Replacing door waist seals

[ewenmacaulay]

Can anyone advise me on how to replace my 2002 XJR door waist seals and whether the old ones, which are corroding where the aluminium meets the rubber, could be refurbished?
thanks
Ewen

[PeterDavisX300]

Last year I replaced all of mine on my X300 with brand-new from JLR. I paid just about £550 for all four, very expensive but the old ones were beyond any type of repair. These are not a good item to try and repair, as soon as you remove them they tend to crumble.

The rear doors are very easy, just open the door, run the window down as far as it goes, and CAREFULLY prize the strip up from the door-skin. It's just clipped over the lip. Make sure the top of the door-skin is free of corrosion before you put the new waist-seal on. Be firm but gentle when mounting the new strip, don't be tempted to tap it with any implement, pushing down with your hand should do it, use a clean piece of cloth under your hand.

The front doors are a bit trickier. You'll need to take the door mirrors off. This means the top of the door-card inside will need to be removed, that is covered in here, can't remember where. Then you'll need to remove the small triangular cover on the inside of the mirror-mounting, be careful with this, the clips break easily. The mirror is held by a fairly big Torx screw, it may be in tight, and also with a thread-lock. The mirror-mounting on the outside is 'Cast-Aluminium' very easily damaged by a steel-threaded screw, so when putting it back in make sure it's on the right thread, and don't go over-board tightening it. Once the mirror is loose you can just prize the waist-seal away like the rear. Re-mounting is a bit trickier because you'll need to get the length front-to-rear correct. My new-ones were all very slightly different in length than my old, they were the right part-numbers, but I think Jaguar had different manufacturers making these items during the life of the cars. I had to send my near-side-front door one back because it wouldn't fit! They sent another one and it was perfect. The rear-off-side is the expensive one at just about £300. The two fronts were £65, the near-side-rear £135. This is just because Jaguar has got differing stock levels, if you can get them cheaper, go-for-it. Second-hand is a waste of time, I tried that road with the fronts, didn't work.

Hope that helps, remember my car is an X300.

Peter

[Andy P]

Hi Peter,
Thanks for the info on removing the waist seals,often wondered if there are any hidden clips or screws.
Very helpful,
Yes they are expensive but I'm keeping the car so just glad you can still get new ones if needed.

Thank you and good luck with your car Peter,
Andy

[ewenmacaulay]

Many thanks for the good advice Peter. JLR now have no stock of the parts and are offering newly made ones at £500+ EACH. I have managed to buy 2 used ones for the rear doors from ebay but the trim is rather scratched. That said, the rubber seal appears to be suffering no corrosion so now I need to keep looking for front door seals. It seems madness for JLR to offer to remanufacture such parts at prices which enthusiasts wouldn't pay!

[ewenmacaulay]

I should have added that mine are the rarer black finish ones

[RichardSEL]

Check out: ACF Howell, Croft Street, Walsall, WS2 8JR -- 01922 649992
After searching for months was shocked to find they had the formers to prepare me a set of Mk IX "waist" chromes.
And then they did a pair of gutter chromes for me

They may have XJ8 formers. Or would make up from the old example you send them

Let us know how you get on?