vent window seal

[bigpaul]

I am rebuilding the door on my 71 c10. The rubber seal around the vent window is shot. This not about installing the vent window in the door, I know how to do that. It also is not about installing the glass. It appears to me that the only way to replace the rubber seal is to drill out and replace the rivets. Is there another way? Help!

[dmjlambert]

I don't think there's another way, you must rivet. I bought the weatherstrip, rivets, and rivet tool (just a type of punch) from GMCPauls. One issue I had was in a couple of places the rivet did not have a deep enough hole in it, so it would not squash down flat enough to make a tight connection. There were extra rivets in the kit, so I drilled the holes a little deeper in some of the rivets using a small drill bit.

On the first window I removed all of the rivets, and then I watched this video and realized you don't need to remove the rivets at the bottom of the triangle. Those rivets are difficult to fasten with a punch type rivet tool because of the angle, so I used small screws. On the second window I worked on, I left those rivets alone. On both my windows I left the big rivet that the window pivots on alone, and instead drilled out and replaced the smaller rivets that hold the pivot bracket onto the frame. I bought a small (4x6) plate of 3/8 thick steel to use in my vise, to back up the rivets inside the glass channel, while I was whacking on the punch to do the riveting. There are points in the process where if you don't have a helper to hold parts for you, it will take a lot more patience, so a helper is highly recommended.

While the window is disassembled is a good time to clean up the parts really well and spray paint the non-chrome parts, and use steel wool to remove the rust from the chrome parts.

After assembly the window was very difficult to close and latch with the new rubber. I left it latched for a couple weeks and it was good from that point on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiZOiHmcb_w

[bigpaul]

Thanks, that video was very detailed and just what I need. This board is great!

[slikside]

sub'd.