Whiskers

Mid Amer. Mtr. works Describes them as whiskers, I'm referring to the inner window/door seals on top of the door panels. A good friend recovered the door panels for me on my '78 for free. Two tone, black w/grey centers, beautiful, but once he removed the whiskers he was afraid to attempt to install the new ones and left that up to me. I share his insecurity for the sake of accuracy. He suggested that I might hot glue them on but I can't believe you could rely on that bond. I've seen them riveted on the after market panels. Guess I'm having trouble imagining how to set them correctly. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated folks. aceinthehole2007-05-12 11:36:04

Belive it or not mine are stapled on with BIG staples. I think they are original but not positive as some work was done to the interior before I bought it and can't say they didn't replace those.

Thanks Mark, I'm not surprised by that because the ones we took off were held by staples. I'm thinking, I may have to hot glue them for positioning and then remove the panels to pop rivet them or something. Guess I was just hoping for a more exact method. I've got a little time to think about it 'cause I'm trying to do my best to prep the other 2 cars for Carson City ( the wife insists on driving her own car, even without the radio ) and they're a long way from being anything you'd want to look at up close  ( her interior is not even complete,but I don't blame her)  but what a wonderful opportunity to drive and enjoy the vettes. aceinthehole2007-05-12 14:18:40

Originally, they would be stapled. This makes it REALLY hard to replace them, if you want to maintain 100% accuracy for judging purposes. And no...hot glue would not hold very long!
Riveting is the easiest way to do it, but it does take a bit of patience, so you don't wind up poking a hole in the panels.

Thanks Joel, I was afraid I was in for trouble. It starts to make the high price of new panels sound very tempting, accept that I haven't seen any as attractive as the two tone he did for me. Guess I'll just have to do my best and live with it for a while, and somehow that doesn't diminish the pleasure we get from them. aceinthehole2007-05-12 14:56:56

When you recovered the original panels didn't you just cover up the staple holes? Couldn't you line the strips up and use an awl to poke 2 holes at each previous staple location hitting the original holes? I bought some bumper extension shields and the staples for reattaching them. Just a strip of heavy duty staples. No way I had any kind of stapler that would actually do the job, just poked the staples through prepunched holes and manually bent them over. Only used a few per shield, tho, supplemented the staples with silicone adhesive. Still have a strip of staples if you could use em.  Mike

Thanks Mike, That's very kind of you to offer. I didn't really expect to get any response to this question. This is great. I'm at work today but I'll scrutinize those panels tonight and get back to you. I can't tell you what a confidence builder it is to know there are others willing to look at my problem. I'm very grateful gentlemen. aceinthehole2007-05-13 08:59:36

Jimmy, I compared the staples that I have with the ones in the door panel and they look the same. They are a pretty heavy wire that will probably take a pliers to bend them over. PM your address and I'll send em out. I think there's about 25 staples on the clip. Doubt if I'll ever need them.  Mike

Just did a little checking, the same staples are used for everything.