Maybe 3 years ago I discovered the same thing a lot of other people have...that the windlace produced today is different. Almost all ends up just being decorative in that it looks okay but does not do very much (if anything) about sealing things. Why? Because once you install it, the round part does not touch the door frame. The best of what I had bought as I said "looked" like it might work however it didn't. I still have one set of what I bought here. One was discarded.
I bought what I got from two sellers (I'm not going to tell you who because they didn't make it and the fact it wasn't correct wasn't their fault) and also some folks sent me pieces of other windlace they had bought and only one of them came close to being okay (even though it actually wasn't). There is a drawing attached which is what Steele's product was supposed to be, however for some reason it seems it didn't get made that way. And after that drawing is the Steele product and as you can see the round part sits level with the bottom of the installation slot (which is not right). And as I recall it was only available in black.
Please look at the first image below. This is how the original GM stuff fit. I've removed my window trim pieces to paint them but the yellow arrow shows how the windlace ought to fit if all is good. With no trim piece a popsicle stick stuck between the windlace and the door around the window opening won't fall out. The last image below shows a piece of common Cheez-It box I cut and stuck between the rubber and the door frame. It fits pretty snugly.
The problem can be seen below. The new type looks like it might be okay, but the round part does not contact the door when you install it...you can see where the round part is in relation to the bottom of the slot. A gentleman here had offered to try to have some made that would work correctly. In a perfect world the rubber needs to be softer than what is being sold today (by anyone). It needs to be closer to the shore rating of the weatherstripping used in today's vehicles. That is to say soft enough not to cause door closing issues but firm enough to make contact. What is sold today is extremely dense stuff. It is a fine line, too. Too stiff and you will have trouble closing your doors. The fellow got a quote or two and as I recall it could only be run in black and people wanted the standard brownish gray also. Plus I don't believe he ever got enough people to agree to buy it.
So that's as far as the work got. I ended up using some I had bought from GM almost 50 years ago and had used it since then. I wanted new stuff, but it seems to still be okay and better than anything out there currently. The last 2 images below show what it looks like when I re-installed it...you can see how it sits in the door opening. Hope it helps.
~ Jon 1952 1/2 ton with 1959 235 | T5 with 3.07 rear end
