Beltline Weatherstrip Kit Coupe/Convertible 1965-1966

We get a lot of requests from our customers asking for videos on how install weatherstrip onto their classic Mustangs. The older, older Mustangs, chances are at some point, you're going to have to replace some weather stripping. One of the more common worn out pieces is going to be the belt line which is found in the door, and the quarter panel, of coupes and convertibles. Today, we're going to show you how to install a complete 8-piece belt line kit using this '65 Mustang coupe.

Also known as "dew wipes" or "can whiskers," the belt line kit is designed to keep water from you door windows from getting down inside the door or quarter, which can cause rust damage down the road. This is a complete 8-piece kit fitting your Mustang coupe or convertible from 1965-1966. Your front inner and outer belt line are going to install using the supplied clips, as will as the rear outer. The rear inner belt line installs using supplied staples.

The beltline weatherstrip currently on our '65 coupe is typical for what we see on a lot of Mustangs that come in here. The inner belt line, as you can see, there's many broken clips. It's not really doing much anymore. All the cat whisker material on the inside of the felt is gone. It's not going to accomplish much at all. In the case of this, they actually weren't removed when the car was painted, so there's actually a coat of paint on the top of it as well. We're going to start with the doors and move on to quarter panels.

For this installation you need a Phillips head screwdriver. Depending on what kind of window crank and door crank you need, you may need a crank removal tool or 4mm Allen key, pliers, wire cutters, 3/8 ratchet, 1/2" socket, door panel removal tool, hammer, punch, T10 torx bit, plastic pry bar, drill with either a 1/16 or 5/64 drill bit, and safety glasses.

To be able to remove the original and install the new belt line weather strip in the door, we've got to make sure the window can go all the way down past the stop. To do that, we've got to remove the stop, which means removing the door panel and going inside the bottom of the door. Next, remove your arm rest. There's two screws located underneath. With the handles and armrest out of the way, now I can remove our door panel.

There's two different versions of a stop you may find in you '65-'66 Mustang. The later ones are going to have a stop all the way at the bottom of the door here which we can show you on this clip from the '67 Mustang that we did. In the case of our '65 Mustang, there's actually a stop located right here, so we're going to remove these two bolts here, and that will allow us to put the window down further. Now, I can roll the window down. Go far enough down, and we can access our beltline.

We're going to grab our plastic pry bar and start by removing what's left of our inside belt line. You can see, not much left of it. Now, we'll do the same with the outer. If yours was painted over like ours was, you'll want to grab a razor blade first and just go carefully down the edge here to make sure it's separate. Again, same story, there's no felt left at all on these.

Many times the clips will break off when removing your belt line. Just grab a set of pliers and make sure all the clips are out before trying to install the new stuff. You want to make sure all the holes on the door on the inside and outside are clean and smooth before you install the new belt line. If this sticks out far, it will leave a gap, and water can get in. What you want to do is you grab a punch. If you have any sticking out like this one, just lightly tap them into place with a hammer.

Before installing, you want to remove this blue tape to protect the chrome trim. If you do have an early '65, they do have the same kit available which would be a black bead instead of the chrome. Now we can start installing the inner. You want to make sure you put in place so this edge here is facing downward. What you want to do is get all the clips lined up first, and typically you can push them in by hand. Sometimes you may need a plastic pry bar, but normally you won't. Get them all lined up, and just click them into place. Now, we can install the outers which are side specific. You want to make sure you get the proper one where this cut out here is going to be on the outside edge of the door. Just like on the inner, you want to get it down into place and get the clips lined up, and then clip them on.

Now, we can reinstall the window stop, and reinstall our door panel. Before we put the door panel back on, I want to put the window down and make sure the stop is adjusted properly. Here we go. Right where we want it. Now, we can reinstall the door panel. Make sure you push down directly on top of the clip when putting them back in. Then, you want to repeat the process on the driver's side and move on to the quarter panel.

Now, we're going to move onto the inner and outer belt line for our quarter windows. To do that, we need to remove the quarter trim panel. The first step in that process is to remove our back seat. You reach underneath the seat and just pull straight up. Your backseat may, or may not, have bolts at the bottom. If it does, just remove them. In our case, we're just going to pull this and pop it straight up. The quarter window crank is held on by one little set screw right in the side here. Loosen that, and then pop off the handle. Now, we can remove the quarter trim panel mounting screws. We're going to remove our belt line. You're going to take out the back two screws in your dorsal plate. Put the window down here. There we go. Get it down below the belt line. Again, since it was painted, we're going to run a razor blade through just to make sure it separates. Again, like the front, make sure it's smooth. Just like on the fronts, we're going to line up the rear with the holes and squeeze it into place.

Like we mentioned earlier, the factory out belt line weather strip for the rear panels is actually stapled to the quarter trim panel. We're going to remove the factory staples. The simplest way to do it is cut them in half and remove them with pliers. Then, you want to cut out the residual staples that were not removed. The new belt line is going to staple in place to the factory right here. Not all the holes are going to line up, and the belt line will fit slightly differently. What I recommend doing is line up the front holes here, and make new holes in the back if you have to. Pushing the staple though from the back will actually put holes in the front felt for you. You can flip it around easily to find the front stop and put it through.

What you have to do is, before you press it in, once you have the staple in, use a razor blade. Clear the area under the staple a little bit. It gets some of the felt out of there and allow the staple to sit a lot flatter once it's installed on the car. Grab a small drill bit. Just clean out the hole first. Now, push through the second location for the staple. Grab our drill. Once you have the staples in place, you want to garb a decent size set of pliers. Basically, you want to push down on the top and then turn to get the staple to go into place. Once the staples are bent into place, you're ready to reinstall your quarter trim panel. You're going to put your window up. Repeat the process on the other side. Then, we can reinstall our backseat. Now, our installation's finished.

Replacing the beltline weatherstrip in your Mustang is cheap insurance against future rust damage to both your doors, and possibly your quarter panels. So you should know, it will take you around two or three hours. You'll be back on the road in no time.