I’ve been lurking on this site and bumming info for a few months now and may finally have something to contribute.
The glass runner felt on my 74 needed some help recently and I found several threads that described complete or almost complete disassembly of the door and full replacement of the runners. The material to fully replace all 3 runners on both doors was running into the $90+ range and frankly it was a little more than I wanted to spend or do. I should say here my FJ isn’t a resto but a nice driver quality rig. Much of the runners were still usable and it was my intent to replace the deteriorated or missing portions and leave the rest alone, primarily to fix the rattles at the top of the door glass
So I bought 2 pieces of the glass runner seals from City Racer LLC. They were $15 each. These seals are a little different from factory in that they are quality molded (or maybe extruded) rubber seals with a “flocking” type material on the inside surfaces that contact the glass. My guess is their life expectancy will be greater than factory.
Next I used a small screw driver to remove the damaged portions then cleaned the channels out with some alcohol and a toothbrush.
Next step was to cut a piece long enough to replace the missing portion and simply insert it into the channel. The first attempt had me digging back into these threads. The seals appeared too big to fit. I made multiple attempts and could get the end started but that was about it. There was some talk of using soap or grease and some more spots where folks shaved the seals down with a dremel tool but I decided to give it another go (dry and full sized...). It turned out that if you insert the end into the channel then push the seal inward it will tend to roll to one side as it enters the channel. I found that if I let it start to roll then worked the opposite side to roll it back the opposite way, I could “walk” the seal into the channel about an inch at a time.
This worked on the upper 6 inches or so of the side runs and the entire upper runs on both doors. The glass rolled freely afterwards transitioning between the old and new felt and sealed like a champ. At the end of the day I got rid of the rattling glass for $30 and about 20 mins worth of work.
The glass runner felt on my 74 needed some help recently and I found several threads that described complete or almost complete disassembly of the door and full replacement of the runners. The material to fully replace all 3 runners on both doors was running into the $90+ range and frankly it was a little more than I wanted to spend or do. I should say here my FJ isn’t a resto but a nice driver quality rig. Much of the runners were still usable and it was my intent to replace the deteriorated or missing portions and leave the rest alone, primarily to fix the rattles at the top of the door glass
So I bought 2 pieces of the glass runner seals from City Racer LLC. They were $15 each. These seals are a little different from factory in that they are quality molded (or maybe extruded) rubber seals with a “flocking” type material on the inside surfaces that contact the glass. My guess is their life expectancy will be greater than factory.
Next I used a small screw driver to remove the damaged portions then cleaned the channels out with some alcohol and a toothbrush.
Next step was to cut a piece long enough to replace the missing portion and simply insert it into the channel. The first attempt had me digging back into these threads. The seals appeared too big to fit. I made multiple attempts and could get the end started but that was about it. There was some talk of using soap or grease and some more spots where folks shaved the seals down with a dremel tool but I decided to give it another go (dry and full sized...). It turned out that if you insert the end into the channel then push the seal inward it will tend to roll to one side as it enters the channel. I found that if I let it start to roll then worked the opposite side to roll it back the opposite way, I could “walk” the seal into the channel about an inch at a time.
This worked on the upper 6 inches or so of the side runs and the entire upper runs on both doors. The glass rolled freely afterwards transitioning between the old and new felt and sealed like a champ. At the end of the day I got rid of the rattling glass for $30 and about 20 mins worth of work.
