sml

The velvet upper door seal has cracked and deteriorated so I bought some replacements ...

Velvet Upper Door Seal Part

The seal is fixed with about 10 or 11 aluminium rivets. I have bought those also.

1. How do I remove the existing aluminum rivets?

2. How do I install the new rivets?

sml

After some googling, it looks like the best way to remove the rivets is to drill them out with a very fine drill ... hopefully not damaging the galvinised car body. I will start with a fine drill bit, try to pull, if not successful then use a larger drill bit.

To pull-out the rivet perhaps I can pull-out with wire cutters or gently tap-in a self-tapping screw and pull.

Hopefully I can pull-out the full rivet as I would prefer not to have loose rivet pieces rattling around in the car structure somewhere!

Jimjacqmx5

Better take some photos to show us how you do it.
I have recently noticed when I wind up my drivers window, that my door seal is loosing great clumps of fluff!!
I could like on the bright side and think I'm reducing the weight...

sml

This upper door seal does not come in contact with the window. However the frame of the door window butts up against this upper velvet door seal (together with the door seal) when closing the door.

sml

First here is a few photos ...

sml

Comments ...

Parts
Supplied from Pelican Parts
Right Velvet Upper Door Seal - The length at the rear end of the seal was slightly too long and had to be trimmed with wire cutters. Easy to cut but strange that it was not correct.
Left Velvet Upper Door Seal - There were 3 holes that were not punched in the correct position. Either that or my car was manufactured out of spec.
Rivets - 13 required for each side. I bought a few spares and needed them. The aluminium rivets looked no different to what is available in hardware stores.

Removal of Existing
I tried drilling the rivets with a very fine drill bit but the rivets seemed to be hollow!? I could just push the drill bit straight through the middle.
I was hoping to remove the full rivet and not leave half of the rivet rattling in the car however I could not remove the full rivet.
I used a drill bit the size of the rivet hole in the car body and drilled and pulled off the head. I couldn't pull out the other half inside the body of the car so in the end, I just pushed them back into the car structure. I could hear them rolling down into the car somewhere!?

sml

Installation

As you can see in the pics, there is a slot providing some tolerance for movement. I made the mistake of just starting in the middle and crunching the rivets without much of a process. This caused a few sections between the rivets to become unevenly spaced and hence did not sit flush on the car body. I had to remove 4 or 5 rivets and start again!

After a few problems, this was my process ...

1. Push the x13 rivets into the holes
2. Push trim into place and slip the rivets into the holes & tape into place with masking tape
3. Very gently squeeze the rivets to provide a loose fit & remove masking tape
4. Adjust and flatten any bumps and ensure the seal is sitting flush to the car
5. Start crunching the rivets in the corner and work outwards making sure the seal is flush

After my trial & error, this job took me about 3 hours on the right side and 2 hours on the left side. It probably should be about a 1/2 hr for each side but the learning curve combined with the minor part problems turned this into a large job!

psychoideas

Job well done!!

I must do this to mine.............or at least add it to the list.

sml

Thanks .. that makes me feel better.

It is so simple in theory but I found it very painful!

Hopefully I won't be able to hear tiny rivets sitting in the car body somewhere!?