water dismay

[richgilb]

I have just had new carpets and insulator put in. I went to pick the car up and therefore it pissed it down on the way back and now I have water in my footwell carpets. I don't even know where to start looking and don't want to drive it until I have found out where it is coming from. An ideas? Sorry it is a dumb question because there are plenty of places I guess. What I am confident about is that there are no cracks or holes in the floor, other than that, I have no idea

[JJDraper]

A recurring +2 theme! Wiring, cables etc going through the bulkhead is a favourite way for water to get in. Closely followed by door seals, windscreen seals and via the pedal box to bulkhead joint. Be liberal with the silicone sealant.

One method for finding the leaks is to get in the car, with the door shut whilst someone squirts a hose at the car. See where the water comes in - at least the water will be clean.. Put newspaper down to see where the drops come in.

Before the rebuild mine was quite water tight, so I am dreading the first downpour. Perhaps I will preempt the leaks by trying the method described above myself!

Jeremy

[gerrym]

Rich, a couple of thoughts:-

1/ Is the water entering via the missing? door seals that attach to body above forward cutouts.

2/ Windscreen well sealed?

3/ Trickle a hose (don't squirt) over the scuttle panel. You will need to have the seats removed and the dash pulled back to see what's happening.There's lot of penetrations that will leak if you squirt the water (such as where the bonnet pull cables go through).

4/ Suggest on a dark night get a strong torch on engine side held by assistant on from the inside of the body, look for light coming through

5/ Silicon in my opinion belongs in the bathroom as it will eventually crack and doesn't stick too well to the materials you are sealing: on a car use something like U-pol Tigerseal (bodyshop polyurethane sealant that can be over-painted) or Dum Dum if it must remain flexible.

6/ Is the drain for the heater plenum clear.

7/ Put the rear wheels of the car on blocks (say 5" or so) to get the car on a slight angle so that water running down the bulkhead remains at the front of the footwells. Then lift the front slightly when checking the seals around rear screen etc

Regards

[richgilb]

Thanks for that, plenty to check there then.

Rich

[RichC]

just to make it clear , i think Gerry's idea to use Tigerseal is the best but recommend you put this on the lip before you push doorseals home.
I found that the water was running down the "A" posts and then UNDERNEATH the doorseals , rather than between the doorseals and the closed doors which were sealing OK.
I faffed around a lot trying to build a replacement secondary seal which was missing from top front of door aperture (below windscreen corner) which helped intially but wasn't pretty or longlasting , before I discovered the real problem.
Seems the Tigerseal has worked !
RichC

[kstrutt11]

mine leaked around the screen, whoever had fitted it had not bonded the plastic trim to the glass first, thay appear to has stretched it around the screen then bonded the whole lot in.
Squeezing silocone between the trim and glass all the way around worked fine.