How is it originally ? (roof rail and rear quarter glass)

amach_one · Feb 28, 2021

Hi everibody , i'm restoring my mach one and may be someone has pictures of the space between roof rail and the molding originally. Like you can see, on mine there is is a sealing painted on the color of the car and i'm not sure it was like this originally. And also how is it at the end of the quarter glass ? Thank you in advance for your answers !

Stanglover · Feb 28, 2021

Hi, I'm not sure if this helps, but as far as I know, there was a crappy foam strip between the two rails. I heard some say that's where they tend to leak. When my car was stripped and repainted, I had the painter seal along between the rails, but he did a much better job, it is barely noticeable. As for the quarter window, these were way off from the rubber seal, but I got lucky and there was no rust below on the floor. These windows need to adjusted so there is a seal between the glass and the body. We also added sealant around the quarter window (fixed of course). If done well, no-one will notice.... well, hardly!

Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs · Feb 28, 2021

This area is a sore spot with me for sure. Two days after I picked up my brand new 1973 Mach 1 it rained and I had 2" of water in the LH rear floor. Roof rail leak. Do not go back in with the foam tape does not work for roof rail or installation of the rear window. I took mine off to polish and if you look in the NPD catalog they tell you not to use the foam tape. I use the 3-M strip calk for the rail. My car has vinyl top so you have parts of the vinyl top, headliner, overlaps in sheet metal and the rectangle holes for the locators on the rail to seal up. I did a thread on the work I did two years ago but I can never find it, lol. Here are pics and I used another non hardening strip calk where the hail hooks over the vinyl roof. If you do not have a vinyl roof they seal that joint with seam sealer that hardens.
You can see in the pictures how much stuff there is to seal up under there and foam taped will not cut it. When you go to remove the rails you will have to destroy your rubber seal to get to the screws holding the trim. Put a phillips screw driver in the head and hit with hammer to break the rust loose. You can polish the trim nice you just have to remove all of the anodize with oven cleaner. If you have never buffed trim before you need to watch lots of video. Easy to catch an edge and destroy the trim in a split second. I love to polish the stuff I zone out and make it shine.
The Daniel Carpenter rubber for the roof rail fit perfect and coupe and FB use the same one in the pic also. I get my stuff from NPD they are 100 miles away. Get the 3-M strip calk at your automotive paint supply store. I use it anywhere you need to keep water out, tail lights, side marker, trim attach holes, quarter panel end caps, etc..