If your car is like mine, every bump
or ripple in the road results in the music of rattles
from the doors. For years now I've put off pulling my
doors apart in order to replace the window channels and
try to find and eliminate any other sources of the
rattles. One way of doing it is to remove all the top
door trim and window seals (with those miserable $&*#ing
clips) and pull the whole window and assembly out
through the top of the door. Now that's a lot of work!
Then I found this
article by Brian Kemp of the
SCTOA which describes how to remove and re-install
just the window channels. Ok...that works for me.....now
let's price new window channels.........OMG.....from
Moss, the front channels are $100 x 2 = $200 and the
rear channels are $107 x 2 = $214 for a grand total of
$414 plus shipping. What makes this totally outrageous
is that the channels themselves are fine. I mean they
are made of steel and the only thing that wears out is
the felt that lines the channels. When the felt wears
out, the windows rattle in the channel. I knew there had
to be a better alternative to spending $414.00 and found
it over in the
6-Pack Forum. There's a regular contributor to
the forum there name Francois and he has a really nice
TR6 that you can see
here. Francois re-did his channels using the "soft"
side of Velcro! Below is how easily this is done.
| I'm going to assume you know how
to remove the door handle, window crank and door
panel. Now that you have that done: |
- Raise the window
- Remove the 6 bolts holding the front and
rear channels: the 3 front channel bolt
locations are shown in the two pictures
below
|
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| The three rear
channel bolt locations are shown below |
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| Pull the rear
channel forward and unhook the spreader bar
shown below. |
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| While holding the
window with one hand, remove the front channel
through this opening. |
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| Lower the window
about 2" and remove the three bolts holding the
winder mechanism. Lift the rear of the window
and remove the rear channel through that same
door opening shown above. Replace the three
winder bolts to hold the window in place, |
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| This is what you
can expect to find once you remove the front and
rear channels. That's the felt falling out. |
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| Only do one door
at a time and label the channels when you remove
them. |
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| Now go to
Wal-Mart and buy a box of Velcro Industrial
Strength, Heavy Duty Adhesive, 2" x 5'. You only
need the soft part. Maybe you can sell the hook
side on eBay! ;-) |
.jpg) |
| Thoroughly clean
the channel of the old felt. Cut a piece of
Velcro to match the bottom width of the channel
and carefully lay it in the channel bottom. I
actually used a Bamboo Skewer to poke it in
place and a wood chisel to press it firmly down. |
.jpg) |
| I wrapped the
excess over the end edge. |
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| The bottom of the
channel used about 1/4" of the 2" width of the
Velcro. I then folded the remaining 1-3/4" in
half and cut it down the middle. Each piece was
then laid on the inside edge and folded over the
outside edge. |
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| The last step was
to squeeze the plastic ends at the top of the
channel together so that the glass was tight yet
moved easily. If you make it too tight just use
a big screwdriver to force it back open. |
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| Back to the door
to tackle more rattles before putting the
channels back in place. Here's the old
disintegrated foam that's behind the door
opening arm. |
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| And the new foam
that runs full length.....actually just 1"
weatherstripping. |
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| Remember that
spreader bar from up above? Well, it's also the
place where the window glass rests when fully
lowered. I wrapped this piece with foam before
putting it back in place. Sorry...forgot to take
an "after" picture, but you get the idea. |
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| Oh yea..... I
also packed the door skin with Fat Mat as a
sound deadening application. What a difference
this stuff makes in quieting the whole car down.
Check out where else I used it in the link up
above. |
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| Time to put the
Window Channels back in: |
- Remove the three bolts in the winder
mechanism
- Insert the rear channel, getting window
glass between the plastic guides and in to
the channel
- Replace the 3 rear channel bolts but
leave loose
- Lower the window about 2 - 3".
- Insert front channel. This one was more
of a challenge because of the plastic and
limited visibility. Make sure you keep the
plastic film between the channel mounts and
the inner door skin. You'll also have to use
the various inner door skin cut outs to see
what you're doing.
- Replace the 3 front channel bolts but
leave loose
- Attach Spreader Bar
- Replace winder mechanism bolts but leave
loose
- Verify that window goes up and down with
no binding.
- Tighten all bolts
|
| Everybody seems
to have a terrible time putting those tiny pins
back in the door handle and window crank, but I
found a simple way to do it using LOCKING
forceps. I have to admit that I never figured
out how to get the springs installed behind the
handle plates and haven't used them for over 10
years with no ill affects! |
| The Magic Tool
has the dreaded pin locked securely in place. |
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| Up Close |
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| In
Position....all you need to do is get the tip in
the handle hole |
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| Once you catch
the handle hole, just give it a push to catch
the shaft. You may have to tap it fully in place
with a punch but this works very easily. |
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