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Cheap P-Seals for your T-Top
by Pat Swayne

The P-Seals on my 88 coupe were beginning to look pretty ragged, so I figured that it was time to replace them. New ones are getting more expensive and rare every day, and they're not that easy to replace, so I decided to come up with a substitute. What I came up with works, looks good, and costs next to nothing. You'll wind up with P-Seals that look like this:

First, remove your old p-seals, following the instructions on the Fiero T-Top Registry website, on this page, and this page. Remove all adhesive residue using "Goof-Off", which you can get at Lowes or Home Depot. You will probably have to re-install pop rivets in the holes where they held the old p-seals, to hold your front and rear molding.

To construct your new p-seals, you'll need some self-adhesive weatherstrip tape, like this, in size 3/16" by 3/8":

Re-install your t-tops (with no p-seals), and, scribe a line along the molding marking how high the glass is. You'll want your new p-seals to be about the same height as the glass. The only exception to this is the rear corner of the driver side top. For some reason, most of them are a bit low in this area, so you'll want the p-seal to be where the glass would be if it weren't too low.

Remove your t-tops, and unroll a short length of the weatherstrip tape, and remove the backing. You'll want to install your four pieces, rather than trying to install a single piece in front and in back. The best place to butt the pieces is at one side of the center frame, like this:

You can probably see the crack where the two pieces join, at the left side of the center frame in the above picture. Start with the front, passenger side of the car. To accomplish getting the weatherstrip tape between the center frame and the molding, hold about 3 inches of it with the end away from you, and slide it in while pulling it toward you and down. Stop when the end of the tape is at the side of the center frame, as shown. Then work your way to the side of the car, pressing the tape in place along the line you scribed. Cut it with a knife when you reach the end, and stuff the end in a little (see the first picture). You've now completed 1/4 of the job.

Next, do the rear passenger side, putting the tape through the space between center frame and molding, as you did at the front of the car. Then do the front and rear on the driver side. This will be much easier, since you don't have to deal with the space between the molding and center frame. When you're done, your new p-seals should look something like this with the t-tops off:

These substitute p-seals are quick, easy, and inexpensive, and best of all, they do what p-seals are supposed to do. The wind noise at highway speed is much less in my car than before I put them on.