Triumph Repair: Spitfire door waist seals, screw driver, vice grips

Question
I have restored a 79 Spitfire for my daughter. I am a Porsche technician by trade. All has been simple and straight forward but the door waist seals. I saw an article for an earlier model on a Spitfire site but there is just not enough room to do that right with the glass installed. I know someone knows how to do this somewhere, but I have not figured out any trick yet. Thanks for any suggestions you have.

Answer
Hi Sean,
It can be done with the glass in place by removing the inner door panels and role the window all the way down and use either a screw driver or similar tool to knock the clips downward off of the inner and outer waist seals next to the top of the glass. It would be wise to bend a long piece of cardboard over the top of the glass to protect it and use the screwdriver to force each clip downward off of the waist seals. Then collect the clips from the bottom of the door.

You would need to fabricate a tool to put the clips back on as you have no access from below. A piece of strap metal bent in a "U" shape to hold the clip and pry the glass over to one side and insert the clip on the bottom of the new seal and pull up to install the clip. A pair of vice grips on the strap metal will be needed to be able to pull hard enough to get the clip in place.

This is not an easy task so since this is your first, it may be easier to just remove the door glass to do the job. Then try the short cut on the second door so You will know how to place the clips.
Howard