Stripped Down And Locked Up

I ’m a little confused about the good
windshield gasket for my ’67 Dart, when I
removed the non-stock molding, the gasket
looked like the 2-piece lip (to take the
windshield off) had been cut by the guy that
painted the car. Now I want to buy a new
one (like I did for my ’70 Swinger), but the
application for the gasket says: “68 to ’72
A-body hardtop”. Is the ’67 different? Can I
install a ’70 kit like my Swinger, they are the
same, yes?

Yes ’67 is totally different. It’s a
one‑year‑only design, actually a carryover
of the ’66‑down setup. Here’s how it differs:
Later A‑bodies went to the B‑body design
wherein the lockingstrip was integral to the
rubber weatherstrip itself. As you forced
the weatherstrip into the locked position,
one “flap” kind of locked into the other. The
’67‑down designed used a bright Mylar
(plastic chrome plated polyester) lockingstrip
with you forced into the groove as
you spread the molding apart. This had the
advantage of being self‑trimming, no separate
molding, with the requisite clips, were
needed. The disadvantage, however, was
the less‑than‑stellar durability of the chrome
“plating.” It only took a few years before you
had a whitish strip of plastic visible.
To swap to the ’68‑up design, you’d need
the ’68 weatherstrip, a full set of moldings,
the molding clips, and a set of the special
self‑sealing molding screws (which you’d
need to drill for.)
On of the tings I’ve always wanted to
try on these cars—just an idea, not realized
to this date—is to widen the fence (the
pinch weld area that the weatherstrip slides
onto (and possibly add a welded strip of
steel to create a fence at the bottom), all so
that the glass, with some of that “new car”
wrap‑around black semi‑universal weatherstrip
on it, could be simply cemented in
(urethane) for a properly‑retained (safety)
and leak‑free installation. I have not totally
scienced this out yet, and, no, it wouldn’t
really qualify as a restoration. Neither would
using the ’68‑up stuff on a ’67.