Has anyone lately tried to find a source for windshield rubber seals and clips lately in say the past 6 months ??? Yeah, I did a search for the last 6 months but no one had found anything except the word " NLA " .

Are there any after market sources or maybe some other car's seals/clips that can be used on a 914 ???

Didn't one of the Club members try to order some from Germany in a bulk order to sell thru the club website ? Was he successful in getting some or did he finbd out antoher German word for NLA ???

Or are we all doomed when it comes to windshield rubber seals and clips ???

Thanks for any input here .

O.K. I just have to ask.. does anyone know how these are made? Is it done in a mold or are they extruded. Does a mold really cost that much to have made? Lastly, what material are they made of (and don't say rubber). I am sure is is something like Buna or Viton. It would be nice to know if Porsche is dropping this or not. It would be terrible to invest in making these and then Porsche makes them available. These could have been produced in the time that everyone has been waiting. I will need 2 ar some time or other.

There is a NLA original one in perfect condishion sitting at my P.O. Box in the USA.

When I am able to drive there to get it, hopefuly soon.

I expect to start reproducing them by the end of December.

any idea on price?

you knwo the ones AA made were crap - glued areas came apart fast.

Jim

--

No idea on price till I build one. I buy my material by the gram. Build one, weigh it and do the math........

As to the glueing, I can't see that being a problem. The glue I use for the front trunk seal is stronger than the material it's made from. Andy tested it at the RRC and tore the sample I had with me in two. The material tore but the glue held. Any glue process depends on proper prep of the materials being stuck together.

Damn, you must be filthy rich .... I buy my stuff by the 1/4 gram and it's really expensive.

You should Grow Your Own ....much cheaper

Bruce,

Do you make the front trunk seal too? I need one headlight delete. I could buy another repro and glue it together. Care to sell me the glue?

Are you going to tool up for the windshield seal?

buy it by the ounce, sell it by the gram.... those are rap song lyrics LOL

Yes, http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=63207

Give me the dimensions you need and I'll make you a custom one. Measure from the outside edges.



Yes

how about the door horizontal seals? I need them longer...

SEMA always has a few foreign vendors who are their with a build it and they will buy it attitude. This year a vendor was their who will manufacture rubber seals.
The real problem lies in the fact that they require a first run of 400 seals to make it worth doing. I have found that everyone is all for it until the bill comes and the real cost is defined.
I don't want to have 400 seals siting around, they are noisy and they eat stinky fish I am afraid that the cost will end out being more than most people will want to spend. $400-500 each.
So until I find a vendor who will make a smaller first run the seals will continue to be NLA.
CCLINSEALED

Auto Atlanta used to say 6 months, said that for a few years, now they say 2-3 weeks.

Go Bruce, you rock

Someone can make a few bucks with the seals, there is sufficient demand and at a price point of $250, they would sell pretty well if the quality was there.

At $500 you'd sell maybe 15 in a year. At $250 over 100 a year would be conservative.

I have a pretty good relationship with a Porsche parts guy. He tells me the part is NOT NLA, still a valid number but out of stock. Maybe forever or maybe not, nobody seems to know. He feels Porsche will eventually make them since it is still active and suggested I wait.

Another thought......everyone order one from Porsche. It will get back ordered of course but if Porsche has hundreds of back orders, it might get them more motivated to get them done. Let's face it, if there is a demand and they will make money, they will most likely produce them. Since the Porsche inventory shows 0, I doubt if any Porsche dealer will even ask for a deposit when you ordered.

I have 50 seals on order thru Porsche Germany .... the deposit was $5K. Order was placed in April. 5 ship dates have come and gone. Last word was Porsche couldn't get the original supplier to make them so they had to find another manufacturer.

The way I figure it, I can kiss $5K gone. So much for not requiring a deposit.

Do you have to cut or bisect the seals you will need to make the clone seals molds for?

MikeCool

I hope not to. I don't want to destroy the one good OEM one that was lent to me to see if I can make these (I don't think the owner would be happy if I hacked up his)

I have a good one on one car but didn't want to possibly wreck it taking it off.

I should be able to profile sections of it without damaging it. I might have to make several molds to get each profile right but that's the nature of reconstructing things.

