# Reduce Wind Noise



## QDuck (Sep 14, 2019)

I have a 1966 Tempest hardtop coupe. The wind noise at highway speed is terrible. It is so loud that you can't hear the radio, carry on a conversation or hear anything that's might be going wrong with car.

The weather stripping is good; some is like new and it's sealed to the car good. When the door is closed an window up you cannot slide a piece of paper between glass and weather strip or door and weather strip. The door and glass when closed fits under the little flap on weather strip. In other words it appears to be sealing fine. The noise is definitely coming from the glass or vent area and not from the lower metal part of door itself.

Any ideas on how to reduce the noise? I will use the car a lot for traveling and a full day at highway speed will be unbearable!


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## ronayers1965 (Feb 14, 2019)

The wind noise is often coming from the vent window gasket. Make sure too that the window felt in the door is good and sealing to the glass, and make sure the windows are rolling up all the way to engage the seals But know that I have never owned a classic car that didn't have some amount of wind noise. These cars were just not designed or built that well to begin with, especially when it comes to wind and water sealing. It's frustrating to say the least but a part of the "charm" of owning an old car.


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## Lemans guy (Oct 14, 2014)

I never with the windows up!.....windows down music up in all weather!...

but seriously Ron is right, you can get the felt that replaces the old felt inside the vent windows and all windows for that matter. Changing the rubber seals is important as well, but the window felt is often overlooked. Lot’s of suppliers carry it

also the vent window locks are spring loaded and by now your striping loaded lock is shot, Ames sell a kit for it, freshens up the vent window lock, and with new felt and seals will be better.

don’t forget to just tighten up your door hinges, they sag and it costs nothing to tighten them up with a big Phillips screwdriver.

but it will never be like a new hermetically sealed, sound proof, climate controlled, fake exhaust sound pumping in, heated seats, video display, self parking foreign car........

it will just be that it is a little more fun,.....fix it some...

then embrace the sound of the sixties,.....oh and don’t forget the music!


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## ronayers1965 (Feb 14, 2019)

Keep in mind too that when these cars were designed and built the interstate freeway systems were still fairly new and cars did not travel at the sustained speeds we usually go today. I believe that the wind force moves the glass enough to break the seals, especially on a hardtop. Keep in mind that the glass is just attached at the lower channel so this acts as a pivot point. With your door open and windows up, you can probably move the glass side to side somewhat and I suspect that's what's happening at freeway speeds.
I think it would be smart of one of the replacement rubber companies to make seals that are slightly larger with more pliable rubber than the originals. Just take a look at the door seals on modern cars. Most of them are large, hollow and pliable, instead of the solid hard rubber of the original. As Lemans Guy pointed out too, if your rubber is old and hard, the likelihood of a good seal is diminished. So you can probably improve your situation, but most likely never really solve the problem as originally designed.


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