I bought a molded 1 piece full length front window guide felt from Rubber The Right Way. It is all rubber without any metal reinforcement on the bottom section (pic1). This piece attaches to the back edge of the frame for the vent window. The front driver side and passenger side windows ride up the felt channel.

The original window run channel has a metal reinforced strip with felt on the bottom portion of the channel (pic2).

The rubber molded guide I bought doesn’t seem to fit into the bottom metal / felt strip unless I remove it. Then it fits into the grooves that run down the full length of the run channel. Do I remove the pop rivets in the metal guide at the bottom and just use the rubber run channel? If so, does it have enough reinforcement?

Rubber The Right Way said to do this, but it doesn’t seem like that rubber strip would have enough reinforcement vs. the stock metal / felt part.



Molded rubber strap with no metal reinforcement, the same length as the frame for the vent window.



The vent window frame has a metal reinforced channel with felt liner at the bottom half. The metal reinforced channel looks like it’s held on with a couple pop rivets. If I remove the metal channel, the rubber molded strip I bought will run all the way down the frame without any metal reinforcement.

 

Anybody familiar with the window channel run I am asking about?

Has anybody used the all rubber one piece channel from Rubber The Right Way and removed the metal guide at the bottom of the vent window frame?

Thank you.