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Spyder Sealing The Most Common Leaks In Spyder Roof

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It may be true that all convertibles leak a little, under certain conditions, but after every time it rained, or we washed the car, we got tired of mopping up pools of water under soaked carpeting, propping up carpet, and blowing fans for a couple days to dry it back out, only to do it all over again next time it rained.

Since the interior was completely empty for installing sound insulation, one of us went inside the car, and the other sprayed water on the car with the nozzle on a fine spray, arching it up in the air to simulate falling rain.

Inside, the water began collecting in the usual spots: back passenger floor, trunk spare tire well, and front driver's floor, but the path the water took to get to those spots is what surprised us.

We have a new top that is two years old, so the rear window stitching was fine. No leaks into the roof "bag" behind the rear seat. If the window did leak, the water would collect in the bag and the path would be like this, running around each side, and into the filling seating area under the back seat:

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The only cure for leaking rear window stitching, unfortunately, is a new top.

But, there was a drip that came from nearby. It was dripping behind the roof bag. Part of the water ran to under the rear seat, and part of it ran down to the spare tire well, depending on what incline the car was parked on:

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It turns out, there is a body seam, visible under the trunk lid, and the body seam sealer was poorly applied, so that there were still gaps in the seam. Most of the seam sealer on the car is beginning to get brittle, so when that seam had once again dried out, we applied flexible gasket maker to the seam.

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Now, for the gusher. The rear passenger floor had been filling up with serious amounts of water since we owned the car. Despite triple checking window seals, trim seals, and top gaskets, the water still came. When the the test water landed on the car, I could hear something filling up, like a bucket, inside the rear seat outer body cavity. I could hear it getting more full, until suddenly, there was a rush of water from the seal between the floorboard and the rear floor sidewall. It came right out from under the body seam sealer, all the way across and in front of the sidewall. I pushed on the seam sealer, and realized it too was brittle, and it began to break apart when touched with a flat blade screwdriver. You can see in this photo, we had already started to apply seam sealer to part of the seam, only to have the next water test leak water on another part of the seam. We should have been more aggressive prying at all of the crusty seam sealer the first time.

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The seam sealer could be replaced, but why were we hearing water collect inside the outer body? We opened up the plastic barrier that is affixed to the sidewall, underneath the top motor, and we could see where the water was collecting. Apparently, there is something in the design of this unibody construction, there is a path between the outer body cavity, and an area right behind the rear floor board wall.

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Since the outer cavity is supposed to drain, I reached in to check for the drain, and felt inches of decomposed muck filling the bottom of the cavity. It was slightly draining outside the car, but extremely slowly. There was no way to get all of the muck out, given the tight fit of the panels. So, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em:

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After several minutes of blasting, all of the muck had washed down through the drain holes, and the water was draining outside the car very quickly.

So, we let these seams have a chance to dry, removed all of the old seam sealer, scoured away any surface rust, and primed the raw metal. Then the seams were smothered in new seam sealer, in case those body drains get plugged again before we're aware of it.

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Without a doubt, the frequent water collection was responsible for the weakened seat bolt mount that had rusted, and had to be rewelded shortly after it was discovered when we got the car. You can see the repair in this photo.

And finally, on to another irritating drip: the driver's window at various places along the leading edge. The gaskets are in good shape, and there was no obvious reason why water would be leaking here, and not on the opposite side of the car. So we studied the gaskets on both the passenger and driver's sides to compare. There was only one small difference, and it turned out to be the cause.

Notice how the passenger side still has this little tab on the front corner of the top header gasket (circled area):

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The driver's side header gasket had that tab missing one small piece, and it was enough to allow water to get on the top edge of the window, and run down under the entire leading edge gasket. The water would drip off anywhere it wanted to, getting the driver's floor, and sometimes the driver, wet.

Until we can get a replacement gasket, we used gasket maker to fill in this area on the driver's side (circled are in photo below). Gasket maker is more pliable than caulk. Note: This area does get pinched when the door closes with the window up, so it has to be repaired with something extremely strong.

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Hard to believe that some opening so small could let that much water in, but notice in the picture, the top edge "rails" end, right at the point of that tab, so extra water is directed toward it.

What are the results? Success! We hosed down the car two more times, and have been through four rains, and not a drop of water has leaked in. Just like before, we wouldn't take it through a car wash, but we're satisfied that we've inspected and accounted for key potential leak points.

Hopefully, this helps you find and eliminate your leaks.
 
Awesome post! Very well explained. And great pics. Helped me out ALOT. I live in Seattle and just bought a 98 spyder gs. So you can imagine how useful i found this. Thanks man:)
 
Glad it helped. It isn’t a complete listing of places where Spyders leak, but hopefully it gives convertible owners a head start on sourcing their leaks.

Several rain storms later, it’s still staying dry, but we’re always on the lookout for leaks.

It’s almost as important to know where it’s NOT leaking, LOL.
 
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