Cutting Cal Look seals

[Toby Erkson <Toby_Erkson@ccm2.hf.intel.com>]

No wet blanket, just stimulating peoples minds.  My Cal Look seals are 
flat, though.

Thanks everyone for your thought and input.
     Toby Erkson
     air_cooled_nut@pobox.com
     '72 VW Squareback 1.6L modified to 2.0L
     '75 Porsche 914 stock 1.8L


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Wiring, Measurments
Author:  type-3-errors@umich.edu at SMTPGATE
Date:    2/10/97 9:17 PM


TobyE=> What are people's thoughts on taking an Exacto(TM) blade and
     => verrrryyyyy carefully cutting a slot for the chrome trim in a
     => chromeless seal?

Not to be a wet blanket, but it seems to me that getting a usable result
with a knife would be practically impossible. You not only have to make
an even cut along curves in a convex, resiliant surface, no mean feat by
itself, you also have to get it the right depth and make an even void to
hold the chrome without bunching the rubber. That wouldn't even be fun
to watch. Further, it looks to me as though the Cal-look rubber has a
higher, rounder exterior profile than OEM, so even if you miraculously
got the cut right, the chrome strip would ride too high and look
distinctly odd. Better all around to stripe the rubber with silver paint
or tape, imho.

It might be possible to engineer a special jig to lower the Cal-Look
profile and cut a trench for the strip on the same pass, but it seems a
lot simpler to engineer a mold and make some correct rubber. Who's
falling down on the job at West Coast Metric, anyway? Maybe all it would
take is a letter campaign by a band of Squareback owners ....

Steven Ayres, Prescott AZ
Editor, Flat Four Fetish Features
'66 Type 343 Ghia
comwest@well.com