RE: [T3] WCM rubber warning!

["Keith Park" <topnotch@nycap.rr.com>]

Its not the mold release, yea I know what your talking about but this is
actually into the surface.  They were stored in a box, in the garage on a
shelf out of the sun or any heat sources or ozone... SOME of the rubber
seals in that box were OK, others were not.  I was told by WCM that their
windshild seals come from Brazil, and I know there are 2 types out there...
unfortunatly the WCM ones were the ones that actually fit!

It looks like the rubber compound was just plain bad!

Im in a real quandary now, the windshield seal on the 71 doesn't fit, never
has, but the rubber itself has held up fine for 17 years... do I re-use it?
I can eather save the seal OR the windshield, but Ive never successfully
removed a windshield without cutting the seal and the windshield is a very
good one.

And of course there are some of the other original seals, all chalky on the
surface but still intact, reuse?  They look like crap and probably wont seal
when re-installed..

Sigh!

Keith

> I went to get the new rubber for the 71 that I had stored in a  box in my
> garage and found that several of the window seals, including the
windshield
> had completely deteriorated in the last 3 years they have been in the box
in
> the garage!  Just a general crazing of the rubber EVERYWHERE!!

Are you sure that it's not just on the surface? They often seem to 
come with a waxy mold release on them that dries out and then cracks 
(and just comes off.)

If it's really into the rubber, was this stored somewhere that it 
could get really hot, or near a source of ozone (electric motor, gas 
burner flame, etc?) Can you see any possible explanation?

Years ago, when talking to a rep at WCM, he told me that their source 
for most of their parts was actually VW stock which they apparently 
bought up all over the world. So it seems quite possible that some of 
the stuff we bought was actually already 30 years old when we bought 
it. It sure makes you wonder how they stored it so that it survived 
so well until just a few years after it got sold.

OTOH, it may have been brand new junk that was only going to survive 
a very few years regardless of storage conditions.

-- 
*******************************
Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
*******************************

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