Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Hello everyone,

I am pleased to announce I will be reproducing the V8 front windshield weatherstripping. As many of us know, the Steele weatherstripping is most incommodious to our precious exterior trim, and just a huge pain to work with overall. I was able to get the factory drawing for this, so it should be 100% perfect.

I am waiting to hear back for quotes so I am not accepting pre-orders at this time, however I would most appreciate you letting me know if you are interested. I think the minimum order will be about 15 of them, but if there is significant demand I will order a few more.

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Sounds like a project worth pursuing but would hope the blueprints have detailed specs for the rubber composition. Too soft a rubber seems to be the issue with the Steele repro as it allows glass to sag and drop down and at the same time, the softness of the groove lip along with distortion caused by the glass sagging doesn't seem to be able to allow the trim to fit or lip to securely hold the trim flange. If the vendor doesn't have the specs or cannot use the proper hardness rubber then IMO, the project might be no better than what is already available.

Spud

Depending on price I might be in .

I have an SAE number that I can't find a cross-reference for. Too high of a durometer and it will be difficult to work with. I have not yet been able to find a manual from back in the day explaining what some of these materials are. My best guess is it is 70 durometer, same as the Steele gasket.

Keep in mind that most of the Steele trouble seems to be from the profile and not the rubber hardness.

Soon I plan to remove some trim off my 400, or maybe my parts car, and try to take a durometer measurement of what is there. I already know the rear windshield was 70.

Does the blueprint detail any revisions either in shape, thickness, or rubber durometer? I have not had the opportunity to closely compare the original and repro but Steele's cross section drawing does look quite a bit different so you may be correct that it only needs a shape change. Steele might have had a brand X or a generic extrusion shape that had the same number of grooves in the same size as the original and used that instead of making a new extrusion.

Early on Packard did make a change in the gasket and only says the new weatherstrips were "heavier". I took that to mean they made a change in rubber hardness. In a February (55T-10) bulletin they had dealers use 5 retainer clips to hold the glass up with the original strips. In a July followup bulletin (55T-34) after going to the "heavier" weatherstrips they only asked for 2 clips and those were for some cars that might have had an oversize opening.

Believe it or not there are two different profiles shown on the drawing. The alternate type looks like it must use a round rubber cord to lock the weatherstripping, so this change may have been made pre-production.

The service letters aren't too insightful, unfortunately.

There are some revisions on the drawing, I'll check again later, but I don't recall anything too interesting.

Ok, after some digging I believe the material specification is the same pattern as in SAE J200, "Classification System for Elastomeric Materials". Interpreting it in that manner, it's 70 Shore A durometer. I am checking if I can get it slightly stiffer, like 80 durometer.

Spud.

You need to get them out the door for under 100 bucks.

Repros of gm. / Ford are around 60.

Howard, here is the revision block for 461183. The 466191 is the second profile on the drawing that would have required a round cord as I mentioned.

Unfortunately as you can see, it has a lot of "revised" but the profile has no call-outs for what was done. The only way I can tell is through the White-Out plastered all over the thing. But there is so much (and the overall color is uneven to begin with) that it's hard to tell. The main thing I suspect is that the outer (upper) tab of the "locking notch" was increased.

My parts car is 5547-1152, at some point I may pull the gasket (windshield is already shot thru) and check it out as it was a VERY early car and we could see how the profile differs. But don't hold your breath.

Riki, that's because someone in China is making 1000 at a time. I will gladly sell you 1000 of these for $60 apiece. Also, on this one, the lower two corners are too tight to easily bend the strip around, so I have to get them cast separately. After this, I will need to adhere a cut of the linear extruded weatherstrip to one end of the molded piece, 4 times.

Tonight I designed the adhesion fixture for gluing the weatherstripping together.

Actually, I think I will modify it some to open up the gap where the bond occurs, so that there is not much chance of gluing the strip to the fixture.

The glue I plan to use is Loctite Super Bonder 495. Which will bond to pretty much everything.