Side Window Weatherseal Alternative Found

[Jamie N]

These came after searching through a multitude of cars at a big yard, the seals on mine were cracked and looked awful so I dismantled the door to get the old strips off, bit of a challenge that was!, after removing the glass I could then get to the rusty screws and after gently chopping away the rusty seal lugs I got all screws out with the help of mole grips, then armed with a section of the seal I headed off to see what I could find.

The side profile was the thing that mattered the most and eventually I found a similar Weatherstrip on a Honda Civic EM2 model (a coupe built in USA), when I got back and lined them up on the door I was shocked just how well they fitted, the only problem now was how the heck do I attach them!, so after a bit of head scratching I finally concocted an idea, onto the bottom of the original Civic retainers I attached a plastic square with a small screw and a dot of sikaflex and left them to dry overnight, then carefully ground down the screw heads and points flush with a flapdisc (just in case they were a bit close to the glass) and then drilled a single hole in each of them for the stainless screws to attach them to the door ,I only needed to use 4 clips on each weatherseal , however they had to be attached after the glass was back in, but the 2 middle clip screws could not be accessed with the window up or down so what I did for that was to take the window down as far as it went on the motor and then unbolted the runners completely and dropped the whole setup carefully downwards which then gave perfect access.

I had adjust the ends to the angle of the original but other than that they are pretty much perfect for the job, freshens up the look no end, nothing worse than tatty old seals to make a car look scruffy.Not brilliant pics im afraid but certainly give an idea of how they look.

[tweetdriver63]

I was recently browsing around SJ Sportscars' website, and it seems they have manufactured a replacement, which they have listed there.

[WienLot]

Might benefit with looking at the following topic...

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=22260

[Enright]

Might benefit with looking at the following topic...

...holding breath waiting for it...still holding breath...starting to go a bit red...purple...blue...

[WienLot]

...link now added to my message above !

[Enright]

Phew, thanks Franck!

A bit of copying and pasting of supporting info from related threads:

...They are from the EM Civic coupe, circa 99/2000, you have to mod them a bit but its worth the trouble, do it once and they will outlast the car unlike the original type that gets multitudinal cracks within a short time. ...

You may be able to do it without taking the glass out of the door though, if you put the window down as far as it goes you will still have glass over a couple of the screws that attach it to the door, but if you then unbolt the whole assembly from the door it can then drop down far enough to gain access to the screws, almost guaranteed they will be rusted solid though!.
Jamie.

...the great thing about the Honda ones is that they are readily available in most breakers yards for a very small sum of money, maybe even a nod and "il get you next time" if your lucky!, considering they are just a couple of strips of what most breakers would consider "junk", They also come with a stainless steel backing and the attachment onto the original Honda clips to enable them to screw on to the Elan is pretty simple to make as can be seen in the pictures I posted of how to do it, as usual im just trying to show peeps there is often a much cheaper alternative, not to mention the achievement and satisfaction derived in the process.

Right im off to try and devise more ways to save Elan'ers hard earned dosh.
Jamie.

I think this is a pretty complete guide and I'm definitely going to give it a go - thanks Jamie!

[Jamie N]

Phew, thanks Franck!

A bit of copying and pasting of supporting info from related threads:

...They are from the EM Civic coupe, circa 99/2000, you have to mod them a bit but its worth the trouble, do it once and they will outlast the car unlike the original type that gets multitudinal cracks within a short time. ...

You may be able to do it without taking the glass out of the door though, if you put the window down as far as it goes you will still have glass over a couple of the screws that attach it to the door, but if you then unbolt the whole assembly from the door it can then drop down far enough to gain access to the screws, almost guaranteed they will be rusted solid though!.
Jamie.

...the great thing about the Honda ones is that they are readily available in most breakers yards for a very small sum of money, maybe even a nod and "il get you next time" if your lucky!, considering they are just a couple of strips of what most breakers would consider "junk", They also come with a stainless steel backing and the attachment onto the original Honda clips to enable them to screw on to the Elan is pretty simple to make as can be seen in the pictures I posted of how to do it, as usual im just trying to show peeps there is often a much cheaper alternative, not to mention the achievement and satisfaction derived in the process.

Right im off to try and devise more ways to save Elan'ers hard earned dosh.
Jamie.

I think this is a pretty complete guide and I'm definitely going to give it a go - thanks Jamie!

No problem Neil, that's what we are all here for to help each other out, the Honda ones are longer than the Elans, just trim to size and add a little endcap which is easy enough, one thing you have to do though is put a slight curve in it to correspond to the door shape of the Elan, again easy enough done.
Just make sure when you find the right car try not to break the clips which secure it as you will be using them, best way to do it is prise up the strip at the lock end then SLIDE it towards the rear of the car, then you can pop out the clips from the door without breaking them.

Also bear in mind it is only the EM coupe ( it will have EM1 or EM2 on the vin plate) that has these, all the other Civics are different, Google "EM civic" and you will see the model you are after.
Jamie.

[tweetdriver63]

You can still just buy them from SJ Sportscars (39GBP per side), if you prefer not to have to fiddle and don't mind spending a little bit of dinero. 39 GBP seems a little steep when it's per side.

[Jamie N]

You can still just buy them from SJ Sportscars (39GBP per side), if you prefer not to have to fiddle and don't mind spending a little bit of dinero. 39 GBP seems a little steep when it's per side.

Absolutley Chris, however one must bear in mind using Originals or otherwise will still involve a fair bit of fiddling!.

[Ladythorpe2]

Just started fitting a SJS weatherseals, they work well - worth using them.