When it rains, it pours, and it somehow manages to all go down my left shoulder while driving.

I don't know what to make of my door weather stripping. It doesn't looks dry rotted, cracked, it's not even hardened. Now, that's up high, above my shoulder, down low is a different story. Down low I see where there is some eaten away rubber, I even see a random piece of rubber where it looks like someone tried to solve the problem the affordable way.

Anyways, I was browsing on zcarparts.com. The first question I have is; what's the best source for parts? I saw right away that zcarparts.com seems to have quite a bit of stuff available but when I looked at the door weatherstripping, it was $300 for one side and I thought it was a big pricey for just some rubber. Is that what I have to look forward to or is there another route you guys suggest?

 

Click: https://www.zdriver.com/forums/240z-...r-280zx-18264/

 

Yea, I saw that already but I asked for the best source. The list doesn't indicate direction. I was hoping someone already had experience with buying weatherstrip at a "fair" price. As mentioned above, zcarparts.com is selling it for $300, zcarsource.com is selling it for $650. Those two numbers aren't even comparable. The worst part about a list without direction is that multiple people will make the same mistake of buying the same lower quality item from the same retailer which allows that retailer to continue to make a profit and re-stock on the same lower quality item. You see, this happens to be my world. The quality of an item stocked by a retailer is not indicative of the quality of the retailer themselves because they are simply stocking the merchandise, not manufacturing it and each product is coming from a different manufacturer. In other words, who the weather stripping should be purchased from will probably be different than who the other products should be purchased from.

It's actually in our best interest to identify who's stocking what at each quality level. This forces the distributors to be more competitive in their pricing. $650 for weather stripping is a ridiculous price knowing that every bit of it was injection molded from materials costing less than a dollar. Obviously the molds are expensive but if they have enough volume then the price should come way down.

I'd like to make the recommendation to expand on the list of distributors with further information on people's personal experiences; what they purchased, who they purchased it from, and how well it has performed thus far.

Best regards,
jmw_man

 

No offense but a detailed list including what from where will not happen. The upkeep on that thread would not be worth it. Unless the keeper is retired and has nothing else to do.

 

I doubt if anyone other than Nissan makes weather striping for the S130... so your source is pretty much the OEM on this one....

 

If that's true, then it makes you wonder why two separate distributors are listing them as such extremely different prices; zcarsource.com $654.67, zcarparts.com $299.95, oh and I found datsunzparts.com $280.80. So far, these three are the only three I found out of that long list.

So, do we know who the OEM is?

 

I assume you are referring to these:

Datsun Nissan 280zx Door Glass Weatherstrip

Datsun Nissan 280zx Door Glass Weatherstrip

vs

Motorsport! Door Weatherstrip, On Body, Left, 80-83 280ZX Coupe with T-Top - The Z Store! Nissan-Datsun 240Z-260Z-280Z-280ZX-300ZX(Z31/Z32)-350Z-370Z Parts

Motorsport! Door Weatherstrip, On Body, Right, 80-83 280ZX Coupe with T-Top - The Z Store! Nissan-Datsun 240Z-260Z-280Z-280ZX-300ZX(Z31/Z32)-350Z-370Z Parts

Zcarsource claims new OEM. MSA (TheZStore) does not... so they could be refurbished or just yanked from a junked car.
You could always pick up the phone and call them.

 

I found this website: Nissan Parts | Online Nissan OEM Parts and Accessories and went back to the list and didn't find them. Has anybody bought from them before?

I found them on accident when I was trying to find a new carbon canister. The part number 14950 P8201 is on my carbon canister and when I googled it that site popped up saying that it was replaced by 14950 P9000. Even though it's $100, I'm thinking about buying it because there isn't a single junkyard in Dallas that has a Z car. I just want to make sure they are legit before putting my credit card number in.

 

Maybe you need just to adjust your window to make it more weather tight!!!