As part of this overall refresh I've ordered lots of brand new weather seal/rubber. First, WOW, what a difference some new, pliable, black seals make visually. I've marveled many times over the years how it is seemingly insignificant things that detract from any finished product, they don't fully register on glancing inspection of a whole, but when they are done right said finished product just looks "right" (Dirty door jambs or wheel wells in an otherwise clean car, a rough edge on a piece of home molding from a careless cut or an old blade, edging undone on a fresh mowed lawn, etc...).
I exhibited previously the shabby state mine were in so I won't clutter up with them, but they were dried out, chewed up, mis-matched and generally awful (lets not mention they didn't remotely keep wind, let alone water out of my car).A few notes/things I've learned:
1) You don't seem to need to coat an entire channel with weatherstrip adhesive to keep the rubber there, in fact it may be a really bad idea. There were at least 2 seals that poured water all over the place when I took them off after the car had been sitting dry in the garage for a couple of weeks (at least). (For the record I did this, glued what I had on 3 years ago so I'm not blaming a PO for it).
I glued each bit of rubber on the ends, the middle and at any bend points and it seems to be sitting there just fine. I will of course gladly do one of my too frequent "I'm a dumb-ass posts" if future use proves this folly. Remember to put a thin coat on both the rubber & the attachment surface, count to ten and then stick that sucker.
2) Although door rubber is listed as "fits L or R" there does seem to be an upside down and a right side up. Of course IIIII figured this out after I began gluing a piece on and it looked funny so I went to investigating. There are drain holes (which face down ;-) ) and the profile of it stands proud of the body, grabbing up more toward the door, when it's installed correctly.
3) Door topper/window squeegee rubber installation is just a mother-flocking biaaatch not matter how you do it. I used liberal amounts of car wash soap and worked the first one up the channel from one end to the other and I believe I now know how a little lady Chihuahua in love w/ a Great Dane must feel. The other I placed one side in the channel and pressed the rubber in 1/8" at a time for the length of it with a jewelers screwdriver, this took 3 sessions over a few hours with breaks so my hand locked in a Kung-Fu Grip could recover. Sucks, get over it, get it done :)I now have nice clean sealing surfaces that might actually say no to water and air, my door shuts with this wonderful new (to me) sound and the windows don't rattle around in it anymore. It's the little things in life, don't judge me.
edit 2013-08-21: After a few days of topless use I have discovered that the seal on the front of the targa bar needs to be glued down more. I had it only on the corners but top on and off and highway speeds had it coming up. I have glued it a few inches around each little screw indentation (so 4 or 5 spots along it's top length) and will note if this didn't fix the problem
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