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I am replacing the b pillar weather stripping on my 82 corvette and I noticed a metal strip behind the weather stripping riveted to the pillar i do I need to put it back when I put on new weather strip or just glue new weather stripping to the pillar .
It looks like in this article the riveted piece was left in place. I would think if it’s missing depending on the thickness of it the weatherstripping might not reach the window otherwise.
The link in piersonpie's post covers the installation of the b-pillar weatherstrip on a 68-77 Corvette, not on a 78-82. 68-77's have a stainless retainer strip attached to the b-pillar that the weatherstrip is installed on, this retainer strip was eliminated on 78-82's.
While the 68-77 weatherstrip is flexible and needs the retainer strip to hold it's shape, the 78-82 b-pillar weatherstrip has a metal strip molded into the weatherstrip. The 78-82 b-pillar weatherstrip is not glued to the b-pillar, but instead is riveted directly onto the b-pillar. If you still have a metal strip riveted to your b-pillar after removing the weatherstrip, I'm guessing it's the metal that was molded inside the old weatherstrip. Upon further inspection I think that you will probably find you have a piece of weatherstrip rubber still sandwiched between the metal strip and the body.
To properly install the b-pillar weatherstrip on your 82, you'll need to drill out the rivets holding the metal strip to your b-pillar and rivet the new weatherstrip where the metal strip was. If you try to glue the new weatherstrip to that old piece of weatherstrip metal it will likely interfere with your door glass causing additional problems.
The installation of the b-pillar weatherstrip is found on page 229, UPC C09, Sheet 3 of the 1982 Corvette Assembly Instruction Manual. If you don't have an 82 AIM (and you really should) I can probably post later tonight or in the morning.
Below is the page from the Assembly Manual showing the installation of the weatherstrip directly to the b-pillar with weatherstrip adhesive ("A" in the illustration) and three rivets.