The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

We had a very strange experience here on Christmas day. It rained! Now for you Northern Hemisphere folk, who are all upside down to us normal folk on this part of the planet, rain on Christmas day is perhaps what you expect or as we are led to believe its that white fluffy stuff that falls on the ground and stays around for a while that you folk get. It has never rained here before on all the Christmas days which I can remember – and that numbers quite a few.

Well it rained here and it filled my boot with water. Water which I fortuitously found this week as I was fitting a drawbar to my Sprint. It had filled the area under the petrol tank and was lapping around under the spare wheel.

Don’t ask me why I am bothering to fit a drawbar, don’t ask me about the ability to put a 20 litre container of oil in the boot (or just about anything else) – just assume that the fitting of a drawbar is to stop those like to ‘park by ear’ from running into my nice chromed bumpers!

A search on this forum pulled up a very interesting series of postings on “Boot lid seals”

Sprint95m commented that there is an alternative to the possible problem I have and that is to fit some form of alternative boot seal which is available from Wins International.

Can anybody put up a cross sectional view of what this alternative looks like, or even better, can anybody provide me with a sample so I can see if we can source it locally up (down?!) here?

I can only assume that it is the boot seal which I fitted when I completed my restoration, a new one, is not up to the task for all the chromed fittings and other items which penetrate the boot area were installed with a bead of ‘Dum Dum” around them to make sure that each hole was sealed.

Robert

Do you still have the rubber blanking grommets in your boot floor? These go missing sometimes. Also the one under the fueltank.

Jeroen

soe8m wrote:Do you still have the rubber blanking grommets in your boot floor? These go missing sometimes. Also the one under the fueltank.

Jeroen

And if it's still there, take it out! This simple measure will ensure your boot never floods again! Works for me!

Steve

Because of the injection system and lack of bumpers on the Carledo, I have that many holes in the boot it more resembles "through flow ventilation" than a sealed compartment!

That will only work overhere. Robert is upside down...

Jeroen

Jeroen, I am not upside down! It's all of you who are the wrong way up - no I should say wrong way down! (Oh this English language is complicated)!

My boot seems have rubber grommets all over the boot floor and I have, as Steve suggested, removed the large one under the fuel tank. It dropped the best part of a milk bottle full of water down my sleeve as I attempted to pry it out of its hole. Sodding thing!

I need to stop the water getting in!

Robert

I'm using this type of seal. It seals ok and is pushed on the body edge and not in the bootlid. I thought mine was from an old alfa what we have on a big roll. The rubber lip what i use is a bit higher as in the picture.

Jeroen

Robert 352 wrote: It dropped the best part of a milk bottle full of water down my sleeve as I attempted to pry it out of its hole. Sodding thing!

Robert

Is that a UK pint bottle, a US quart, or some other sized milk bottle?

It's coming in around the rear lights, the gaskets around them have failed.

Take off lights, clean, then refit with a bead of silicone sealant around them.

Robert 352 wrote:Can anybody put up a cross sectional view of what this alternative looks like, or even better, can anybody provide me with a sample so I can see if we can source it locally up (down?!) here?

The alternative I used is the same as fitted to late (UK built) T2000/2500S.


I will endeavour to post a photo tomorrow.




Ian.

What Alan said...

remove rear lights and fit with new gaskets. Make sure the lights are on the right side.

Also look at the chrome trim finisher at the base of the D post....back edge of roof.

Jonners

hope this helps,


Ian.

The sharing of information in a very positive way has been amply demonstrated to me by the responses to my question about how to prevent the water getting into the boot.

Ian and Jeroen have both provided photos of alternative seals for the boot and I am sure I can find something available here locally.

Alan’s suggestion that the water is possibly coming in around the rear lights was not one I had considered previously, but makes a lot of sense since the water runs down the channels each side of the boot lid and passes over the lights before dropping to the ground. I did fit new gaskets when I refitted the lights with what was new rather ancient stock. I shall pull the lights out and if necessary fabricate and fit rubber gaskets, and seal as suggested.

Jonners suggestion to look at the chrome trim finisher – I shall check again. I had several new finishers sitting here but I think I refitted the originals since the chrome was still unmarked and the pins were still intact. I bedded the pins and the chrome fitting in Dum Dum so I doubt water would get in around the locating hole.

And when you look at the quantity of water which got in over a matter of a couple of hours it would have had to be a decent sized hole or gap. Hence I think it is perhaps a combination of the boot seal – although the boot carpet was still dry, or more likely it was coming in behind the rear lights.

Which brings me to TrustNo1’s question. The size of the milk bottle? This is neither the UK, nor the US nor France, countries which all seem to have quaint ways of measuring things. Here when I milk the cow I milk into a bucket and then decant some into a billy which then sits in the fridge and either the milk is drunk fresh or it is left to sit for a couple of days so that we can skim the cream off. (Need that cream for the porridge at breakfast time). The bottle I was thinking of – in terms of the water which splattered all over me would have been about the size of a glass preserving jar. Fetch one of those out of your pantry and you will know what size it was.

Sodden Robert

I think this factory footage of a 1500 shows (more than) adequately how much water is channelled over the rear lights, even when water from the roof finds it's way down the channel around the boot;
I replaced my boot seal with a traditional one from Rimmers,, this was because I was getting an annoying "click, tick, click" coming from the boot lid whilst the car was in motion as it clattered on it's catch. The boot now needs a firm push to shut it properly;



Watertight and no chattering.