I spent alot of time cleaning out, refurbishing, and repainting the weatherstrip retainers for the A and B pillars and cemented them on. Following the instructions on the permatex weatherstrip adhesive box, I started to apply a "uniform coat" to the passenger side B pillar retainer. It says to let this uniform coat dry then apply a second coat and bond the weatherstripping. Well...as I was using a soft brush to spread the adhesive around inside the tracks it just started making all the paint on the retainer gum up and peel away making a huge mess. I dont know what to do and I'm pissed. Help me please! I used the same ****ing paint on ALL the retainers and tracks.

oh thats nasty, how hard is that **** to get off, my suggestion, clean it up repaint it, and use 3m weatherstriping adhesive, never had a problem with it!

I applied it to the body of the car and it didnt mess it up. Maybe i just let is sit too long before spreading it around...on the body I did it quick. At least I only messed up 1 retainer

These damn retainers wouldn't happen to be made of ALUMINUM would they? Anybody know for sure? I cant tell.

First of all, do NOT go and use the 3M stuff, IMO. The reason why you and I had to spend so many gosh-darn hours cleaning the channels is because most of the black weatherstripping adhesives are impossible to get off easily. At least the Permatex stuff is much, much easier to remove should you have to in the future.

As for the retainers...what type of paint did you use? How did you prep the surface?

The portion in question is going to be entirely covered (or nearly so) by the weatherstrip itself once installed...is it worth it to clean and detail a hidden area?

I do not think the retainers are aluminum...I believe they are steel. Aluminum is more expensive, and I don't see why GM would choose a more expensive metal to make a simple retainer.

Its autozone "general purpose paint". It stuck great to the body but not the retainers.

It worked on half of the retainers but not all i'm finding. I'm thinking maybe the paint had more time to cure on the body and the unharmed set of retainers, where the ones that messed up were more recently painted. (I painted over a 3 week time period) I'm going to re-strip, re-paint, and give them longer to cure. Maybe even bake them a bit in the oven. Is that a bad idea? How long should I do it?

also maybe try a different paint

What kinds of paints stick REALLY GOOD and harden well?