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The seller of a Corvette I purchased with my son included a box of weatherstripping material to replace some of the old stuff on the car. He indicated he had already replaced the passenger side stripping on the Targa top, but had not yet done the driver's side. I had a question about the install, however:
The rear of the new piece of weatherstripping has a bit of a flat "tail" portion at the end (see circled area below).
Tail piece of weatherstrip
When I look at the passenger side that's already installed, it appears that the previous owner trimmed this tail piece off during installation.
Passenger side tail piece was trimmed.
I wonder if anyone can tell me what the original weatherstrip looked like? Was this "tail" piece left completely intact, trimmed off completely, trimmed flush with the edge of the glass, etc.? If someone was able to take a picture for me, that might be a huge help as well. Thanks in advance for clarifying.
I replaced one of mine, and I don't recall a tail piece.
Thanks for the note. If by some chance you find yourself with the targa top off and wouldn't mind snapping me a picture of the back end of the weatherstrips, I would be greatly obliged. Or, if some other kind souls even further south where there might still be occasions for driving with the top down this late in the year could do so, that might be easier!
The new weatherstripping looks correct. Once you start working the new stuff into the channel it'll all come together. I found that I need to use a plastic paint scraper/putty knife to press the new weatherstrip all the way into the channel. You can see the groove in the new weatherstrip and the channel on the top. You'll kind of feel it "pop" into place as you move down the line. My guess is that there was some fitment issue with the top-either the targa to the car or the window fitment at the targa-and someone trimmed the seal instead of adjusting.
Maybe it is the pic, but the flat end piece looks odd.
Thanks. The new piece does look exactly like what's in the Southern Car Parts image you linked. Below is a version where I marked up the "tail piece" that would be to the rear of the car - the same one the previous owner had snipped off of the one he installed. I'm just trying to figure out if the fact that he snipped it off means I should order another piece to "do it right" on that side as well, or if I should just trim the driver's side to match as well.
Yeah, definitely replace both sides. That part of the seal that was trimmed off will help with wind and water sealing. If you install and find that the top doesn't quite fit without excessive force-either on the top or the bolts-then you'll have to perform an adjustment on the top. It's not impossible, just tedious. There are some walkthroughs here on the forum that are more helpful than the factory manual. Which, if you don't have one yet, is worth its weight in gold. I picked one up for my '96 on Ebay-it was like $60 shipped and came in a nice binder.
Targa Weatherstripping - Install Question
