Any suggestions best way of getting this out and drying that car out? actually its not too bad given the volume of rain that we have been having here in los angeles.. torrential rain every hour of every day for last few days.. one more day to go... I have a small leak (unsuprisingly) in the seal between the convertible roof and front window and now have a puddle in the passenger foot well. I have mopped it up with a towel but wonder how I can dry out the carpet fully. I wont do this till the rain stops on wednesday though. I just am afraid of rust setting in, or do you think jsut a few days of wet wont really br a problem. I dont know if the carpet has a rubber or plastic underlay to prevent the water from soaking through to the metal. I thought of using a hairdryer maybe but worried that it might melt the carpet maybe...
It won't do no harm with the water sitting in it a few days. Once it's dry out I would scrap the carpet and get new stuff as the underlayment will hold moisture. It takes quite a few years for floors to get eaten up with rust. I would also put a towel along the top seal to trap the rain out until it stops.
hmm. dont know about scrapping the carpet.. its in perfect condition... almost new looking.. I shall have to see. hopefully the california sun will do its job later on and fully dry it all out.. just leave it outside with the top down on a summers day... yeah I got a towel in there... thanks anyway.. put my mind at rest a little
That jute padding will stay wet for weeks unless it gets some serious sun and air circulation. What a stink when it get that moldy smell, don't ask how I know. :spank:
im going through the same thing here in san diego. got a small leak and drips along the inside of the windshield down behind the dash and ends up on the drivers floor. once it stops raining, im going to pull the carpet and replace the padding. im thinking of spraying the floor with rust treatment while its all out to. last time i checked it wasnt bad at all but better safe then sorry. pete
Drying em out I'd pull that carpet out and flip it upside down on the asphalt, in the direct sun to dry out the underlayment. Also I'd look for signs the water was deep enough to spill under the seat and soak the rear carpet as well. Same treatment for that too. Sometimes I think if that is already wet what harm could it be to mix up some oxyclean and spread it on lightly with a damp cloth. Hopefully the sun on the oxyclean would bleach out any initial mold growing. And it will grow fast on those older carpets. JohnD
I've had good luck putting the top down and just letting the sun sit on it for awhile. a good noon day sun beating down does wonders to the front floor area. no musty smell either.
I had the same thing happen on my 98 Dakota. Turns out the third brake light seal dried up and let the water come in. I pulled the carpet, hosed it down and used TUFF STUFF cleaner. My carpet is rubber backed so I just removed the foam padding, rinsed it out, let it dry REAL god and used some spray adhesive to reattach the padding. No smell, no problems.
If you get any standing water, there is a plug in the floorboard you can remove to let the majority water out and to help keep it from building up. Depending on year and model, there can be plactic plugs down the sides of the trunk ,,,,,,, besides any on the trunk floor itself.
When I bought my car, I got caught in a torrential downpour....the drains in my quarter panel wells were totally clogged and put 3 inches of water in my floorboard. I ended up trashing the carpet....it was old though. So the beginning of the interior revamp started!:laugh:
I had to hose down the dash when it caught fire years ago. I ended up jacking the front of the car about 2-feet in the air so the water ran into the rear floors, then I siphoned it out with a heater hose. I used an electric space heater to dry the carpet in the car. It wasn't the best way to do it, but it worked.
wet vac out or use a hand held carpet extractor to remove the bulk of the moisture ... lock the car in a tight garage with a fan blowin (a fan can do some serious drying as you drink beer for the next 12 hours and take all the credit :laugh: )on the area that was wet and have a de-humidifier nearby pullin the mousture out of the air... has worked well for me in the past. one 4th of july i left my camaro's T-tops and hatch at home and went to a fireworks display ... got caught in the middle of a field in a rain/hailstorm ...tha car was soaked front to rear ... used the above method and got the car pretty dry after 2 days of 5 fans blowin on it. BTW.... i have a brand new set of METRO convertible top seals (including the header seal) for 1966-67 "A" body AND METRO windshield pillars seals. i would ship them all to your (wet?) doorstep for 140 bux... PM if you are want them ...
I've got this plastic container in the trunk that I've been emptying for the last few days, and a towel that needs a good twist every five hours. It just never stops raining.... I had to drive it today, and my silicone seal for the top isn't quite snug enough so it rains in the car when you're driving it. Alot of paper on top of the sun visors help, and then you have to wipe the back arm rests all the time, cause the windows aren't flush. Well well, it's only a few days per year here. I had the car with no top up for four months before it even saw a drop of rain.
hey KIMSON .... sometimes on a scissor top car when the header seal leaks, it is because some goof unlatched the header and then flipped the handles back into the "latched" position and tried to put the top down ... if they did ... (they may or may not have even snapped the handle clean off) .. you can tell by putting your top up and paying attention when latching it to the windshield to ...see if the latch handles are being shoved "up" a little as you latch ... ..if there is a gap between the latch handles and the little plastic "wedges" on the frame side rails ... the mounting tabs that the wedges are screwed to need to be bent back up to the correct height. the slight pressure that is supposed to be put on the handles helps the top frame put "down" pressure on the windshield header seal. another problem when getting wet while driving one of these cars can be the decorative seal in front of the header seal...you know the seal ...it matches the top material .... this seal needs to be installed so that a little more than half of it sets beneath the header when the top is latched ... it is the first defense againts rain the then the header seal has 2 ribs the provide the second and third defense against moisturegetting in the car. ALSO... if your side tension cables are not properly connected to the second bow ... as you drive, air pressure will build in the interior of your car (you have seen these cars truckin down the road with a ballooned top a million times) causing the top material to pull the header "rearward" effectively "lifting" the header seal from the windshield turning on the "B-body waterfall" :laugh: just in case you were wondering.
thanks for all the tips.. how hard is it to remove the carpet.. it just looks so good at the moment, i Know if I remove it and try to put it back it will go in looking like crap! yuk: thanks for the offer of the seals.. sounds good but to be honest this weather is just so freaky and is due to finish quite soon. The seals are really not bad at all apart from this little leak so I will probably leave it for the time being... I have put my car cover on as well so hopefully that should help a little, though its not entirely waterproof it shuold be better tha nothing. It only leaks when it stationary, when I am driving the water just gets blown off so its fine.. need to spend my money elsewhere at the moment.. most notably the brakes...
Removing carpets This is not too hard, and they should go back in fairly easy also, unless you have bucket seats with a console. If a bench seat, just remove the 5 or 6 screws holding down the aluminum door sills ( both sides), If you have a full size gas pedal as opposed to a floating one, chances are it is resting on two studs that are rounded at the top. It will pull off these studs with steady even pressure. The check up on the firewall inside. Some are just tucked under a thick rubber seal but there may be a plate on the firewall around the area of the pedals and steering column. I'd remove this plate as well. The it should just slip out from under the kick panels. Of course, you can pull them as well. It'll make installation easier after it's dry. BTW, Nice Skylark. Love the color. Can you post a few more pictures?
Jimmy, once you get it dried out and the claw marks buffed out of the hood park on the roof. Build a dog house up there too.
thanks again for all the super helpful info.. the guide to removing carpet is great. pretty much what I thought but still useful and reassurring. I just need time and sun.. well we are getting sun.. just need time now I got a whole bunch of girls that I just have to show the sites of LA to at the weekend.. its tough but someone has to do it So maybe the smelly old carpet will have to wait another week :grin: as for more pics.. here are a few... some in the mountains with my girlfriend.. at the beach (yes I know the roof isnt closed properly its just keeping the sun off!).. and at its spiritual home - the drive in! Hope you like the pics
