the new moldings but was easier to just drill a few holes, I also added a couple dabs of adhesive along the way, only used a few screws through the middle of the moldings and wedged rags between the glass and moldings till the adhesive set.
The holes had to be pre-drilled in both the stainless molding and felts aligned together
Last edited by Golfobsessed; Jun 5, 2026 at 11:55 AM.
Remove the lower window stop, this allows you to lower the glass deeper into the door and gives you better access to the beltline area.
Clean all the rust out of the holes in the door.
The reproduction seals have inferior quality steel pegs compared to the originals. Yours have already been crushed/ compressed and wont spring back as is. You will have to spread them apart so that they grab inside the hole.
If all else fails, you can screw or glue them to the door.
Not sure if a '77 is the same as a '70, but there are stops at the bottom of each vertical rail, I believe they are called "CAM ASB" in the AIM. I was able to lower these and provided enough clearence to drill and install screws. In the AIM there is a procedure for window adjustment
Steve
All, thanks for the feedback. For the sake of others in the future, here's what you have to do to lower the window that extra little bit.
First, loosen, do NOT remove, the front and rear phillips screws that set the down position of the window. Locations are shown by the screwdriver below.
and here's the other location.
Inside the hole is the screw that slides in a slot... this allows the up/down setting of the window when rolled down.
Once the window is down, removing the felt guide at the front of the door will give you extra movement of the top of the window to get access to the clip pins, or to add screws (as needed).
When through, replace the felt, roll the top of the window up to rough level it was before you loosened the screws, and then slide the 2 screws up in their respective slots till they meet resistance and tighten. Ideally you could make the location of the center of each screw with a scribe or ice pick (my choice) so you know you're putting them back exactly where they were before. Actually pretty easy once you get into it; but beware, do NOT back out the Phillips screws all the way, just a couple of turns should make them loose enough to slide to the bottom of their slots.
I replaced my window seals some time ago and they would not stay snapped into the holes. I did a lot of examination and found that the new buttons do not work. I have made a PDF file on what I had to do to make the new parts usable. It isn't fun, but when I finished, they snapped into the holes correctly and are still functional.
I don't remember exactly what glue I used, but I think it might have been 3M Black Weatherstrip Adhesive. I just used it as an additional part of the button. I put the buttons in place and bent the legs as it originally was done but put an additional drop of glue so that I didn't have to take it apart again.
"reproduction implies an exact or close imitation of an existing thing...." this is the one thing that totally pisses me off about buying so called reproduction parts...
So this is a good approach if your original tabs or clips are in good shape. In my case these apparently were the original seals from the factory and were rusted through or broken. Shame someone out there can't actually reproduce the correct part. I ended up having to screw-reinforce mine to get them to stay... not as clean but looks like it works.
A phone call to the supplier may help... I was refunded money after talking with my supplier and their tech team, I also had an issue with another item that I navigated but felt they were aware of the outer belt molding problem, they issued me some refund and a $100 credit as well though I did spend almost $2k with the order.
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How to Snap in Outer Door Seals
