Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

When I purchased my car it was 80+% back, in the restoration process, but things had obviously stalled along the way, resulting in a large box of 'stuff' left in the trunk. Going through the various items, I discovered new still-in-the-package weatherstripping for the doors. There was also a bag full of old clips, obviously from when the original rubber had been stripped off for painting. One door has been re-weatherstripped using these old clips, with limited success. I am guessing that is why it stopped at one door. The new profile is by Steele Rubber Products and in going on their site, I tracked down their clips, but at a whopping $2.60 each. At a minimum of 20 per door (15+ for the door stripping and 4-5 for the door-bottom seal) that's over $200 just for clips. I'm not cheap, but that seems like a lot of dough for such simple little wire fasteners - does anybody know a source for these at a more reasonable price?? Sometimes the from/to pricing on identical items can be quite stark. Just wondered what most folks out there in 'Packard-land' do??

Packard used a multitude of clips and some are now obsolete. No idea what might be needed for weatherstrip. Most clips were used for the chrome and stainless outside moldings. On a few weatherstrip pieces that originally had metal cores, in many cases Steele rubber repros no longer have any metal inside and is glued on rather than clipped or screwed.

For clips, you might try Restoration Specialtieshttp://www.restorationspecialties.com and see what they have. Download their catalog and print out a page or two of the clips that look promising. If you make sure your printer scaling is at 100% the printed size should be identical to the clip and you can lay an old clip on the illustration to find something that more or less matches.

In some cases you will need to go universal and in other cases the replacement clip can be rotated 90 degrees so a length measurement can fit the width of the molding.

Thanks a lot Howard. I did have a look at their (Restoration Specialties) online catalogue and found some clips that even referenced Packard among the use-intended makes. At $1.00 and $.60 each, they seem a lot more reasonable. Much apprec. the guidance.