Q: How do I deal with my door weather-stripping?! The whistling noise drives me crazy while I am cruising down the freeway
A: There are a few variables that we need to consider when it comes to weather-stripping. There are multiple seals and there are vehicles with chrome trim strips and vehicles without them. Here, we will try to map-out the various plans of attack. The most common seals that wear are the outer window scraper (driver & passenger) and the main felt channel that runs up the back of the glass and across the top. WIt's also smart to get the complete VW Vanagon window seal kit that we offer.
In most vehicles, these two parts (per door) contribute to most if not all of the wind noise: The rattle of the glass when it is slightly open and the intrusion of water into the door when it rains. These seals are easy to replace: Remove the old ones by simply prying them out with a screw driver and pop the new ones in by lining them up and then tapping them in with your hand - no special tools and no fancy mechanical abilities needed.
This is straight forward if you have a vehicle that does not have the chrome trim strip that circles around the perimeter of the door glass (ones with the chrome strip we will discuss in the next paragraph). You can, however, get more in depth and replace more seals. There is the inside window scraper (driver & passenger), the wing window seal (driver & passenger), the forward felt channel that lays in the rear of the wing window frame, and the door perimeter seals if you intend to fully restore the rubber weather-stripping parts on your doors. These parts are all still available, so it is wise to thoroughly inspect all of the seals in your doors before ordering as each vehicle will show varying degrees of wear and tear on these various seals.
Check out the seals & weather-strips categories by year on our site:
- VW 1980-1983.4 Seals & Weatherstrips
- VW 1983.5-1985 Seals & Weatherstrips
- VW 1986-1991 Seals & Weatherstrips
Chrome Trimmed Vanagons
Q: But I have that chrome strip so where does that leave me?
A: Again, there a number of items to discuss. If you retain the chrome strip then you have to buy special weather-stripping parts that are harder to find and more expensive, but have an extra groove in them to accept the chrome strip. Keep in mind that they do not come with the chrome strip, but simply allow your original chrome strip to still be utilized, so if you choose the path of keeping them, make sure that they are still in very good shape. Purists may want to retain these strips but they really don't add much visual flare to the Vanagon and I think they look cleaner without. Should you be willing to jettison them, you have two options. You can carefully and cleanly cut the strip as it passes the wing window frame on the top and bottom with a hack saw or die grinder so that it only remains for the area around the wing window and then install the two common parts that are discussed above (the outer window scraper and the felt channel). You might think that it looks weird to only have part of the chrome trim, but it looks perfectly natural. The other option is to replace the wing window seal (style designed to be used without the chrome strip) in addition to those two parts listed. That would eliminate the need for any chrome strip, but the wing window seal is an extra expense, more difficult to replace, and is usually not worn.
Tips for Chrome Trimmed Vanagons
While I am giving you chrome-strip-people some economical hints, I have another tip. If you have the chrome strip door windows, then you also have those unsightly plastic trim moldings in all of your regular window seals for all of the rest of the Vanagon. They are likely discolored and cracked. They may have looked nice when the car was new, but 15-to-20 years down the road they sure seem like a silly idea. Don't pull them out, your windows will be loose and the seals will leak as they keep tension on the seals to keep them snug. We recommend taking a can of black paint, a small paint brush, and going around the van to repaint all of them. They blend-in with the rubber this way and your eye won't even pick up on the cracked ones or ones that are missing chunks unless you look for them. Certainly if at some point you are replacing the windshield or any of the other windows, or you are getting a paint job, then it will make sense to replace the rubber with non-trim strip window rubber, but until then, the $5.00 fix removes the eyesore.