Has anyone installed or had experience with the Dennis Carpenter seal?
I am ready to install mine but have a couple questions.
1. Was it installed with weather strip cement?
2. How were you able to staple it?
From other seal installs, I know I'll need to drill holes to run the staples through. The problem is originally the seal was stapled with the clinched ends on the top. Top or bottom clinch, I cannot figure how to hold them and clinch them. I'll post a picture. The provided staples are only long enough to go through one thickness of the seal.
when repairing the rubber parts f.e. on the inner front fenders, I used the original staple holes in the metal and drilled the rubber, then I used stainless steel wire and pre bent my own staples (u shaped). Fed them through the original holes with pliers and then bent the legs over.
This may sound very slow, but you only have to do so many of them and it makes for a clean install. I guess it would be hard to find the exact width and length staples and/or a HD machine that can do them for your application.
When you look at the original staples, they were often misaligned or quenched so hard that the rubber was damaged or squeezed too much, so it would tear later on.
Doing them by hand and one at a time, you can adjust the pressure and do a very neat and safe installation.
I am not sure whether or not this weatherstrip was even stapled through both sheets of rubber. it could have easily been stapled only from below and throught the sheetmetal. no staples visible from above.
I used small stainless machine screws, nuts /washers on mine. No glue and it holds water when I wash the car. I pull it away to drain.
Lynn
Thanks for the replies.
DJ: on my front fender seals(?) my inner fenders were og sans seals. I drilled both fender and seal then installed staples bending them on the back side. My concern is how one could get to both sides of the seal through the "S" bends of the replacement seal.
Lynn: I was also thinking about this method to install it. My concern is how visible the screws and washers are after install. Could you please post a picture of your install?
The screws are not visible at all from the top. the rubber lip covers the heads. I took a pic from under the car. The screw heads go through the metal then the lower lip of the seal.The upper lip of the seal goes on top of the heads. If this doesn't make sense I will try again...
Thanks Lynn. That makes perfect sense. I never thought of doing it that way. I was thinking of going through the top "flap". I never thought of covering the screw heads with it.