To get the window end caps perfect I made several attempts (6) before I got it right. Part of getting them perfect was having the right equipment. Which I believe I have now.

Bruce

Want some crap seals to get profiles off of?

sure.....if there the same it will work.....

got any broken tailight lens you want to get rid of? (next project)

I might have one floating around you can have. Can't remember if it's left or right though.

are we talking windshield seal or windshield fram seal? the first seals the winshield glass toteh frame, the second seals teh targs top and door triangle glass tot eh windshield frame. this post seams to be talking both, which is it?

form the windshield seal, the old one can often be reused with new adhesive. for the windshield frame seal, that is more of a problem.

maybe a company like west Coast metric (a big time VW aftermarket maker of replacemtn aircooled VW rubber) might get into the act. after all is not the 914 kind of a VW anyway? They is known for very high quality products,a dn make what I think is pretty limited run stuff (like for the type III squareback (heck i see more 914's on the road than squarebacks now days))

maybe we 914'ers need to get involved with the VW groups. our presence may perk teh interest of eh big VW aftermarket industry Seeing as Porsche tends to shun the 914, why not??? see if we are accepted, just don't go off saying we are better than VW's, but we ar one of them!!
I reacll Hot VW's magazine used to run articles on the 914 way back decades ago, now I haven't seen one for a long ong time. maybe we need to re-vire old ties, it may be benificial to us. there are more 914's than old classic oval window VW Bug on the road same for split window busses (per my non-scientific observations)

should the clud consider approaching the Vintage VW Club of America, to see if there is mutual interest? I see many benifits from a freindly exchange, maybe get some of teh big VW events to allow 914's to show, and compete, then show up with your ride and have fun. there are scores of VW events each month in the US. this would be a good source for many now NLA parts, a huge knowlwdge base of the type IV motor, etc... (knowledge would cut both ways,)

the number of VW's at the shows have declined in the last decades so the VW crowd may lkke the influx of the 914 into t eh VW crowd. I know the VW crowd has been reluctant to add teh newer VW water cooled cars, but the 914 is so much like the aircooled VW's , they should accept us.

we could get national magazine coverage, new parts sources, and more fun.

is this a viable thing to try????

Has anyone used any other cars windshield rubber seals with any success ? Without using the chrome trim . What about a " one size fits all " rubber seal that may have to be trimmed some way ?

The reason why I am asking all of this is that before I was looking at a 914 that needed a windshield but backed away from it and looked at a 944 . But things have changed and I am looking at a 914 again that needs a windshield and of course seals .

So no windshield and seals means no car buying for me. In other words, I need to get my hands on a set or two.

just to clarify, this thread is talking about the seal that goes between the windshield frame and the targa top as well as the side windows ...

this is *not* about an aftermarket seal that goes around the windshield ...
Andy

Sir Andy , . . . .

I started this thread referring to the rubber seal that went around the windshield. I may have used the wrong terminology but that was my intention.

There was recently a thread by a member who had talked about installing the front windshield and using some sort of paint/marker to hide the butyl
( ? ) sealant to glue the window in place to start with. I believe that he used some seal that did not include the chrome trim.

That's what I was referring to originally. I will buy a 914 after I sell/get rid of my Caddy CTS . But I do need to line up a window , which doesn't seem to be too hard to get , and the seals to put it in , which seem to be about as non existant as a long lasting marriage . Just looking for some help and leads as to where or how I can get some seals , that's all.

Thanks to all of the inputs folks .

i would think the windshirld seal could be re-used, just add adhesive if it is still intact. I have re-used the rear glass seal, just used silcone rubber to stick teh glass back in with, and to hold the old seal inplace. if you break out the bad glass, i would think the seal can be saved and reused. worked fine on the rear glass for me.

there is no seal around the windshield ...

in the stock configuration, the windshield is glued in with that black sticky stuff (buthyl?), then the chrome is added around the windshield.
*no* seal what-so-ever ...

there *is* a seal on the inside along the lower part to fill the gap between the windshield and the dash top, but that seal does *not* seal against the windshield, in fact your windshield will sit just fine without that lower seal.

every time you see a 914 with a black rubber seal around the windshield, it's just a generic aftermarket windshield seal you can get at any good automotive glass place ...

