I swear I searched, but not much popped up.
Anyway, I'm getting to that point and am wondering which company makes the best fitting seals. We have options from SoffSeal, Metro and Steele (others?). Can anyone comment on fit for the various options?
Just replaced the trunk weatherstripping on my 76 CDV with one from Steele. Seems to be of good quality and fit.
Greg Surfas
I have one from METRO, Part No. TK 46-E/18, '71 to '766 GM "B" "C" & "E" Body.
Plus, it is made in USA.
Will be fitting it after I eventually paint the car.
Bruce. >:D
PS. Hope it doesn't go too hard by the time I get to use it. Purchased it back in 2009.
I have what is now older metro stuff on my car. Fit could have been better. Looked to me like it was either poorly made or they made exact dupes of badly aged originals. The fit wasn't terrible but could have been better. Make sure you get all those other little rubber bits too like the bumpers. You need all that stuff there and in good shape to get things properly aligned. Steele and Rubber the Right Way have been good for me with other cars and other parts for the 73.
Being a local company for me when I first installed em I brought the car up to their offices/retail store thinking they would be interested in the feedback and seeing their product installed on the car. Nope. The person I talked to gave me some crap about since I didn't have a receipt from buying it from that store they could do nothing, I needed to take it up with the person I bought it from. I tried to explain I was not asking for my money back I just wanted to point out that there were some things that clearly were not correct. They didn't care, they went back to having to contact where I bought it from. My car was parked maybe 10 feet away from where this person was standing in the store. Very disappointing experience. At this point I don't even remember what or where the issues were. It was just one of those things I tried to forget about.
Thanks for the pointer to "Rubber The Right Way." Hadn't heard of them before. They even have the spring-steel splash apron clips that I was searching for a couple of months ago!
Based upon feedback, I've narrowed down to either Steele or RTRW.
The OEM rubber on my car is in surprisingly good shape, but the pieces that are glued on to painted surfaces are being removed and can't be re-used.
MANY of the RTRW items are made by Steele and the RTRW label is simply placed over it to resell. Frequently at a lower price as they must buy in bulk as a distributor.
So, I purchased from RTRW and the door/trunk seals that I received are Metro brand. My take-away is that if you are after a particular brand, best to call the vendor and ask first (unless the description is explicit) -- I didn't do that.
Its possible that maybe only metro makes that item. It seems like maybe on some items these places have teamed up so they don't have to make every part themselves but can sell it in their own 'catalogs'. Maybe/hopefully Metro has got better since the last stuff I got from them.
I wouldn't be surprised if all the sellers decided that they would split the manufacture of these parts and then each one sell each others' parts, to save and make money.
Bruce. >:D
Metro, Soffseal and Steele all make these particular parts.
I'll give a review of the Metro seals when they're in. Car is still at the body shop. Easy enough to change if I don't like them.
Circling back. The Metro trunk seal works fine. However, I was really unhappy with the door seal. The Metro door seal is made of soft sponge rubber and does not have any internal stiffeners. As a result, it pulls away from the ends and can't really be secured. It also deforms and traps the power window preventing operation. NOT fit for purpose.
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I bit the bullitt and ordered a set of door seals directly from Steele. It seems like the only way to get the Steele product is direct, no resellers. Completely satisfied with the Steele product. It has internal steel stiffeners exactly like OEM. It fits and doesn't trap the window. Here's an example of the quality difference between the two seals, note the longer/stouter clip on the Steele product.
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Looks like I will be getting a set of door rubbers from Steele, as I too suffered the same problem with the Metro seals.
I initially solved the "Grabbing" problem by spraying the rubber with a silicone spray, Slipicone and that worked, but left a smear on the glass.
Bruce. >:D
You would think after this amount of time they would have improved these parts. Wonder if they just made one run back when I bought mine and are still working off that inventory and since its not a big seller don't have any plans to make any more or do it right. I'm sure all Cadillac sales combined for a year equal about a week of Mustang parts but still if you are going to bother at all why not try and do a decent job?