late 1954 and 1955 3 piece door weatherstrip
It has come to my attention that some judges and restorers are not up to speed on how the door weather stripping was installed in late 54 and in 55. So here is the explanation:
If you have ever tried to install the door weather stripping on a 53-55 as one long piece you know how difficult that is. At the factory they struggled with this and some time in 54 changed to install it in 3 pieces rather than one long piece. The NCRS 53-55 TIMJG discusses this.
A straight piece was glued in across the bottom before the door was hung. Some times it was long enough to go around the bottom curved corners of the door. It was much easier to glue this on before the door was installed as gravity was not trying to pull it back off. The car was then painted and that piece got body color paint on it to at least some extent. Then after paint front and back of door pieces, mostly vertical, were glued in to connect with the horizontal piece installed previously.
See photo from unrestored 54 vin number 4273 with only 3080 miles on it as an example.
If you have ever tried to install the door weather stripping on a 53-55 as one long piece you know how difficult that is. At the factory they struggled with this and some time in 54 changed to install it in 3 pieces rather than one long piece. The NCRS 53-55 TIMJG discusses this.
A straight piece was glued in across the bottom before the door was hung. Some times it was long enough to go around the bottom curved corners of the door. It was much easier to glue this on before the door was installed as gravity was not trying to pull it back off. The car was then painted and that piece got body color paint on it to at least some extent. Then after paint front and back of door pieces, mostly vertical, were glued in to connect with the horizontal piece installed previously.
See photo from unrestored 54 vin number 4273 with only 3080 miles on it as an example.