The 7/16" weatherstrip Steele makes and sells is very good if you have doors, hinges, locks in good shape and that fit well. As has been pointed out, nobody makes the product following the original GM profile. They haven't for a long time and based on what I've been told nobody is willing to without a pretty large outlay of $. More on that idea in a moment.
When the weatherstrip project began, a man at The Filling Station and I worked with Steele. At first they sent a product that was 11/16" in size. I tried it but it was way too thick. In fact what I learned is if you only had about 1 or 2 feet of this to install, your door might close. Past that point it becomes exponentially harder to close and if you install it all the way around your door, you won't be able to close it. I still have the product they sent (not free, mind you...we learned nothing at Steele is free).
Then after many discussions we were sent some weatherstrip in 3/8" size. That was close but not quite right. Another $$$ ching-ching and I do still have that product here. A very nice product, but I need to figure out how to make it useable. The profile matches the 7/16 product Steele has, by the way.
Then finally for the cost of a bit over $200 we received a product that was 7/16" and it is very nice. Steele made it using an old die. I purchased all of the various types and as I said I still have them here. I haven't found a use for the 11/16" product yet but I probably will sometime. Maybe a seal for a door in the tool shed? Don't know.
The fellow at The Filling Station and I agreed in a perfect world we would have a soft-rubber hollow channel weatherstrip that mimicked the AD shape but getting somebody to make it is the catch. There are hollow weatherstrip products out there that will match the height but not really the width and with the AD truck you need a raised lip shape. Also most of the aftermarket hollow core products are self-adhesive and we've already had people here that over the years have tried those without success. You must have a near perfectly clean and painted door (or jamb...but the product works best on the AD door) to have any hope of it staying put. And even then on a hot summer day it might be hanging out the bottom of your door. I've contacted folks in China to have this made and another fellow who was around here for a while contacted a company in the USA. The cost of the die is prohibitive, however. Some have estimated it will cost over $5,000 and I don't have that kind of money to spend on a project like this. But that would make the AD doors (as they were designed and built) close with very little effort and seal very well. If you look at weatherstrip used by Honda, Toyota, GM, etc you'll see it is very soft stuff and usually the engineers will have utilized an outer band and an inner band to eliminate water & air leaks. We can only use one band, though. You can see below what the 7/16" product looks like installed.
~ Jon 1952 1/2 ton with 1959 235 | T5 with 3.07 rear end
