Hey the window sills (i think theyre called) on my 7 are rusted to ****. I am told theyre removeable but i dont see how and dont wanna play around to find out. Can they be removed? If so I am in the market for some. There are like 5 ppl parting out fc's in the f/s section so if possible Ill grab soem from them. How can i take them off? Incase its unclear what im asking for look at your side window then look down, the innermost piece of metal that actually touched the glass.

 

you can pretend to be me and do this: mask off the area around the sill with.. well tape. take some sandpaper of preferred grit and have at it. once sanded, spray down with your fav. shade of black. itll look like new.

 

Yeah they are removable. I dont know if you can do it without taking the door panel off from the inside, but mine came off when I had it off pretty easy. It sort of pulls up and off when its not being held in by the panel.

 

They're easy to get off, you have to use a little force
We're talking about the plastic/metal guards that are inbetween the actually glass and door right? on the outside?

If so, you can pop them out. THey're held in pretty good by some clips, roll the window all the way down and pry them upwards. They should just start to pop out on one side and from there just lift the rest out. You can buy new ones at mazdatrix, they're like 40$ a pop each I think

 

use a plastic trim tool and pry it up, should slide out once up.

you can sand the rust off and use 'plasti dip' found at home depot for a OEM looking repair. i need to do the repair still but i have heard of several people doing it with excellent looking results. paint will crack and peel back off but the plasti dip is a type of plastic/rubber so it won't crack or peel.

 

Mine were color matched to start so im probably gonna put them back that way. If i cant get them off easily ill do that, same deal with my wipers but im goin flat black for them.

 

i just bought some new ones from satin (dealership) and it was cheaper than if i would have bought them off of mazdatrix

 

Mine were all messed up on my car when I bought it back in 1996 ('86 GXL). What I did was take the sills off my car, scrape/cut the flaking plastic finish off of the metal, and then I rough sanded and painted them gloss black. They turned out great, and still look good even today. Its funny how a coat of Krylon has stood up better than the original factory plastic coating.

 

Just bought new ones at the Dealership for less than $40 ea. CAD (like $33US). Advantage over repairing old ones is you get new rubber and new 'felts'. Haven't changed them yet, but sounds like its not much of a problem.

 

The new dealer part is now plastic, FYI. It seems that Mazda recognized the rusing problem and fixed it.

 

Well its about time. Both my cars have that problem.

 

There is one little screw on the end nearest the rear of the car.

The plastic ones look so much nicer than refinished stock parts. I recommend new ones from the dealer or mazdatrix.

 

I might try to get mine powdercoated wounder if it will work

 

it would probably work but it would probably cost you more time and money than buying new ones.

 

yeah the ones on my vert have rusted both sides and look horrible. A fix is on the way.

 

The downside to repairing the old ones is that the rubber that seals against the window is usually as hard as a rock, and has pulled away from the glass. This lets the rain go down into the door, and if the door drains aren't open, the door bottoms will begin to rust. I have the new plastic ones on mine, and I think they look much better than the rubberized metal originals.

 

I've got this problem and when it rains I get moisture directly underneath the door, on the outside of the passenger compartment luckilly. Also the locks freeze because of this I think, since they work perfectly in dry weather and that's the only bad seal on the car. It doesn't seem like recoating them would totally fix the sealing issue I'm having. I had no idea the stealership would be cheeper than mazdatrix, thanks for the tip guys.

 

THis is hilarious. I started this thread forever ago and never did anythign about it. I get out of work early today and decide to do it. I just returned from strauss with some black rust repair paint, sit down and this is the top thread. It must be my destiny.............

 

It Is Your Destiny!

 

I just took an afternoon and a $2 can of spraypaint from walmart to sand and repaint mine. They used to be color matched but I like them better black
before

after

If your wondering, that red dot on my door is from a girl that flew open her door into mine, guess what color her car was?

 

you guys are ghetto

i still prefer my 'plasti dipped' seals, they look like new again even after 8 months of weather and abuse.

as for the felt? water gets through even new window seals, they are more for window centering and a buffer than for keeping water out..

 

Funny. Same problem here, and with the outside weatherstripping gone I get more than just water in my doors. I work evenings so when I park in town the strip clubs and the dance clubs have folks that go around placing flyers on car windows but I hardly ever saw any on my car. Then when I went into the doors to fix my window switches I found a boatload of these flyers way down in my doors. It'll be new sills for me. Nice pictures though.

 

Ahh, you reinstated my need to fix mine. Will do first thing tomorrow.

 

Thats funny.....


gil

 

wow didnt realize it was such a prob....... plasti dipped???? hmmm gotta try this. how much a quart or however they sell it??