Andy

PS: the seal bruce is going to reproduce *is* the seal that goes between the windshield frame top and the targa top ...

how does bruce do teh seal reproduction, does he have a home rubber molding machine/ or contract it out?. I just wonder, seems like a very very cmplex operation needing all sorts of special equipement. does he do this as a full time job?

what kind of tooling is used? whats the process like??

Secret, no, no, Yes it is and yes it does. No, I'm a hose jockey. All sorts of tools: various hand tools, compressors, drill press, grinder, vibrating tables, vacume chambers, preassure chambers, Leggo and modeling clay. As to the process, thinking in abstracts helps and I hooked up with a guy who does this for a living (making parts for airlines and the railways) that I can go to for help when I get stuck.

Any photos to share of you doing any of the rubber seals or is that too risky with those PCar legal do-barks snooping around. I thought of sending all my new un-used seals to you to make molds.

Heck, I even posted a message saying so but quickly deleted when I thought P snoops lurk too and I am already poor.

Also. Not to hijack the thread, but are you going to do the chocolate 914's this year. They look great at your igloo. How much?

MikeCool
Click to view attachment

Mike,

thanks for your kind offer for the use of the seals, but I think I'm ok. The only one that I don't have in duplicate was the window one. Now that I have typed that I'll find I am missing one other

As to the pictures, I've never taken any because no one has shown a interest in how they are made except that they do what they are suppost to. The big chocolate one you saw my site shows some of the steps in how you make a mold.

As to Pcar snoops, it is my understanding that as long as I don't use their logos, company name or represent my stuff as genuine parts I shouldn't have a problem.

I haven't done chocolate cars in almost two years. I do have to make some and some of the small soap ones for people I have promised them to. The big one that is on my site was made for the WCC05. We had a sawzall party on the Saturday and carved it up. Their was enough milk chocolate in one to feed 40 people. I should have made some little ones for the munkins at the RRC this year, get them all wired up on chocolate and send them home. Boy would I have been popular

I got a front turn signal lens I can send you, are they R + L.

What about the little doodad that holds the wires for the side marker light? Rubber seal, unobtainium, might be tough to mold as it has some sort of long tubular parts.

How did the end caps turn out

When I thought of making a little project, all the licensed DIY johns yelled calamity and shot up my screen with yawyaw is why I mentioned it.
Oh well, since I didn't even get an offer or sell my 914 that I was throwing the seals in as a bonus, figured by offering them as a loan for modeling maybe the club could benefit and then I went chicken. Yep, folks, being yellow is faster especially when deleting a post.

Mike

Anyone have the factory part number for the windshield to top seal?

Someone chatted with me at SEMA who claims to be very resourcefull at finding NLA parts. Worth a try...

Damn you're cheap

I get mine by the 1/4 OZ

Thanks for the offer for the fronts, but it's rears I'm looking for. I have to take them apart (hence why I'm looking for broken ones). I have the mold 1/2 done for the fronts.

As to side marker bases, I looked at them briefly (I believe they are still available from Porsche) but I'm not sure if the metal parts for the bulb contacts are molded in or added afterwards. The "nuts" the screw goes into are a outside splined style and might be hard to find. I do have a mold for the NLA left lens already.

I have a replacement for the gasket/seal.....the one I have is on it's way to a member for testing and I'm looking at other options for those as well.....

The end caps turned out perfect, their listed in the resources section. I'm working on the early style ones now....

914-563-039-10

Sir Andy , . . . .

Thanks for your info/reply of Nov. 11 . At least that won't keep me from buying one since it's a big relief knowing that it can be installed that way.

I may even take the plunge and but that 914 befor I sell the CTS . At least I have a set of 4 jackstands waiting for it .

BTW , where are the midsouth/Memphis teener owners lately ??? You guys still out there ???

A big bump. And to all of those who replied, thanks for your inputs and knowledge.

Too bad no one hasn't run into the proverbial barn find of a large stash of original Porsche parts for 914 rubber seals and gaskets . Oh well.

BTW Qarl , howz your 914/6 project coming along ???