Prototype is here!
Well gentlemen, the day has finally come. The first prototype arrived on my doorstep for testing and evaluation yesterday
I am very impressed overall. Have a look, this is the new repro seal sitting on top of a Toyota original (mounted to glass)...
My first impression was that the material felt a little odd (texture wise), so I gave it a good wipe of alchol based Final Wipe solvent (Tumbler, etc) and that cleaned it up nice (new rubber parts always have odd residues on them from the moulding process). Looking at the corner moldings it seemed that they were a little sloppy, and obviously the piece was made by molding the corners separetly and then melding them to the extruded straight sections. However comparing it to the oem piece, its obviously the same way the originals were made and they aren't really much cleaner either...
There are some small flaws and overall quality quibbles as one would expect from a made in the orient reproduction piece (thats a small bubble on the underside)...
But no deal breakers, and overall the quality of the piece is quite decent and much better then I was expecting. But in the end, all that really matters is does it fit...
Fits like a charm on the glass.
And on the hatch too
Now please note that a fresh, brand new seal is MUCH grippier then an original. I've never installed a new one before, always removed and installed used ones using just a thin, smooth edged scrapper and alot of patience. After struggling a bit to get the seal lined up, I checked the ol FSRM and they recomend you soap and water the hatch down first to get the seal to slide on nicer. I did not do this on the install in the pics, hence why the seal sits a touch low. The gap on the top matches the amount its over on the bottom perfectly, I have no doubt that they got the fitment on these seals spot on, very impressed in that department. I recomend following the FSRM on the install process (though I havn't had much luck with the string trick yet, will have to get that one down).
Even the inner bits line up right and seal properly...
As for the quality of the part and the material, like I said, there's the odd thing that is typical of a made in the orient repo like a little flashing in the odd corner...
Or small pits and bumps in the extruded sections...
But like I said, nothing to be worried about and the OEM piece isn't as nice as you might think if you take a really close look at it. I can't comment on UV resistance over the long term, I guess time will tell on that one, but I belive the manufacturer claimed they added the appropriate additives for that. I will be putting this seal on my new daily driver mk2 that I'm finishing restoring this fall and it will get parked outside year round. But the seal fits, and fits well, is of very decent build quality and oh yeah, it keeps water out...
Did a little leak test, all good there too. A big thumbs up from the Fiend, way to go George, another out of production part available again!