Steele sent me a customized catalog for my truck a few years back. They have the windlace, but only in black. I may contact them and see what they say about modifying their mold.
Seems like the stem holding the bulb could be made a bit thinner to allow it to flex easier.
Yes, exactly so. In fact, whoever extruded the seal I have (the gray stuff) had that same idea. The stem is thinner than the other side and if you look further you'll see the bulb itself varies in thickness. Specifically the bulb where it attaches to the stem is 1.45mm and diametrically opposed to that is 2.45mm. Part of what I mentioned last night about softer material is this: watching how this stuff works over a 30 year period, it will rub a line in the door paint if the bulb is made of firm rubber. We all know the windlace used on coupes/sedans of the same era was soft sponge rod covered in cloth and it pushed nicely against the door when closed. The whole idea being to help reduce wind whistles in those (which do occur and generally at the top of the window areas). In fact it was so bad in hardtops, GM designed a stainless flap with fuzzie seal on it that was opened/closed by the window frame in the 55, 56 and 57 Chevy hardtops. These were neat but also a real pain to fix if they ever got messed up. I'm open to any suggestion at all.
Little fatigued today. I've been writing instruction files for a CNC laser cutter since this morning. Like weatherstripping...really neat when all works right and worthless when all fails.
