Please help guys.

I have an '87 Z28, and my T-tops leak. I know that this is nothing new. I just have a few questions.

1. My weatherstripping seems to be fine, but yet it leaks. How do I adjust the T-tops?

2. What is the average price for new weather stripping?

3. Does it help to allow the glass in the doors to go up just a little higher?

I know that this question has been asked and asked, but I would really appreciate some info.

 

There's no real "adjustment" on the t-tops. I guess if you wanted to, you could reposition the plastic brackets that the pins rest in, in the locked position, but I don't think moving them up and down is going to make that big a difference, and moving these pieces may cause problems lining up your interior moldings.

Probably your weatherstripping is so old it's starting to lose shape a bit, and starting to dry rot. At least that's what happened to mine. I replaced the weatherstripping and I now I have a nice tight seal. Also, I don't know if I had the original factory seals on, but I did notice that the previous installation didn't use sealant on all parts of the weatherstripping. If you get to the point where you want to replace them, you'll see that there are several brackets that are there to guide the weatherstripping. On my car, the only place adhesive was applied was where these brackets were. The rest of it was simply held down by the tracks in the frame. I put adhesive on the whole thing, to give it a better seal.

As for cost, you're looking to pay around $300. You might be able to get them at $250 if you're lucky, but I didn't find them cheaper than $289 (no shipping), and I looked around quite a bit.

I wouldn't mess with the glass in your doors unless you absolutely _have_ to. It's very difficult to realign them to factory later. If you have any play in your window, it's probably because of one of two things, either your hinges are shot, or your t-tops aren't sealing properly and you need new weatherstripping.

I thought realigning the driver's window on mine would solve the problem of the drip edge on the t-tops catching on the door, so I started playing with it. I must have realigned the window about 9 times, over the past year, and the real problem was that the old drip edge was already bent, so there was no getting around it anyways. Replace your lower hinge pins and bushings, and get the upper hinge kit from Andy's site and change out your weatherstripping, if you want to do the job right.

Mathius

 

i have something to add to this, if you could answer it for me. i have an '87 Formula with t-tops. the passenger side window seal leaks, everyone who rode with me the first month or so that i had my car told me that the window didn't go up all of the way. i disagreed, finally one day i was the passenger and i noticed that they were right. if you "measure" off of the black mirror mount(?) on the door, it doesn't go up all the way. how do i remedy this. i know there is a way to adjust the door glass but i have no clue how to. could ya please point me in the right direction? thanks in advance!

 

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by measuring off the black mirror mount on the door, but again I caution you to make sure it isn't a saggy door, or a t-top seal issue before messing with the window.

If you still feel you need to go ahead with adjusting the window, there's a tech article on it. If you require more information, I'll be happy to give it a go, but I'm by no means an expert, I have the Haynes and Chiltons manuals, and I just followed them, but I've done it near a dozen times now as I mentioned before. I'll give you a quick run down, but this is on a car where everything is manual, except the door locks, so if you have power anything, there are going to be some variations.

First you're going to have to remove your arm rest, and your door instrument panel. The door instrument panel is made up of the main panel, and then several little smaller bevels attached to the main one. There's a bevel for your door lock switches, and on the drivers side, there's a panel for the mirror bevel. I don't know if there's a dumby panel on the passenger side, or if the mirror bevel is part of the main panel, you'll have to check this out for yourself. Be careful, because every screw on the right of a panel is a dumby screw. If you start turning them, you're just going to tear up your panels. The door lock panel just unsnaps from the door lock mechanism, and since you're doing the passenger side, you won't have to mess with the mirror bevel.

Once you've done that, unsnap the door lock trigger and slide it out. Be careful not to break it. It snaps onto the metal trigger in the door, but part of the plastic piece goes inside the door panel, so be careful not to bust it off.

Next, lift your door handle a bit, and slide the door instrument panel off at an angle. That's the only way to get it off the door handle without breaking the panel. You'll see what I mean when you try to remove it. Don't forget to make sure you've removed ALL the screws. There is one that doesn't show on the outside of the panel. You can't see it until you remove some of the other panels off the main panel. This is very hard to explain without pictures

To remove your window crank, you're going to have to either get the GM window crank tool (which is silly, you don't need it really, just some patience), or a hook. This is tricky and it's a pain in the **** everytime I have to do it.... The window crank is secured by a single metal clip that's behind the crank, but in front of the plastic spacer that goes around the end of the crank that attaches to the door. If you tug on the crank just a little and peer down in there with a flashlight, you should be able to just barely make out the clip. It's the only metal piece in there. Use a hook to pull the clip out, the you can safely tug off the window crank.

Once that's removed, the door panel itself just pulls off at the bottom. At the top, you have to angle it a little and then the whole piece just lifts off.

That gets your door apart, and then you can start making adjustments. I really can't explain this part from memory. Read the tech article, and if that still doesn't help you, I'll try to post pictures.

Mathius

 

Just change the weather stripping