I don't know if anybody's interested, but I have finally achieved
what once seemed impossible: a weatherproof TR2. This weekend, it
was rained on energetically; and I just glanced in, and the car is
bone dry inside. That's without even a car cover! How did I accomplish
this feat? Funny you should ask....
( Hope there's no originality freaks out there )
The problem is that Triumph did not design any serious weatherproofing
into the front of the TR[2,3] door. There's a seal at the top, and
one at the bottom, but nothing along the vertical surface. Yes,
there's that stupid ``furflex'' stuff on the inside, but it doesn't
seal anything. Compounding the problem, the juncture of door &
front fender is styled & designed to gather water!
I can't even count how many times I've come out after a rainstorm
to find the TR's floor swimming in water. The driver's-side seat pan
is rusted out :-(. Anybody got a spare TR[2,3] seat pan in usable
shape?
I approched the car with
* some paper towels
* A jar of Vaseline
* a can of lacquer thinner
* a caulking gun loaded with pure Silicone Caulk
I cleaned off the door post with the lacquer thinner & paper towls.
Then I lathered the matching door surface with the Vaseline. Then layed
a generous bead of silicone caulk up the door post, and....
Closed the door.
Whee! Instant door seal. The silicone stuck to the door post, but didn't
stick to the door, courtesy of the Vaseline. One application wasn't enough;
I had to come back a week later, clean the vaseline off the silicone, refresh
it on the door, squirt on some more silicone. All in all, it took almost one
tube of caulk for each door.
The silicone followed every contour of the hinges & hardware in there.
Yes, it's ugly as sin. But I can now fix up the interior without worrying
about it being Deluged. I used black silicone, as that's the traditional
color for door seals :-).
- Jerry
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