FL 96 Owner

I am in the process of replacing the interior and exterior window sweeps on my 96 C4. I found a great video with detailed information on how to remove the door panel and window sweeps here - .

It gave me some good pointers but as he shows in the video you don't want to drop the anti-rattle cushion when you take them out or put them back in. Now I could rely on his method but then if I dropped it I might never get it back out without removing the window regulator and I don't want to do that.

So I put on my thinking cap and before I even loosened the bolt that holds the antirattle cushion I took a scrap of #14 insulated wire and wrapped it around the cushion - I put the loose end into a hole that would stop the cushion from falling and then removed the bolt while holding the cushion with my finger:



I slide the old cushion along the opening until I got it somewhere that I could pull it out without any fear of dropping it inside the door cavity. Once I had the old cushion out I wrapped the same wire around the new pad:



Then I reversed the process to get the new pad back into position - this is the front pad on the drivers door going in from the front of the window opening at the top of the door. I used the wire and my finger to hold it in place, and inserted the new bolt - then removed the wire:




BTW, the new anti-rattle pads I got from Corvette Central are no where the quality of the factory pads that were in the car. That isn't a slam against Corvette Central since I bet all the aftermarket pads are the same. But the replacement pads have a glued on thin layer of felt and I bet they won't last nearly as long as the factory pads.

Getting the interior window sweep off is a breeze since it's attached to the door panel with easily bendable and removed tabs (hint - the two are different lengths and have different tab spacing so before you complain to the vendor that they shipped you two different items be sure you put them on the correct side).

Getting the exterior window sweep off is not so easy. I followed the tips in the video but at the end of the process I finally used brute force to pull the darn thing out on the passenger side. HINT: be SURE to put a protective layer of tape on the painted outside of the door at the top as shown in the video - he is right the spring metal tabs are sharp and you will probably scratch your paint if you don't.

On the drivers side I got a bit smarter. I bent a piece of metal coat hanger and then I could pull the old sweep towards the inside of the car far enough to hook the hanger into each metal tab. A sharp pull up with a pair of pliers did the trick and I soon had the drivers side exterior sweep out without it being a tangled mess.

Here is what it looks like on the drivers sweep I removed:



Getting the exterior sweeps in is no easy task and experience helps. Be SURE that all the tabs are properly fitted into the oval slots in the door before you try to pound any of them into place. And be sure that when you put the three pop rivets per side back in that you have the right size rivet, that it is long enough to fit through the sweep and the fiberglass door panel and press the tool HARD towards the outside to be sure the sweep is tight against the fiberglass. I found it helpful to get my wife to help hold the sweep tight to the fiberglass and then use a putty knife and small hammer to tap around all sides of the pop rivet head to make sure it is totally seated before putting the pop rivet gun on and popping each rivet.

All in all I'm glad I may only have to do this job once before I pass the car off to my son.

Dt86

Great advice. I also mark where the pad was to make window alignment easier.

ColaBear

@FL 96 Owner
Thanks for the video. This will be a future project for my 96.

Bobby Brewsky

Outstanding FL!

My drivers side is scheduled for next summer.

Thank you for sharing

Jud Chapin

Thanks...

MaxDaemon

Aye, thanks a bunch. I see some scratching on the window of my '94, so I presume I'll be doing this when summer comes ..