Nice to see your enthusiasm for the jobs. I have a 03 TF, been lucky mine has never leaked. They are great cars, had lots of fun, toured Scotland and been on many club rally's, best value sports car I think.
Great video. Strongly recommend you replace the plugs and don't leave open - you will have water ingress every time you drive in the rain otherwise. TFs almost always leak at the "cheater", that black triangular shaped plastic panel where the side mirrors are attached. They can be adjusted to stop leaks, as can the windows themselves. The rubber window seal on the soft top (and indeed the hard top) is another culprit - make sure the channels aren't blocked up and there is a good seal.
Another fun time! It's great being along for the ride watching video (is that a new camera?) of work fixing up old cars. May I suggest that you replace the rusty body plugs with rubber (vinyl?) equivalents? They seal well and last forever. Also, as bold as this may sound, the car looked much improved without the red roll hoops.
Hi Craig, very possibly the snorkel gasket .. under the bonnet ... remove clean any debris and a good bead of silicon sealant, great video enjoying the work.
Also that little white box under the t-bar is the alarm volumetric sensor. And you have the wiring plug there for a t-bar speaker box at the rear. Also if you’re not a fan of the roll hoops I would ditch them they looked a right faff to get off 🤣
Your seal under the heater snorkel needs replacing. Also the water runs front to back so you can get it pooling at the back. But the amount you had is probably from the soft top rear window not being correctly sealed when being put up and down. You’ll see it has channels that need to lock in place either side of the velcro strips. Watched your video last night and saw all the same issues I had. If you get in the car with the soft top up while it’s raining with everything out you’ll see where all the water gets in. Also you can get a leak from the heater matrix at the front, you can tell if you have that too by checking if your carpet foam is pink underneath.
Great series of videos, thank you for taking the time and trouble. My 53 plate TF also had a soggy passenger footwell. Sealant around the base of the heater snorkel solved it. Good luck and keep up the good work
I treated my TT soft top with a water proofing spray from a shoe shop . On the tin it said it was good for boots and tents etc. Since I did it I’ve no condensation forming inside and the car is dry and no mold forming on the belts seats and steering wheel. Also smells good 😊
...I have some soft top stuff coming up in the channel, I'll be sealing with fabrisil or what ever it's called. I hope I works and we get some dryer weather at some point. 👍
Hi Greg when you start to referbish your alcatara seat and panels try using a light sand paper it gets ride of the bobbles and so long as you don't press on to hard they come up like new .Talk about old dog new tricks.when I did mine I could not believe the difference it made good luck and happy sanding by the way hand sand don't use a machine sander.😅
If the hardtop isn’t properly adjusted to the car, it will leak; likewise the soft top when you get round to changing it. You often also see gaps at the top of the windows. As others have said, check the Snorkel; not all TF’s have it.
I wonder if those bigger holes are the same as the big plastic grommets in MGBs. The smaller ones should be easy to plug with some blind grommets, but do make sure you close them otherwise you will loads of spray water up through them from the road wheels.
In my case the culprit was the "gasket" for the blower snorkel, that thing was soaked xD I replaced it with a rubber one and haven't had any big leaks since then
You can get a smoke bomb thing to set off in the car then you can see where the leaks are as the smoke leaks out. I don’t know what the real name for them is.
Nice to see your enthusiasm for the jobs. I have a 03 TF, been lucky mine has never leaked. They are great cars, had lots of fun, toured Scotland and been on many club rally's, best value sports car I think.
That's a Steve palmer hardtop... Rare item.
Video TOP
Cheers
You'll never be short of content with an MGR vehicle....
I think Rimmer Bros still do the stealing washers.
Great videos, keep up the good work.
Great video. Strongly recommend you replace the plugs and don't leave open - you will have water ingress every time you drive in the rain otherwise. TFs almost always leak at the "cheater", that black triangular shaped plastic panel where the side mirrors are attached. They can be adjusted to stop leaks, as can the windows themselves. The rubber window seal on the soft top (and indeed the hard top) is another culprit - make sure the channels aren't blocked up and there is a good seal.
