Hi folks. Like nearly everyone else, my lower windshield molding had dried out and cracked. In some places it was lifted and I could break a piece off. I measured it found similar stripping on eBay. I could only find it from sellers in China and the first seller didn't deliver after a month and a half. Even though estimated tracking was weeks ago. I ordered from a competitor and got it in a little over a week. Much less expensive than OEM lower molding windshield trim for mini. It has 3M Adhesive but I didn't trust it especially since it was non-oem and I was afraid of leaking. I'm not sure if the molding is purely aesthetic or functional. So I got some weatherstrip gasket adhesive from an auto store. I put dots with white out so I could judge placement relative to the original molding and I cleaned the area thoroughly with soap and water and then 91% isopropyl alcohol. Afterward I put a bead of gasket adhesive on the top and flattened it with my finger, as you would apply caulking. When it's completely cured I'll remove the excess. Overall it looks a lot better than the original and I'm hoping it functions well. I purposely overlapped the cowl to avoid any leaks.


A close up of dry cracked original molding. I put whiteout marks where the molding location is and also where the side part tapers.



Edge's were tricky where the original molding tapered. However I did not want to piece it, so I did my best making a fold and then filled it in with more gasket adhesive. I later trimmed it so that it gave the appearance of being a tapered piece of rubber



Not too shabby! I will clean off extra gasket adhesive when I'm sure it's fully cured. Best of all I have enough weather strip to do it at least one more time. Very cost-effective.

 

Mine has also deteriorated to the point of needing replacement. Saved money, looks great and will probably outlast the OEM rubber strip. Looks great, mind sharing what weatherstripping you used?

 

Thanks so much. I hope it will last. I guess I'll find out soon enough. Here is a photo of the auction listing. I found the seller very communicative and amazingly quick with shipping from China. When I price the OEM lower molding I think it was well over $100. I think this was something like eight to $15 for 5 meters of stripping. There is also a seller of this on Amazon, but the comments and reviews stated that some items were never received. This seller seems pretty reputable and I may order some more
to keep on hand if I like the performance of this..