Hi, I'm sure I'm not the only one with the following issues but I can't find anything on the forum... First... Our tailgate is sagging a bit and started to brush the bumper when opening or closing. I kind of fixed it with a piece of aluminium inserted into the hinge that lift the door a touch. Works great but is there a more durable way to fix this problem? The second tailgate issue is the cracked rubber window sweeper hence letting water in! No good! Could those be repaired since we can't find any replacement part? And finally, Harsh winters and hot summers are ruthless with front and back body fillers. Any tips for replacement? Then, once replaced, can we prevent the cracking? The front one of our Caprice is literally disintegrating :-( Thank you station wagon fellow owners!
In respect to the body fillers, you might look online or in Hemmings Motor News (?) for various companies (there are a few) that reproduce the body filler panels. In Hemmings, the companies seem to be listed a lot near the Buick and Cadillac sections, since the Buicks and Cadillacs had (on some models) very large sections of body fillers that would disintegrate, leaving huge gaps. You might even find companies that reproduce the rear window sweep in there somewhere. Sorry for the vague info. I'm at work and had only a couple of minutes to type, but not enough to do a search for the names of the companies...if I remember tonight, I'll look in my Hemmings to see what companies are offering the panels and get back to you.
Thank you. I think it's at Hemmings that a friend of mine queried but regarding the window sweeper it's the same old song... not old enough. Cosmetic parts for the previous generation (pre 1977) seem easier to find. Body fillers: I found that: http://www.actionsalvage.com/Fillers/Bodyfillers86-90caprice.asp Has anyone ordered part from them yet? Cheers. Franck
I just saw that Amazon.com has bumper fillers for $169 USD. You might call a body shop to ask them where they would locate a rear window sweep if they had a customer with a wagon like yours with rear end damage. Somewhere, there has to be a way to get one. I now see your frustration. Good luck. Hopefully, you'll find one right away.
Any luck? I know this is an older post, but has anyone had success locating good GM B-body rear bumper fillers?
I ran into a guy at a Fiero club meeting a while back who replaced his side window sweeps with squeegie refills that he bought at a janitorial supply store. That just might work on a tailgate window.
i bought fiberglass fillers for my 85 Riviera from Replica Plastics of Dothan. They dont have wagon fillers listed on their site, but they do have them at a reasonable price. google them and shoot them a mail. ive been wondering about the felt sweep myself, if there is another application that uses that, or if several from side windows could be used together. Also, and norm may know this. the weather striping around the rear window, can those be pieced together from other cut to fit weather stripping and glued with good rubber glue to make what we need.
I knew I had posted this in our Site Links Directory. Here's the place for your filler parts! http://www.replica-plastics.com/ The way I did the felts is I used the female half of good old Velcro. I used 2" wide black velcro tape and notched it like the old piece. Stands up better than the original factory stuff. The width only matters if your old plastic or metal channel is less than 3/4" deep, plus the width. Jase, you could 'weld' it with rubber cement, but I scooped a chunk off a Ford Aerostar rear dual-door gate, and noticed that they had a round insert (vacuum hose?) inside at the welds, from the factory! That makes a better joint than just butt welding rubber.
This might also be a useful source. I'd email them. http://www.collectorsautosupply.com/general_motors_rubber_body_parts.htm http://www.collectorsautosupply.com/5_body_parts.htm http://www.collectorsautosupply.com/parts-lists.htm http://www.collectorsautosupply.com/
I ordered the sweeper piece your talking about at a local GM dealer here in town. It comes with the chrome strip also. I'm not sure if he ordered it from GM or from one of his discontinued parts suppliers. When I get home I'll get the part number and post it for you. I've seen the bumper fillers on e-bay before.
franck74, the part # for the sweeper is 20225797. In the parts book I have its called a sealing strip. It cost me $73.84 from my local GM dealer. The parts guy there will take the time to look the older stuff up for me. I've also got the hood molding (down the center of hood) the high mounted third tailight bezel (on the tailgate), could only get a left nos tailight bezel, the headlight chrome surrounds, tailgate handle, the front wheel well moldings and the clips I needed to replace the headliner trim. If you want any of the other numbers let me know. There is not a whole lot of nos parts to be had unless you find someone who has a stash of them as far as i can tell but i got all I could from the dealer.
I get CRA (Can't Remember Anything) or CRS (Can't Remember Anything - Sh!t), a few times a day! Then there's CRSE (Can't read slow enough) like the wife's moods, a politician's Spin headline, or some high-tech post about mixing paint thinners.
