Window channel seal/stainless polishing question.

[GaryI72]

Is this correct. If it is, does the high side go to the outside or inside of the door. Does it need glued in place or will the pressure of the glass lock it in.  Thanks.

[GaryI72]

I test fit with the glass.  Seems too thick.

[GaryI72]

Here is what is in the other door.

[RICH MUISE]

When I installed my electric window, the mounting strip,channel, and glass were so tight I was afraid I was going to break the glass trying to install it, so I ended up setting the glass in the track with a rubber sealant. What I had was just a flat piece of rubber supplied with the electric windows....was not a moulded shape like yours. Just a guess on what you've got, but it seems to me that portion protruding out the top of the channel wouldn't be doing anything if it were on the inside as you've got it. Does the track the glass sits in come up high enough so that rounded lip would seal against the outer side of  the door?

[GaryI72]

This is what it looks like with the channel in the door. I'm going to say that the raised side goes to the outside. The seals were from carpenter. It looks like its to keep water from running down into the door.  Not sure if I glue this in place or the window will keep it in place.

[RICH MUISE]

If it's tight you shouldn't need adhesive.

[BWhitmore]

If not tight you might want to use black weatherstrip cement (3M). 

[GaryI72]

Thanks for the info. Things are slowly going together.  Working on the stainless for the doors. Picked this up today at Harbor Freight. It's actually a buffer/grinder. I took the grinder part off. Figured it's done after I get the stainless polished. It'll get more use sharpening my blades.  On sale.  Walks on the stand. I put my foot on it to keep it from running away.  A lot of strands are flying off of the loose leaf.  Is this normal or is it an inferior pad? I'm new to buffing so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[RICH MUISE]

That's the one I wish I had bought....the longer mandrel is probably safer. I strongly suggest finding a rubber hose that will fit over the shaft in between the wheel and the motor. It will help when the wheel decides to grab whatever it is you have in your hand. I replaced my harbor freight wheels with some much wider ones I picked up at a big swap meet. Wider is better, less of a tendancy to grab the part. The ones I have are probably about an inch and a half wide. The better quality wheels will have a lot less shedding, but I would guess they all do it to some extent.
I can bog down the motor on mine if I bear down too hard...but that's a GOOD thing....once again the grabbing of parts if you catch an edge. This is one case where you are better off with a less powerful motor.
The biggest problem with buffing I think is it is very tedious. I spent probably an average of 2 1/2 hours buffing on each piece. The long rear fender spears probably got 5 hours each at least....and that was just the final buff after many many hours of hand sanding with 400/600/1200/2000 When you spend so many hours buffing, your mind starts wandering and then guess what happens...you catch an edge and, if your lucky, just made a few more hours repair. See a pattern going here with what I'm saying? BE CAREFULL...it's dangerous. I watched a video of a guy making stainless custom window frames. He said he always gets asked why he uses an electric drill with a small mandrel mounted buffing wheel to buff out his pieces instead of a buffing motor. His reply...... he points to where he had 42 stitches in his face.
I do the black compound on the hard sewn wheel, the green or lt. grey compound on the loose wheel, and do my final buff on a small loose wheel mounted on a mandrel in my drill press. The drill press wheel is just used with a polish like blue magic.
If your stainless in in good shape, the pieces you'll have the hardest time with are the windshield trim. They got all the brunt of the head on road debis. I probably spent 40 hours restoring my windshield pieces because of all the small pits. If yours is the same way...give me a holler and I'll tell you what I found as I was finishing up that will make the "many pits" problem a little easier and quicker to resolve.

[RICH MUISE]

oh yeah...keep a bucket of water handy...that stuff heats up fast.

[Ford Blue blood]

I use leather gloves to ward off some of the heat.  Cheap ones from Lowes, leather on the fingers and palm, cloth on the back side.  Helps keep the hands "safe" when that mean ol wheel decides to grab the part!

[GaryI72]

Thanks guys. I did pick up some leather gloves while at HFT. I was so excited about my new toy I was out there buffing smaller trim around the doors at 11:00pm and I've found out fitst hand how quickly something can catch and go flying. I'm stepping up from safety glasses to full face  shield. Thanks again. 

[RICH MUISE]

A few hints...use different size wooden dowels shaped a little on the ends and a very small watchmaker type hammer with a wooden block underneath to work out dents.
Stainless is very hard to sand, so if you have scratches you don't want to sand a large area down to the depth of the scratch. What I do is raise the area from the back a very narrow area following the scratch, actually raising the area slightly above the surface norm. I then  use a good quality (machinist) jewler's file to file out the scratch. You cannot use a normal harware store or HF jewler's file for this..they are too rough and will leave more scratches for you to work out.
After the scratch is out, I move the area back down if necessary and sand and buff. The stainless is very thin, and if you try to remove a scratch without doing it the way I outlined, it's very easy to get the metal too thin.
My hint for cleaning up large ares that are pitted.... Harbor freight sells 4" wheels in a kit with 5 or 6 grits. They are made for the 4" grinder. They are a rubber like composite material impregnated with diamond dust. The two finer grits, 400 and 600, can be used carefully to rmove material much faster than hand sanding with wet or dry paper, and don't leave scratches like a normal abrasive would.
I wet sand my entire pieces with 400 first, finding and working out small scratches as I go. Progress thru 6 or 800,1200,then 2000 grit. As you get finer with the grits, you will find scratches that you couldn't see with the previous grit, so it's a back and forth thing backing up one or two grits to work out a scratch. once that's done it's time for the buffing stages> Man they're sure pretty when you get that final buff done.

[GaryI72]

Just wanted to say thanks.  This is some very good info. 

[GaryI72]

Spent quite a bit of time working two small but fairly deep scratches out of the trim that goes around the window vents. Went to polish.  Slips out of my hand and now I have two scratches worse than what I started out with. I think what I'll do is sand, mount the stainless and then polish with drill. Time to push that stone back up the hill.