I found some window channel guide material from the front edge (on the pillar of the wing-window) of the window in my pile of parts. My driver side door's window totally lacks quide material on the back edge and I'm wondering if the front and back material are interchangable in dimension? I'm talking about just the rubber stuff, not stuff that comes as a whole unit with the chrome and all.

I acutally stopped by a specialty volkswagon place yesterday because I had heard that they have stuff that will work, but when I saw it, it looked way to wide to fit into the chrome "slot" that I have. The only way I could see that stuff working was if I actually took the old chrome out and totally replaced it with the VW stuff, which I'd rather not do. I want to keep the old chrome stock look.

Anybody know what I'm talking about here?

Jc Whitney had all the channel I needed to do my 123gt

The chrome channels aren't easily separated from the felt that fits inside them... but as suggested, restoration parts shops that cater to US market cars offer an affordable replacement that consists of chrome-beaded channel just like your car used to have.

If you're in Portland, 'old car parts' on SE Powell has it; or the place down around 15th and ... hmm... Belmont or Stark.

Best,

Cameron (the other Cameron)
Rose City

Yes, I think I know what you're talking about and I replaced all of these on my 1960 Amazon-S 4-door. Likewise, mine were ineffective and the weather stripping was torn or missing. Since I was changing the color on my Amazon, I decided to totally replace all of the existing guides. You'll find the guide is a single unit, 4 pieces per front door and rear door. The metal "U" channel has the black weather stripping glued in place, held by the metal/chrome strip. These guides are held in place with metal clips and I used 3M adhesive to ensure they didn't move.

I was able to buy generic guide material, along with the inner window fuzzie strips (bottom of window on inside metal trim plates) at an auto restoration store. Volvo used the same OEM as was likely used in North America, along with the shinny metal outside trim. The only kicker is that you must remove the metal attachment brackets and reattach them with pop rivets on the new guides. Use the old guides as templates and mark the position of the brackets before you remove them.

Another option, although more expensive is to buy remanufactured guides specifically for your Volvo. These are sold by most of the Volvo aftermarket resellers (Vintage Import Parts, Swedish Treasures, VP Autoparts, GCP, CVI, ScandCar, etc). Here's a picture to help you decide how many you wish to replace, followed by the before and after shots.

Thanks Cam,

Great illustrations and detail. Unfortunately I will not be able to afford an extensive tear down and rebuild project like this until next summer, or when I'm "rich" and have garage. Right now I'm a young apartment dweller and my car is parked out on the street. It's already cold and wet and too far into winter here as well. Some day I dream of have a space where I can totally dissasemble the whole vehical, clean EVERYTHING, sand and paint, and rebuild it ground-up.

That's well understood. I'm retired and this sort of thing is now a hobby and very do-able. The main factors are time, patience and a suitable location. Since the Amazon-S is not my primary vehicle, I was able to spend upwards of 2 solid months on the body job and door re-builds. I retired to a rural home with a 36' x 24' detached garage with insulation, woodstove and enough electrical power. I bought and installed a used asymmetric hoist that currently has my second PV444 on it, ready for a full restoration and conversion to a maroon-red deluxe "ES". I hope that you'll find that this will eventually become a hobby when you're as old as I am. Best of luck with your repair and let us know how you make out.
--
Cam a.k.a. CVOLVO.COM

Ya-ya. You've just made me envious...

Some day I'm sure I'll have a space, for now I just fight off the elements as best I can.

;-}

You can get the full set from a number of vendors. I got a set from Swedish Treasures, however the vertical felt channels are much shorter than the originals- they really just barely go below the sil, the result being that when the window is rolled down it rattles. I'd just go with the generic stuff.
Tom
NYC

As a very temporary measure, I bought some strips of felt material with a glue backing (at Wal-Mart, I think) and split them lengthwise so they would fit into the window channel. One little roll did both sides. It now seals out the wind and water and the windows don't rattle.

I still need to do a complete overhal of the windows, but at least I can live with it a few more months, until I recover from Christmas!

Steve

That sounds like a promising option for me. What I was hoping was that one could just buy the rubbber and felt matterial that would fit into the chrome-metal channels and slip it into the channel with some glue to hold it in place (and not having to remove the window assembly at all). I can't afford to do a big window restore like illustrated and described above as I don't have a garage and it's cold and WET here in the NW for some reason...

I wonder what that felt material you described is intended for? Maybe it's door edge weatherizer or something? I think I'm going to try that route just to tide me over until next summer.

I found the felt in the hardware section at Wal-Mart. It's maybe 1/8" think, and exactly twice as wide as you need. Use scissors to split it.

Clean the loose crud out of the window channel and begin at the front bottom edge. Press the felt into the bottom of the channel. You could probably do the sides of the channels with more material, but just putting it into the bottom of the channel fixed my problem.

Press the felt into the channel and try to make sure it adheres everywhere there is a bottom to the vhannel. You'll find a large gap in the channel at the top rear of each window. I just kept going and snugged the felt tight across the gap.

Roll the window glass up and down a few times. It should feel consideraly stiffer than before; the new felt will cause some drag. Roll the window down and check the felt to make sure it didn't move during your test.

The glue will set up after a couple of days, so if you need to adjust the felt's position, do it as soon as you can.

I'm about a month into 'testng' my 'new seals' including high winds and some rain. No more wind noise and no noticeable water leaks, although I'm sure water is going inside the door itself. Remember to check you door drain holes when you clean your car.

For a 10-minute job, I'm really happy.

Steve

I've gotten reasonably comparable material from JC Whitney for 120 models. They have quite an extensive collection of different types of channel, and you can figure out what is equivalent by checking the dimensions and style of what they offer.

FWIW, I was not able to locate anything equivalent for PV's from that source, and had to go to some of the OEM's for that source.

Steve