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MSA Weatherstrip kit review


Swami

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Wow. Lots of great info here. And thanks for all the suggestions for search terms. I'm really surprised to hear how many window-shattering stories you guys have. That's definitely something I'd like to avoid =) 

 

I already replaced the rear hatch seal with the MSA seal (purchased just a few months ago) with good results. It's a tad puffy but the weight of the hatch counters it really well, and it cured my exhaust fumes issue instantly. Currently it's my door/window seals that really need some attention. I think I'm going to check out the Kia Sportage situation first, and if that doesn't go well, the mcmaster carr 1120A333 is only $2.03/ft.

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SO... the strap trick worked after almost a week of sitting... door closes fine now and its sealed real good with no leaks at all... I suspect to get it to be a super light close instead of a moderate slam it will continue to take some time for the rubber to break in. But it no longer pops the door out now. I still have some more rubber work to do on the car, but so far so good. Yea the Hatch seal was super puffy, but like you said it compresses it down because of its weight. Similar thing needed to happen with the door.

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SO... the strap trick worked after almost a week of sitting... door closes fine now and its sealed real good with no leaks at all... I suspect to get it to be a super light close instead of a moderate slam it will continue to take some time for the rubber to break in. 

 

Sounds like the latest version of these seals is better, I guess then.  When I restored my Z in 1994, I bought my door weatherstrips from MSA.  They were Precision...  I fought with them for more than two years... even went so far as to bend the spot welded lip around the door circumference inward to make more room between the door and the seal.  That helped, but I still had to slam my doors crazy hard.  Also, the seals put a crazy amount of stress against the stainless window/door frame part... so much so that the lower most bolt that attaches that frame to the rear side of the door developed stress cracks...

 

I cut a cross section of the Precision seal and a factory one to show the difference on my z website that I was going to create someday to show others all the things I found out the hard way...  The Precision seal is (was?) both much thicker and also much denser than the factory seal.  Sure, it compresses a bit after you put it on, but it never compresses nearly enough. 

 

While we are on the subject, I found out something else during one of the many times I revisited the poor door shutting behavior of my z.  The latches and strikers have to be working properly.  Both the latches and the strikers do wear.  The rounded groove the latch interlocks with widens over time... causing a bit of looseness.  

 

I solved my issues by scrounging some OEM seals off of ebay.  Here is a short video (not very entertaining, I must say) of how well my doors shut.  I have also sprayed sound deader on the inside surface of the outer door skin, and I have applied dynamat to the metal inner door panel... thus the sound difference you might perceive from other z doors. 

 

 

http://youtu.be/QYgN1KnnAQw

Edited by inline6
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  • 2 years later...

I'm going to bump this up because I'm in the process of purchasing a weatherstripping kit for my 280z.  Has anybody purchased a kit from a vender recently can give a testimonial to it's fit? Do the Precision seals still have a gap in the windshield? I'm going the Kia route for the doorseals but will need every other seal.

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Small update. Most of my precision kit from MSA is sitting in a box. The quarter window seals were fine, the rear hatch seal has now deteriorated near the hinges. After fitting the front window seal I got scared and never fit the rear window seal, for the door seals I use kia sportage seals.

 

I do wonder if they ever got their act together. The story from what I recall was a restructuring with bad quality control, but warehouses full of the bad stuff. Basically if they wanted to get to better product, they would have to sell the bad product, even then it was a small market so not sure if they would invest the effort to get the seals to the better mark yet.

 

For my next hatch seal I think I'm going to go with the universal type bulb seals as cgsheen mentioned. Windshield seals definitely from vintage.

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  • 1 month later...

Small update. Most of my precision kit from MSA is sitting in a box. The quarter window seals were fine, the rear hatch seal has now deteriorated near the hinges. After fitting the front window seal I got scared and never fit the rear window seal, for the door seals I use kia sportage seals.

 

I do wonder if they ever got their act together. The story from what I recall was a restructuring with bad quality control, but warehouses full of the bad stuff. Basically if they wanted to get to better product, they would have to sell the bad product, even then it was a small market so not sure if they would invest the effort to get the seals to the better mark yet.

 

For my next hatch seal I think I'm going to go with the universal type bulb seals as cgsheen mentioned. Windshield seals definitely from vintage.

I ordered the MSA /Precision complete kit at the end of Dec. last year and I think they are on to the "new stock" now, everything fit well including the door seals however, the door seals still pushed the door out too far for my liking so I also went back to my Kia seals and am very happy with them. The Precision rear hatch seal was just a smidge smaller than I'd like but was really no trouble to install and seals very well, did the paper test all the way around  with good results. It's too bad they couldn't perfect those door seals but I guess they really don't sell that many of them so not worth their time.

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