Great video, thanks for taking the time to film them. Inspiring me to work on my car
Another fun time! It's great being along for the ride watching video (is that a new camera?) of work fixing up old cars. May I suggest that you replace the rusty body plugs with rubber (vinyl?) equivalents? They seal well and last forever. Also, as bold as this may sound, the car looked much improved without the red roll hoops.
Hi Craig, very possibly the snorkel gasket .. under the bonnet ... remove clean any debris and a good bead of silicon sealant, great video enjoying the work.
Thanks for the tip!
Also that little white box under the t-bar is the alarm volumetric sensor. And you have the wiring plug there for a t-bar speaker box at the rear. Also if you’re not a fan of the roll hoops I would ditch them they looked a right faff to get off 🤣
Your seal under the heater snorkel needs replacing. Also the water runs front to back so you can get it pooling at the back. But the amount you had is probably from the soft top rear window not being correctly sealed when being put up and down. You’ll see it has channels that need to lock in place either side of the velcro strips. Watched your video last night and saw all the same issues I had. If you get in the car with the soft top up while it’s raining with everything out you’ll see where all the water gets in. Also you can get a leak from the heater matrix at the front, you can tell if you have that too by checking if your carpet foam is pink underneath.
Well done , I had to do the same when I got mine a few years back , it's worth the effort in the end 👍
Thanks 👍
Great series of videos, thank you for taking the time and trouble.
My 53 plate TF also had a soggy passenger footwell. Sealant around the base of the heater snorkel solved it.
Good luck and keep up the good work
I treated my TT soft top with a water proofing spray from a shoe shop . On the tin it said it was good for boots and tents etc. Since I did it I’ve no condensation forming inside and the car is dry and no mold forming on the belts seats and steering wheel. Also smells good 😊
...I have some soft top stuff coming up in the channel, I'll be sealing with fabrisil or what ever it's called. I hope I works and we get some dryer weather at some point. 👍
Hi Greg when you start to referbish your alcatara seat and panels try using a light sand paper it gets ride of the bobbles and so long as you don't press on to hard they come up like new .Talk about old dog new tricks.when I did mine I could not believe the difference it made good luck and happy sanding by the way hand sand don't use a machine sander.😅
Sounds like an plan..... I was going to use a jumper shaver but this might work better. 👍👍👍
Massive effort that was! It’s possible it could be cracked seam sealer from the upper part of the footwell letting in water slowly.
amazing how rusty your cars get in the UK, my car is a 96 and has no rust anywhere you can always undo bolts easily ..cheers
If the hardtop isn’t properly adjusted to the car, it will leak; likewise the soft top when you get round to changing it. You often also see gaps at the top of the windows. As others have said, check the Snorkel; not all TF’s have it.
I wonder if those bigger holes are the same as the big plastic grommets in MGBs. The smaller ones should be easy to plug with some blind grommets, but do make sure you close them otherwise you will loads of spray water up through them from the road wheels.
In my case the culprit was the "gasket" for the blower snorkel, that thing was soaked xD I replaced it with a rubber one and haven't had any big leaks since then
Also what's the seal like where your soft top clips to? Are those olugs not designed to be sacrificial to take the corrosion away from rest of car?
You can get a smoke bomb thing to set off in the car then you can see where the leaks are as the smoke leaks out. I don’t know what the real name for them is.
This sounds really interesting.... I'll have a look into that.
Check behind seat if thats wet its coming from up there too
Did you refurb your hard top pal? I'm trying to source seals for mine
I've not done that yet, hoping the seals are ok and it just needs adjusting. We'll see...
There's nothing like the smell of a 20 year old wet dank carpet! 🤮. Keep up the good work. A lot of sweat equity going into that car