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Hello gang,
Here are 3 pics of my newly acquired 87 Z. I was told it was garaged most of its life. Today was the first time I'd taken the T-tops off.
What is your opinion of these seals?
What is your opinion of that visible surface rust beneath?
What I'm looking for is "Seals look great, probably don't need to replace unless there is known leaking" or "Its an 87, just replace the seals now" etc...
As far as the rust, I've heard there may be more underneath.. whats your opinion of what you can see?
Thank you t-top seal pic #1 (that yellow in headliner fabric is just the old yellow foam) t-top seal pic #2 A peek at surface rust in the center
The problem with this roof design is that it's flat. Which, architecturally is a disaster unless you have a built in drainage system, which GM half-way tried to do, but failed miserably. Therefore, even on a car that is garage kept most of its life can have rust in this area due to washing, or an occasional rain shower because the water sits in these areas for hours, sometimes days. You will most likely find a lot more rust under those seals. Unfortunately, its very difficult to remove factory seals without destroying them, plus their 30+ years old now, so they are past their lifespan (a long time ago). My advice? It's time to dig into it and take care of the problem before it gets completely out of hand. Rest assured, there is an aftermarket center bar in stainless steel, aftermarket t-top front and rear channels and of course weatherstripping, so any or all of it can be fixed.
They're all like that. You can clean and lube the seals with silicone grease, which freshens the rubber, lets the glass slip reducing squeaks, and repels water. It'll help. I wouldn't rip into it unless you're ready to take on a large project.
With that kind of rust on the t-top bar, your channels are likely just as bad, if not worse. Prepare for a big and very expensive project, as you're probably going to have to cut out the rusty channels, and have new patch panels welded in before you can even think about replacing the weatherstripping. Not to worry though, kentuckyKITT will do it for you for just $5,000, plus paint. That t-top bar is probably beyond saving also, so I'd start looking for a rust-free used one, as well as weatherstripping. https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...-channels.html
With that kind of rust on the t-top bar, your channels are likely just as bad, if not worse. Prepare for a big and very expensive project, as you're probably going to have to cut out the rusty channels, and have new patch panels welded in before you can even think about replacing the weatherstripping. Not to worry though, kentuckyKITT will do it for you for just $5,000, plus paint. That t-top bar is probably beyond saving also, so I'd start looking for a rust-free used one, as well as weatherstripping. https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...-channels.html
That bar looks like it's not that bad at all. Mine was worse than that. I was putting new seals in so I just hit it with a wire wheel and primer and paint. You will never see where it's at so no big deal.
I parked the Iroc after washing it once and forgot to remove the tops to dry the channels and had that much rust. It's hardly anything compared to many.
Rust on the bar doesn't look bad at all. I can't tell for certain about your channels in the pic but do they have rust bubbles forming on them? If they do I would plan on replacing the weather stripping in the near future and applying some rust converter/stop. Much easier to fix now before it gets bad.
I think my post is the one referenced by navy02ws6 above. I've had to remove everything including the metal channels. While not EXTREMELY difficult, its definitely a pain in the you know what. Not sure what a body shop would charge to do it but it would be pricey!!
04-27-2020, 08:47 PM
