Water in Passenger Footwell - still!

[Bumpa]

Another way that's less likely to cause marital strife is to draw chalk lines around the area. Again the tracking water will leave a break in the line.

[payload]

Cheers both, makes sense, very cunning!

Ian

[Richard the old one]

The problem I have found is that some times the talc only takes you part of the way and it can still be very difficult to find where the water is actually getting into the car.

[dollyman]

I have never had a problem Richard, but i admit to using rather a lot of talc. On the plus side it makes the car smell nice.

Tony.

[Bumpa]

The problem I have found is that some times the talc only takes you part of the way and it can still be very difficult to find where the water is actually getting into the car.

That's where I am right now. I used both chalk lines and talc and am still no closer to working out how the water enters the footwell. It doesn't come from higher up - of that I am convinced. I've taken off the heater blower today and stripped the sound material from the bulkhead, but still there is no clue as to where the water comes in. I do think the drains from the heater plenum are pathetic. I live in an area with trees and those silly slots get blocked all the time.

Incidentally the heater blower case had quite a lot of water in it, probably over enthusiastic use of the garden hose is to blame.

[Richard the old one]

I will provide an example. The following photo shows water in the boot of one of my cars and I was able to trace it back to the off side rear of the wheel arch using talc but I took me a long time to discover that most of it was getting into the car via the roof gutter seal having broken down which then allowed the water to dropped down the inside the D post onto the rear wheel arch and the rest was getting in via the fixings for the stainless steel trim below the rear light fitting and found its way across to the off side of the car and ran down out of sight, behind the side bulkhead. The second sketch is my attempt to show the routes.

I have produced an article of rain water leaks for a future edition of Dolly Mixture

[Bradman]

I had something similar on my Sprint Richard: for me it was a 5p sized hole underneath the D post vinyl, where the short chrome trim is fixed. The fixings and shell had reacted and vanished! See the square primer from a previous owners repair section in the image for where I mean - It didn't look bad until I pulled off both trim and vinyl Thankfully my 1850 had already had this fixed: I have satin paint in place of vinyl, and glued trim in place of the clips - and no desire to return it to original

[Richard the old one]

I agree the vinyl D post trim is more problem than it is worth and that sticking the D post stainless steel trim on is a better way to go but I have run some black silicon sealant along the top of the stainless steel trim to stop water getting behind it. By using black sealant it is almost impossible to see it. I will attach a photo.

[Bradman]

hmm... neat work! I may reconsider my stance when the time comes. My old vinyl is toast, including that on the roof, and most kits come with the D post covers I think...? I've much to do before then, including putting the body colour back to white. I don't need 2 yellow Dollys, although they look like a before and after as they are

[Bumpa]

Having removed the heater fan and the sound deadening from the bulkhead, I fixed a plastic "apron" over the area below the heater plenum water outlets sealed with duct tape. After a night of heavy rain not a drop has entered the car, proving my theory that somehow it creeps either round the gearbox cover seal or through a welded seam.

The thing is, what to do about it permanently. The plastic can't stay there as the exhaust will set fire to it! I've tried sealing all possible joints from below with underseal but haven't completely eliminated it yet. All suggestions gratefully received.

[dollyman]

If you are using underseal Mike, how about an aerosol of the stuff? It might just get into the leaking area... Stonechip tends to come out "runny" before it goes off but is still flexible.

Tony.

[RobSun]

I sold my 1300 recently and the new owner has more Triumphs and Standards than garage space so it spends some time outside. In my ownership and previous owners it always lived in a garage. He told me he found lots of water sloshing around in the passenger foot-well after it was out in the recent downpours. He investigated and found it was coming in through the welds where the wings join the shell. He looked at all the usual areas and found nothing, so removed the plastic liners in the wings and found no sealant to speak of (and surprisingly, or not, no paint and little primer from new under there but no rot just a little surface rust). He sealed it all up and that reduced the water intake by a great amount but it was still coming in. Now most of it was reduced he was able to trace the minor amount left to the windscreen seal. That was an easy fix and its now dry.

Before he did all this, and in fact before the water was found, he did something I would never have thought of as a normal thing he does to his Dolomites. He covers over the plenum tops with aluminium sheet he shapes and paints leaving slots for the water jets and for air to supply the heater. This he says cuts out the amount of water drastically that gets into them so that potential leaks caused by rusted out or blocked drains is reduced considerably. He did remove them to find the leak and was able to eliminate this area as the problem. But I thought what a good idea to pass on.

[Bumpa]

Thanks Rob. I haven't thought of looking behind the splash guards. I had them off a couple of years ago when I was repairing the front of the sill but never looked at the wing joint.

Yes, covering over the heater intake would cure the problem, but up here in Scotland I need the heater to demist the screen and to keep me warm!

[Carledo]

On the Dolomega, I'm going to cover the holes in the heater plenum with "grille mesh" that lets air in but stops leaves etc getting in.

Just have to work out a way of getting the mesh panels to stay in place but still be easy to remove in case of need. I always remember that the poor b**ger that has to work on it next will probably be ME!

Steve

[MIG Wielder]

Having removed the heater fan and the sound deadening from the bulkhead, I fixed a plastic "apron" over the area below the heater plenum water outlets sealed with duct tape. After a night of heavy rain not a drop has entered the car, proving my theory that somehow it creeps either round the gearbox cover seal or through a welded seam.

The thing is, what to do about it permanently. The plastic can't stay there as the exhaust will set fire to it! I've tried sealing all possible joints from below with underseal but haven't completely eliminated it yet. All suggestions gratefully received.

Hi Mike, Good test !
Now just as a suggestion can you try removing half of the tape. It is going to rain tomorrow so that will tell you whether its the left half or the right half where the water is getting in.
Tony.