:: Diary - December 2004 ::

:: Saturday, December 3, 2004 ::

The weather has continued to demonstrate the folly of owning a sports car in the winter. There has barely been a day without rain. The non-rainy days are generally frosty (and therefore salty). There have been a few non-rainy non-salty days, but I have been at work at those times. As a result, the car has barely been used, and also I've hardly had a chance to fix or sort any of the things I want to do.

Most important of these is that the passenger side carpet is soaking - also the well behind the drivers seat. I don't know where the water is getting in but I suspect the roof needs re-proofing. You can only re-proof the roof when it's dry. Catch 22.

I order a waterproof roof cover - this should improve the waterproofing, without the hassle I had before with the full car cover.

I also decide to buy a dehumidifier and park it in the car for a couple of hours to sook all the water up. Got to be worth a try eh?

I will also use it to dry out the boot which is still leaking too.

:: Wednesday December 22, 2004 ::

Right.

Finally diagnosed that the water in the boot is getting through at the extreme right hand edge. I notice that the gap in the boot seal rubber is centre rear, at the lowest point if the car is pointing uphill (as it does on my drive). The carpet on the side of the boot, underneath the seal, is soaking. I take off the boot seal, and turn it around so that the gap is at the front. We'll see how it goes.

:: Friday December 24, 2004 ::

Stuck the dehumidifier inside the car - it's a bit bigger than I thought - it ony just fits on the parcel shelf with the roof up. No point putting the roof down because then I would be trying to dehumidify most of the air of Scotland and that's just not going to happen. After 10 hours the inside of the car feels almost dry.

:: Saturday December 25, 2004 ::

Cleared all the rubbish out of the boot and put the dehumidifir in there for a day. After about 8 hours, the surfaces are dry but the carpets are still soaking. I lift all the carpets and leave it overnight to dry out a bit more.

:: Sunday December 26, 2004 ::

Santa's been! (Well he was actually here yesterday but I forgot to mention it).

He brought a nice hood cover which I decide to try out because it's threatening snow. First I have to dry and defrost the roof panels - a 2 hour blatt takes care of that - clear skies, sub-zero temperatures and nearly-empty roads combine to enhance the hooning experience, tempered only by the presence of patches of frost and ice on the roads.

By the time I get home, it's dark. I put the hood cover on but can't show you a photo forcos it was dark, see? It is good fit though so I'm happy. Thank you Santa, I'll be a good boy till next year.

Mebbe...

:: Monday December 27, 2004 ::

Right, about this water leaking into the boot...

The water is getting in at the right hand edge, so I lift all the carpets and have a damn good look. There is no sign of a gap, but the carpet underneath the boot lock feels damp - might be soaking down from above or condensing up from below though. There are 6 ways for water to get in:

1. over the top of the seal. The water would have to be pretty deep in the channel to be able to do that. Seeing as how I have cleared the drainage holes, that's not very likely...

2. Up between the seal and the body (ie inside the seal) - apparently (I read later) this is not uncommon, especially at the corners where the seal doesn't sit well. This can be cured with a bead of sealant around inside the rubber seal. Worth a try.

3. From the bottom, around where the drain hose goes out. I can see that mine has a space. This wouldn't explain why the boot leaks when the car is standing still, but can be filled with sealant - again, not difficult.

4. From the drain hose where it pushes on at the top. Not likely but can be fixed with a small hose clip.

5. From around the rear light fitting - a real bastard to diagnose but again fixable with sealer...

6. (This is a good one, when it dawns on you) From around the hinge bolt - the hinge bolt came loose a couple of months ago and I just tightened it up - but it bolts into the side of the drain channel so if it's broken the seal, water will move along the bolt by capillary action, and drip into the boot. Again, the cure is - silicone sealer!

The only other possibility is that it's soaking through the bodywork itself - and that's not likely at all. With this in mind I undertake the first repair step - I go and buy black silicone sealer which is the cure for 5 of the above six possibilities!

All I need now is a dry day to apply it on.

:: Thursday December 30, 2004 ::

Spent several hours at the boot leak problem today. Let us consider again the 6 possibilities from yesterday:

1. over the top of the seal. No evidence of water leaking over the top of the seal.

2. Up between the seal and the body. Again, no evidence of this. Nevertheless, I remove the seal, run a bead of black sealer round, and push the seal back on.

3. From the bottom, around where the drain hose goes out. Filled with sealant.

4. From the drain hose where it pushes on at the top. Ahem. I'll come back to that.

5. From around the rear light fitting - Nope that's as dry as Crocodile Dundee's throat after a fortnight without Fosters.

6. From around the hinge bolt - Nope, also bone dry.

I thought that was all of the possibilities covered. No, there are another two.

This is a photo of the boot channel. At the back corner, you can see the drain hole, which is connected to a hose down to the wheelarch. You can also see the boot lock mechanism, which is held in with the two bolts through the bottom of the channel.

First, I find that the outside of the hose is wet, so it must be leaking (like what I said in Point 4 on Monday). I pull off the hose and check that it's clear. Put it back and put a clip on it.

While doing that I find that there's water dripping off one of the bolts that holds the boot lock on. They are rusted solid and there's more chance that I'll pull the fibreglass apart than actually loosen the nut underneath. For the moment, I put some black sealer around the bolt heads. Sorted.

I also notice a few drops of water under the left-hand rear edge. Relatively easy to diagnose: the bottom of the aerial is wet so it's obviously leaking around its edge. I remove the aerial, and apply some black sealer around it and stick it back on. Unfortunately I can't then find the long screw that goes through the centre of the aerial to hold it on. It's now dark so after scouring the drive by torchlight for sodding ages, I give up. Early trip to Halfords for a screw the right size, then!

:: Friday December 31, 2004 ::

Went back to check the boot seal. No water on the boot lock, but the drain hose is soaking again. Puzzled.

As I wiggle the hose, I notice tiny water bubbles around the edge of the outside of the drain hole. The hose fixes to a short length of copper pipe, which is embedded into the fibreglass. The pipe has come loose in the body.

By standing on my head inside the boot I find that the copper pipe is held in place with what looks like plaster. After chipping and scraping it off with pliers, I realise that it's been repaired with window putty which has set like concrete..

Here you can see the copper pipe and the hole it fits into. After digging around, I decide to fix it back in place with superglue around its edge. Once the superglue has set, I'll paint over the join to provide a final seal. I press the pipe in place for 10 minutes, until the glue dries, and then wait another hour and reconnect the hose. Seems solid enough! I'll paint it when the glue has fully dried, in case any vapours affect the paint.

That leaves the aerial. Another driveway search for the missing screw. Nope. Sod it.

I start to clear away my stuff to go to the shop to get another screw, and there it is, stuck to the point of my magnetic screwdriver. It was there all the time. What a plonker. I put the aerial back together in about 5 minutes.

I also think about fixing the dashboard bulbs, particularly the speedo because I can't see the numbers at night. This picture is taken from the position of the accelerator pedal, and shows the bottom of the dash, with the steering column going off to the right. The white arrow points at the rev counter. The speedo is just to the right of that - readily accessible as you can see.

This picture is taken from the position of the clutch pedal, and the speedo is just behind the corrugated black heater hose. In the absence of a double-jointed gerbil with a City and Guilds and a socket set, I decide to defer repair of this relatively minor fault until later, when I intend to replace the steering column bulkhead bearing (between the brake and clutch pedals) which will involve removing the steering column which will also enhance access to the back of the instruments.

While I've got the camera out, here's a pic of the hood cover I fitted on Monday. Ta Santa!