As those of you in the UK might have noticed by now, the weather is not what it
was... Now that autumn is well and truly here, Daffy is spending her days
waiting for me in the car park, being pounded with rain. My punishment for
subjecting her to this abuse is that, when I pull away after she's been
sitting for some time (even a spell at traffic lights will do this a bit), I
get a dump of water on my left leg.
Before I start crawling around trying to find out where it's getting in, is
there a common place where water can get into the cabin to do this to you?
The water appears to be falling from just about where the steering column goes
under the dashboard, just to the left of the steering column (i.e. towards the
centre of the car, Daffy being RHD).
When I had Sammy (Samantha the Purple Panther, a Black Tulip MG BGT), there was
a common problem with the heater box. For MGBs this was mounted in the engine
bay, and there was a drain pipe to allow rain water that had entered the
heater box to drain out. When this got blocked, the heater box filled up, and
then drained the water out of the footwell vent, straight onto your ankle, the
first time you took a corner. Solution - unblock the drain. I don't suppose
there is a remedy equally simple on a Spit? The water does not seem to be
coming from the heater box (it is my inside leg that is getting soggy - could
look embarrasing if anyone spotted it...), but maybe it has collected in the
tube to the windscreen vents, and is leaking from a hole in that? Or it is
coming in through the rust around the windscreen surround, and somehow flowing
round under the dashboard until it collects somewhere where it can fall on my
leg from? Any ideas?
I also get a leak between the windscreen top and the hood (soft-top to
Americans?), when driving at speed in hard rain. I know the solution to this
one - well, two solutions. First, don't drive at speed in the hard rain in a
22-year-old British convertible car. Second option, more practical, I may
have to admit the summer is over, and it's time to swap to the hard-top for
the next 6 months. Oh well, I guess this time comes round every year sooner
or later.
Oh, while I'm on the subject, one more damp weather anomoly. Daffy is the only
car I know that, when you turn on the de-mister, the first thing that happens
is that the windscreen mists up rapidly, so bad I can barely see where I am
going - then she starts to de-mist, rather more slowly. Is this a Spit
speciality that I should just accept, or is something wrong here that I should
sort?
Many thanks,
Richard (damp) and Daffy (damper)
P.S. I would appreciate it if replies could be sent directly to me, as well as
the list, as I subscribe to the digest but do not want to have to wait a day
to read any replies!
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