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4 hours ago, Zed Head said:

think it depends on the weatherstrip. I have a vague memory of metal clips in the Kia Sportage weatherstrip. No adhesive was needed.

I can attest to the fact that the Kia Sportage weatherstrip requires no adhesive (even at the top rear corner of the window) to conform to the shape of the window opening. That's because it uses a more modern design, wherein integrated metal Z-coils replace the need for adhesive or a separate gripper strip. The Kia design also uses a 'lipped bellows' design that provides a more effective seal than the Z's old-fashioned (sorry) cantilevered-lip design.

The recent arrival of Z Store's retro-design weatherstripping (i.e. cantilevered-lip design) presents a bit of a dilemma to restorers, because they (apparently?) don't also offer a repro of the gripper strip. If I've got this right, it means that you have to use an adhesive to make the weatherstrip not only conform to the window shape, but also stay that way for some reasonable period of time.

If your definition of 'reasonable period of time' is 20+ years, then use just use epoxy and be done with it. Otherwise, I think that 3M's 'old-fashioned' weatherstrip adhesive will do just fine (provided that you read and follow the instructions). It will also offer some forgiveness if you happen to; a) screw up during the installation, or; b) decide, a few years later on, to try something 'more better'.

There are sources for the OEM gripper strips and I bought 25 feet of it on Amazon (nice stuff, BTW, and I used some of this channel, in white, around my interior roof line) before I got my Precision weatherstrip kit and saw the gripper integrated into the door seal. If anyone wants it, let me know and we'll work a deal.

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