Duster inside window cat whisker replacement

340fourspeedDuster · Dec 30, 2016

Ready to replace the inside felt known as cat whiskers. The original pieces have a full length steel u channel piece that hooks to the door top. The replacement parts do not have this u channel metal. How are you guys attaching the new cat whisker to the metal? Are the old ones being cut off and new ones glued on??

73hcode · Dec 30, 2016

Well on my dart sport I took the old ones off and drilled the door uppers for the new ones. They sent me some new screws for that I could be wrong though

Sedanman · Dec 30, 2016

There are slots that they pop into on the door. post a pic of yours

Dusterdenovo · Dec 30, 2016

I replaced mine last year. I attached the new ones with little screws, predrilling the plastic first. Getting the old ones off was a *****, until I fashioned a couple of little hooks out of coat hanger wire. I then used them to hook up

under the u channel on either side of the little barbs that bite into the plastic. By working the hooks under the u channel, they spread the channel open enough to ease the u channel off of the plastic door top trim. Had to take my time and work along the full length from one end to the other, but it worked great where cutting, bending and mangling had failed.

Dusterdenovo · Dec 30, 2016

Oh Yeah, I recall that I had to figure out exactly where to locate the screws (horizontally) so that they wouldn't interfere where they stick out the back of the plastic when hanging the trim back on the door. Not a problem, just a detail.

zkx14 · Dec 30, 2016

On my 75 the original outers screwed onto the metal door and so did the replacements. Mine were not top cat. They were slotted, and those did line up with the original holes. However, several of the original holes stripped out and I added screws at different spots. The u-channel sounds like my inners that originally clipped onto the plastic trim. Those were screw on replacements as well.

340fourspeedDuster · Jan 3, 2017

Guys, thanks for your info/help with these. I used an angle grinder with a metal cutoff blade to weaken the metal bracket. Ground with the side of the blade. See the area pointed to with the phillips screwdriver. Then used the liquid nails adhesive and a couple of screws like Dusterdenovo used to attach the new part. Grinding the U bracket weakened the part and made it very easy to pry with a flat blade screwdriver and remove the factory part. I was worried prying on the 40 year old plastic part. I then used the adhesive (as shown) with multiple clamps leaving it to cure for a day or so. I then drilled and added a screw at each end for support. See pics.