im contemplating redooing some of the top seals on my vert over the winter and ordering them from victoria british. has anyone replaced any of these themselves? please let me know if it is a hard job or not.
thanks

 

I replaced my top about a month ago. Once you've removed the trim.. It's pretty easy. Becareful not to damage the clip areas on the plastic trim pieces.

 

just some of the seals..
i believe they are referred to as:

a)Roof Panel Seal (both LH and RH) part #59-332 and 59-333
b)Homing Bar Seal part #59-334

desperatley trying to fix my leak so I can drive in the rain without accumulating a puddle behind the drivers seat.

are there not seals on the hard "targa" section that could require replacing also?? i dont see them in the Victoria British catalogue.

anyone know if these seal kits come with instructions and will it simple be a matter of tearing (gingerly) off the old ones and applying the new with silicone adhesive?

thanks

 

No help here, unfortunately. And no water leaks, fortunately. However, I am trying to get rid of wind noise coming from the seam where the hard top meets the top of the windshield frame. Is that the "homing bar seal" of which you speak?

 

I've been thinking about this same project. My roof leaks as well and I would love to find an easy way to fix it without taking it to a stealer/dealer.

I hope this thread gets some attention. Thanks for putting it out here.

 

It would be fine to repair the seals. You may be interested in trying this. Clean the rubber seals with a mild soap then let dry.
Apply silicon on the rubber. It is water proof. I buy it in the plumbing section and I use the moen brand. It is about 6.00 for a small tube that will last forever. It keeps the rubber in good condition and it will not alow water to penitrate the rubber. There are other issues about using this stuff but it should not be a big deal. I have been doing it for years. This may buy you some time
You may want to look at a factory manual. If you send me a private messege I may be able to hook you up with what you need by attachiing a link.

 

someone has had to done this project.

slack sails, the homing bar seal is on the soft part of the top where it attaches to the hard targa section (other side of which you speak) I believe the "homing bar" is the built in "roll bar" per say

 

i didnt know victoria british had a kit, but i got the replacement, and somehow i think i did them wrong cuz my vert top still leaks, or its prob an adjustment taht needs to be made

i need to go to a convertible repair top for this.....too lazy to figure this out

i think icemark knows more about this

and i never thought about the silicone thing hmmmmm going to try that next week

 

Don't do it if its your first time it takes time and about 8 hours

 

I'm about to do them myself.

I have a buddy who's a body man, and he actually advised me against getting the seals from victoria british. He said even though it's supposed to be sotck fitment, his experience is that they will need a lot more 'coaxing' than the real deal mazda parts.

Crappy to hear, and hard on the wallet. Especially hard, cause they made fewer verts than coupes, and stopped making them 15 years ago!!!!

Basically means parts are generally hard to come by and pricey, but you can get some breaks here and there.

I've actually been pretty lucky at my local dealer, getting a good number of stock parts for a great price(well under ticket $) you should call a few local dealers and you might be suprised that thier price for seals might not be much more than Vic B.
They might even be cheaper! Shocked me more than once.

as for the job itself, you might not need seals. There's lots of bodyman tricks that I've been lucky enough to learn. One is using smoke to find the leaks(better than a hose- but you need a special machine to do it- or some mad heavy heads) and then you can look at the seals to see why they are leaking there.

he gave me this stuff that you put under the seals (inbetween the metal/paint and the rubber) to 'build up' the height of the seal. It's a kind of gummy sticky tar looking stuff , about 1/4" in diameter and reminded me of tire plugs but softer...

it came on a roll, and we went around and brought up all the seals that needed attention on all the vehicles in my yard at the time.

Its great haveing buddy's who know thier shiot..


I always thought that tighter would be better to fix gaps like that, but he taught me how it can pinch the seal and make more leaks instead of stopping them.

Make sure your top is aligned right.

Then see if you really need new seals , and not just tweaking them..

(unless they are dusty and brittle- lol )





|M|

 

Those are the Targa seals:
a)Roof Panel Seal (both LH and RH) part #59-332 and 59-333

 

Your buddy is clueless since the targa and top seal parts from Victoria British are the Mazda OEM parts with even Mazda OEM lables

and the Targa seals already come with that attached.

 

^ that's cool, I guess.

I didn't know Victoria British parts were mazda parts....I wonder how much of thier stock is OEM...

lots of time, those catalogs( the auto specialty catalogs) that have 'stock oem' parts, the parts don't fit just right.

He was basically advising me against any part that's not OEM , IE - any other company that supplies auto parts not factory. (well he is a bodyman- he likes ot make his work easy as possible)


I know Victoria British is supposed to be a great company. I've got thier catalog for years and have only ordered pedal pads and floor mats(yes they both fit without coaxing)


I first saw the Rx7 catalog in LMC truck catalog years and yers ago.

BTW - LMC Truck and Victoria British's are owned by the same parent company, Long Motor Corporation. They seem to have a great rep, in business for over 20+ years, great catalogs with VIN# Breakdowns, and how-to's etc.

See the thing is, I bought some parts from them (LMC) for my old chevy truck.

They sold them as OEM parts from the original GM tooling. Well, the tailgate is thin and weak and the body lines don't really match up(but it bolted on with almost no coaxing)

I got all my patch panels from them too. rockers, cab supports, kick panels, etc..

I was really upset at the crappy quality of the pieces. I had previously bought the same stuff from JC whitney for a fraction of the cost, and when the pieces were shoddily made, I figured I got what I paid for.

SO I spent 4x the money to get them from LMC. They are better than the JC Shitney parts, but now I know I'd a been better off finding a donor cab for the project....


anyways- rant over.

Oh- and BTW- some previous owner musta screwed with my car- it didn't have any tar rope stuff under the seals anywhere (it did have the butyl rubber glue stuff though)and I'd never seen of heard of that stuff.

after some tar rope on the front and back of the targa and in the A-pillar corners, and my car only whistles a tad, and no rain unless it's in a brushless car wash..

 

after 15+ years I am surprised in any car's seals are still tight without some tweaking

 

How on earth is someone ever supposed to accomplish anything if they have no first times? Your post makes no sense. But that was pretty obvious when you stated that it takes time and about 8 hours (last I heard hours where a measurement of time)


Now, does ANYONE have A DIY or HOW TO write up on this project or could one of you experienced gurus (ehem: Icemark) jot down a few steps or pointers so that I can man up and do this without being scared of ruining what is a mint top with a few leaks???

thanks

 

its pretty simple, pull the old seals off, put the new seals on...

I think he meant 8 hours to replace the whole top. Because if you took even an hour to replace just the two seals on the targa I would be surprised.

and the FSM shows how to disassemble the interior trim to do the rear and front seals