Foam between A pillar and weatherstrip retainer
 

http://www.xs4all.nl/~rpvdk/auto/cor...amwsretain.jpg

I'm redoing the weatherstrip on my car. There is a sort of double sided foam tape between the weatherstrip retainer and the A pillar (you can still see a few of the remaining bits in the pic).

After 26 years, this stuff is mostly decayed (and leaking) so I want to clean everything up and replace it. What sort of foam/tape do I use for this? Needs to be waterproof obviously and about 1mm thick.

Thanks, but I'm not talking about sealing the actual weatherstrip. This is between the weatherstrip retainer (the metal channel that the weatherstrip sits in) and the body pillar. Looks like the factory used a sort of foam tape.

its NOT tape, someone used (correctly) 3m black weatherstrip sealant and thats the residue from the decayed weatherstrip foam "insides" , the 3m is only used in the bends on the corner and lightly, see the phillips screws in the channel retainer, take that loose if you you REALLY want to do a good job, but they are easy to bend and have "some" glue behind them too. best way to clean the channels is with dental tools. NO DOUBLE SIDED TAPE EVER!

THATS BEHIND THE RETAINER!!!!!! Not between weatherstrip and retainer he posted a picture of!

Ahhh, ok, my bad

Definately make sure you seal this area behind the retainers where it joins the body all the way around. The clowns who installed my new windshield failed to do this and all the water would go right past the back of the retainers bypassing the weatherstrip alltogether and flooding the interior.

It's best to use all new retainer for several reasons. Prying the old ones off the car often distorts and bends them. This can cause aligment problems later on between the new weatherstrip and the glass. It can also be a time consuming PITA to scrape off all the old weatherstrip remains out of the retainer grooves. At least it was in my car.

found it in 1990 service manual page 10-1a-36
1/8 foam tape 3m #06375
1/4 foam tape 3m #06370
closed cell foam tape Scotch #06375
body sealer GM #9985523
weatherstrip adhesive GM #9981321

It doesn give exact detail locations, 1/4 is what goes behind the side retainers, book is not completely clear on the others but that is what it says at the end in the "parts needed" section

The, "tar" type substance in the corners is factory?

6 year old post, tar...sounds like the glue, but I think they used some putty in the corners too. I will be doing this soon. I don't recall reading about this foam before. Is it on all years?

Definitely not 3M weatherstrip adhesive. Its in the corners on the top of the A pillars and was also in the corners on the doors. It might be butyl or something. Id like to remove the channels as well to repaint and re-adhesive/tape them. I seem to be getting conflicting info on whether the channels are double sided tape or some type of adhesive?

All these threads are old and this is the first ive actually got a response on. Thinking this forum is half dead?

When I did mine, I noticed the "tar" stuff in the top corners under the windshield reveal molding. The tar didn't fill up everything under the reveal molding top corners. Actually there was tar and was a gaping hole there. I removed all the tar and could see a bunch of rust under the reveal molding in that corner. The windshield had been replaced, so don't know what factor would have looked like.

I read someone post the top corners under the reveal molding are supposed to be open to allow water to drain out. Don't know if that is true or not, but I could imagine water draining down and out the bottom of the reveal molding on the bottom of the windshield.

But I don't know how true all of that is and I didn't like water running down under the reveal molding. So I used some urethane sealant to plug and fill up the open gaping hole under the reveal molding at the top corners.

Then when installing the A pillar weatherstripping. I used non-hardening sealant in the top corners inbetween the weatherstrip retainers to help keep water from running under it and into the car. It was in a caulk tube, forget the name. But after the A pillar was installed. I used some black silicone to glue the upper edge of the weatherstripping to the reveal moldings in the corners to keep water from getting underneath instead of just relying on the non-harding stuff.

I did it that way, so if I have to pull the weatherstripping in the future, if I had glued the entire top corners, then the weatherstripping would have to be destroyed to remove it vs. using a razor blade to cut the RTV along the reveal molding with the rest just the non-harding sealant.

How did you remove the weather strip retainers? I was considering using Yamabond instead of the double sided tape the factory is suppose to use. My experience is double sided tape tends to separate in the middle, leaving a real pain in the ass, half on the car and half on the part, so you end up cleaning BOTH which is a real PITA. At least an RTV type is easier to clean up in the future.

The retainers are just screwed in. I replaced all the screws with stainless steel pan heads. Also put thread sealant on screws to help keep water getting to thread hole since I didn't glue weatherstripping down. Forget what the thread pitch as I looked it up in the parts manual to get thread pitch of screws.

Guess you can use whatever. Don't know the reliability of RTV vs. the foam tape behind the retainers.

I know its just screws, but maybe its because my car is a low mileage, 96 garage queen, but the double sided tape is REALLY holding strong! I dont want to bend or distort it getting it off for re-paint (POR-15). I hay start applying small amounts of mineral spirits to try to soften the bond.

Just get you one of those thin metal putty scrapers that painters used. Probably can get one at the local hard ware store. Start on one end and insert what you can inbetween the retainer and reveal molding, and then use a hammer to cut the scraper into the foam tape. Then run that all the way down the length of it. Shouldn't be too hard.

I'd get a pretty wide scrapper so as you are going you can go at it from angles to keep from bending the retainer.

Yeah I already have some putty knifes, what I did was order some carbon 0.021" piano wire. Im going to try to, "floss" it off to avoid any prying. The B pillar is straight forward, but I cant tell exactly what is the deal with the A pillar and windshield trim pieces? They seem to be attached partially? I see the back side of some pop rivets showing through?

I guess check to make sure it isn't riveted in.

Were yours riveted from underneath?

Don't remember as never removed mine. But I'm thinking the windshield reveal molding is riveted. But just saying if you're having a problem with the retainer, then make sure it's not riveted or something. It shouldn't be hard to remove the retainers once screws are out.