The other day, I replaced the bit of vinyl that covers the windseild header panel because I was chasing down a leak. Turned out the guy who had the car before me replaced a windsheild and hacked the job of replacing many things, including the vinyl strip above the windsheild top molding chrome. A yard of vinyl the correct grain cost 6 bucks- and I could cut two more strips from it! The glue I used on the very 'lip' under the moding cost 3 bucks and change. This bit of vinyl is important- not only does a crummy one look bad, but in my case, it was so rotted (and incorrectly re-installed) it flipped up and back while on the highway! Embarrasing. But also it prevents water that could otherwise 'ride up' behind the top chrome strip and make a drippy drip drop inside the car while tooling about in the rain. The water can run up under the strip, and into a hole for the steel trim in the back of the header (behind the sun shades). If you cut the vinyl long enough so that it extends past the clip that holds the trim, then use a razor blade to cut out the spots for the clips, a bit of glue under the 'lip' plus the mechanical grip from the molding seal it- no leak. The edges just fold over and get held by the a-pillar moldings. Shoulda took picsou: remove the old piece in one chunk if possible. remove all the hardware from the header. Now's the time to de-rust and do some preventative mainteneance if need be. POR 15 is my friend:TU: Cut your new bit of trim oversize, using the old one as a template. begin to attach it at the back (interior edge), because that side has screws and so forth to give you grip- otherwise you're sliding this thing around on glue, yuk, messy and just downright bad for the interior if you drop it one way, and the windsheild/hood paint if it goes the other. Trim the outside (front) edge so that vinyl darn near hits the windsheild. Cut out the areas where the clips go, a little short, so that say if the clip was 1/2" tall. the slit you make is only 3/8". You tuck that part in behind the clip just a teensy bit. Before you do, run a good strong adhesive under the lip of the header- a thin trail, as well, too much makes removal hard later if you have to and you might glue your trim on. I ran my adhesive just under where the sheetmetal goes almost upside down, like an overhanging cliff. Clip on the top molding, fold over the vinyl on the sides and put on the A pillar moldings, reassemble all the rest of the hardware, and you have just restored a part of your car that I think is overlooked a lot and is a potential rust spot/leak- for under 10 bucks and 4 hours of work or so:TU:
Hey Chris, THanks for posting that. I'll have to take a closer look at mine. I was in a bad rainstorm a few weeks ago and it leaked a few drops in through the header...so I changed the header seal. I havent been able to test it in the rain yet, but it looks and SOUNDS like it's tighter. I could hear wind noise pretty badly before I changed it.
You probably fixed it then, Adam. But if it still leaks, I'd say this could be a good reason for it to. Drove me nuts finding the leak. I knew something was wrong on mine when I replaced my seal and then it started to leak with the new pliable seal- the old crummy one never leaked a drop, so I couldn't figure out how it was the seal:laugh:
alot of poeple just think that those are just trim pieces.... in the GM body manuals that piece is called the "front roof rail weatherstrip". it has a very important job of being clamped between the front roof rail and the front windshield frame. it is the first defense against the air and moisture that might penetrate th header seal. alot of people probably buy new header seals and are disappointed when they still get rained on. about 3 weeks ago there was an ebay auction for a white NOS one of those seals ..... for a scissor top car. sometimes that foam cord inside of them needs to be replaced... makes a huge difference.
I saw that on ebay. I didn't think anything of bidding on it though. I don't think they're that hard to make.
i think home depot now sells bi-directionally chisel pointed stainless steel staples which is how it was originally done.
Header vinyl trim Thanks for the posting on the subject. I recently purchased a replacement strip from Legendary Auto Interiors and have held off on installing it. Frankly, I was intimidated/scared to try and take off the stainless steel trim on the windshield and pillar posts. Some questions: a. what glue did you use? b. what tool did you use to remove the stainless trim and how is it done correctly? c. did you have to remove the pillar post weatherstrips to replace the vinyl? Its stuff like this that makes this site so damn valuable, at least to me. Thanks.
