Nathan Plemons

I have a new genuine GM rear hatch weatherstrip for my car. Should I install it dry or use that nasty weatherstrip adhesive stuff which I seem to not have any of?

JackDidley

Nathan, that gasket does not get glue. It sort of floats. If you take the old one off you will find that its lubricated. I left the old lube there and put mine on dry. Been ok for 2 years. Stay warm.

Mr Mojo

Good question, let me know how it works out since I will probably help my buddy do his and then of course both of mine.

All I know is that yellow stuff someone used on mine(I don't know if it came that way from the factory) is nasty. I washed the car once and when I was getting the water out of that corner, the yellow stuff had made it's way out and onto the paint. It was hell getting it off of there.

BTW, it appears that the adhesive is only in the corners. When I do wash my car, the water always ends up in the hatch since the water under high pressure finds it's way under the weatherstrip.

Sam Lam

Nathan: I bought my 89 a few years ago and the rear window weather stripping had separated at the corner junction. I removed the weather stripping and used some 3M Super Weather Strip Adhesive (black in color) to fix the two corners. I cleaned the yellow gook from the weather strip groove (what a mess). I attempted to reinstall the repaired weather strip (without the gook or adhesive) and found it would not stay in place in the corners and top area. I applied a small quantity of black 3M adhesive in the corners and in the middle top area....and closed the rear glass. This was two years ago!
Merry Christmas!
SAM

greenvette95

I did the same thing.

Corvette Kid

So you've never opened it again? I cleaned as much of that disgusting stuff off as I could and just put the new seal in place.

1stC3Vette

Ditto for me. I used the 3M adhesive because it would not stay in place at the corners. I used some tape to hold it over night. Never had a problem since. The original weatherstripping was glued on all around the rear hatch, at least it seemed as though it was.

Good luck.

Dino

Midnight 85

5 years mine has been staying in place and doing it's job.

bogus

I'm with Spankyellow. I just left the goo there, life is good.

Nathan Plemons

It seems like leaving the mess there was a lot easier than removing it. I ripped the old strip off (3 pieces) and put the new on and all seems to be well.

I installed my new '96 wiper arms / blades this morning as well. Now all I need to do is install my new door ajar switches and install the new radiator surge tank. Neither one of these should be particularly hard but I'm thinking it's nap time. Then this afternoon there are two football games to watch. I'll leave that other stuff for tomorrow.

bogus

that seems reasonable.

I have a bad door switch, too, I think. The courtesy fuse keeps blowing.

SBNova

I saw an episode on Corvette:the American dream, about replacing this piece. They said that from the factory there is white lithium or a grease of sorts in the *pinch* area of the seal, to reduce wind noise. It does make sense to glue the corners though, to minimize shrinking.

Mr Mojo

I helped my buddy put his on yesterday, what a pain, first that yellow gooey sticky crap from when we removed the old one, combine that with 20 degree weather and stiff rubber, it was not pliable enough to get it on properly, so we'll have to wait for a warm day to re do it. We need to stretch it a little bit.

Nathan Plemons

Huh, I was done in less than an hour start to finish. I guess that's the difference between a 20 degree weather and a pseudo heated garage. It wasn't extremely warm where I was working, but it was at 55+

Just on the other side of that garage door was about 15 degrees!

BIG JIM 54

I replaced mine and glued the crap out of it!

Used the black 3M stuff all the way around. I did this because the car wash guys used an air hose to blow the water out from the corners and kept blowing the rubber out. Glue it. It won't hurt anything. You probably won't need to replace that weatherstrip again.

The only rubber that they recommend NOT to glue in is the A pillar around the top of the windshield. The reason is that weatherstrip HAS TO be removed when you replace the windshield. I glued that in too when I replaced the windshield. The guy who had the car before me did it and I'm doing it to the next guy.

With my luck, I'll get a rock through it tomorrow.

BIG JIM