It was the late 1980s. I don't remember her name, but she was a waitress at the steak house in the mall where I was having
lunch in those days. But she had a soggy car situation.
A Wet Ride
|
"My car always has a lot of water in the floorboard whenever it rains," she told me. "What kind of car is it?"
"It's a 1977 VW Rabbit."
"Well," I told her, "I have a 1978 Rabbit that does the same thing. On my car, I just knocked a couple of holes in the floor
pan on the driver side to let the water out when it rains." (I wasn't joking).
"But you might be able to put some silicone sealer along the base of the windshield and slow it down."
I wasn't sure it would work on her car, because I had tried sealing mine that way and it still leaked like a sieve. But the
pretty young waitress used some aquarium sealer and told me her car had totally stopped leaking. She was really happy — and
lucky. The '78 Rabbit I was driving leaked until the day it died. It was a junky car anyway, a temporary ride.
It didn't take much of this nonsense to flood the passenger side rear floorboard. That was the lowest part of the pan, so
the water naturally collected back there. It happened every time there was a big rain.
|
My mother-in-law drove a 1987 Chrysler New Yorker that always puddled water on the driver side floorboard, and the dealership
had never been able to repair that problem even though she had repeatedly visited there complaining about it since the vehicle
was brand new. So she stopped complaining and kept a towel on the floorboard to soak up the water when it rained. She asked
me one day if I'd have a look, and not wanting to pass up a chance to impress my in-laws, I lay on the floorboard with a flashlight
and watched under the dash while she hosed the driver side of the car down. I saw water trickling in above the left kick panel,
and after removing the park brake assembly for access, I found that the breach was an improperly sealed body seam. I took
care of her problem with a strip of sealing putty I had in my truck. She was so ecstatic that she more or less gave me credit
for inventing the wheel.
And then what Ford guy is there who doesn't know about the windshield leaks that ruined so many electrical junction boxes
(fuse panels) on Expeditions and F-Series pickups in the late 1990s?
Water management is a wonderful thing that we take for granted until such a time as it doesn't work right.
Harness grommets can become unseated and give water a path. A wire harness with a tape breach in the upper side can carry
water to a place inside the car where the harness droops and drip water on the carpet. Then there are the convertible tops
and the roof opening panels that can leak if everything isn't just right. In the late 1980s, Ford had an entire VHS tape presentation
that dealt with fixing water leaks on Mustang convertibles.
Posted 2009-12-10 15:47:48.0
