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Old Mar 12, 2006 | 12:07 AM
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Default Wet Carpet

I just discovered that my carpet in the front is very wet on both sides.We`ve had some rain here in Cali lately and my car isnt sitting in it but I do drive it in the rain occasionally.
I have those carpet covers from Ecklers along with new floor mats and they are bone dry on the top.The water is coming in from underneath.The original carpet is pretty chewed up and in need of replacement.
Is this a sure sign of rust from the floor? If not where is the water coming from? My T`Tops dont leak and my car has pretty tight weatherstripping.No water appears to be coming in from anywhere visable to me.
Any experiance or ideas would be appreciated.
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Old Mar 12, 2006 | 12:14 AM
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You didn't say what year you had, so I can't be too specific. Typically, the floors are made of fiberglass, so they won't rust, but they can break or crack. It's easy enough to get under the car and look.

If you are sure that your t-tops aren't leaking, then I would suspect that either your windshield is leaking (which you would probably notice), or the side vents down by your feet are leaking.

If it was just the passenger side wet, I would suggest that it was the heater core. If that is the case, you can usually smell the anti-freeze.
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Old Mar 12, 2006 | 12:18 AM
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Thanks for the quick reply.Its an `80 Vette.No antifreeze smell.I do plan to get underneath but weve had so much rain I havent had a chance to yet.
The interior is totally dry except under the mats and carpet cover on both sides.
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Old Mar 12, 2006 | 12:08 PM
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Could there be something going on in the wiper compartment area. A friends car was leaking in much the same way as yours and he found the caulking had perished and water was leaking in there. Hop in the car and have a friend spray a hose similating rain on the car and check it out for leaks.
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Old Mar 12, 2006 | 12:15 PM
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Underneath the car on both sides there should be a drainage plug, if not that is definitely a way your carpets can get wet from underneath. Ecklers has them, and they're cheap.

http://www.ecklers.com/product.asp?p...dept%5Fid=1627

I was missing one, and caused te same problem for me.

Chad
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Old Mar 12, 2006 | 02:10 PM
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Originally Posted by Chris Farrer
Could there be something going on in the wiper compartment area. A friends car was leaking in much the same way as yours and he found the caulking had perished and water was leaking in there. Hop in the car and have a friend spray a hose similating rain on the car and check it out for leaks.

Mine has that problem. Bubba tried to fix it with roofing tar. Needless to say.................
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Old Mar 12, 2006 | 02:31 PM
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Originally Posted by Bill Baird
Typically, the floors are made of fiberglass, so they won't rust, but they can break or crack.
IIRC 75 was the last year for fiberglas floorboards. Only using them for half of the production run hardly makes them "typical."
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Old Mar 12, 2006 | 02:46 PM
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There are holes in the floor of my 73. They look like drainage holes. I glassed them in.
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Old Mar 12, 2006 | 03:38 PM
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Originally Posted by Offbeat Octane
Underneath the car on both sides there should be a drainage plug, if not that is definitely a way your carpets can get wet from underneath. Ecklers has them, and they're cheap.

http://www.ecklers.com/product.asp?p...dept%5Fid=1627

I was missing one, and caused te same problem for me.

Chad
Thanks...I hope this is the problem.Can I see these holes from underneath when I crawl under?
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Old Mar 12, 2006 | 05:02 PM
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Originally Posted by I'm Batman
IIRC 75 was the last year for fiberglas floorboards. Only using them for half of the production run hardly makes them "typical."
I knew that 1976 and later had more steel underneath, but I thought that it was more reinforcment of the existing fiberglass. Were the footwells actually steel on those later models? I had an early '75, but I've worked on friends' '76, '79, and '80 models, and never noticed the footwells being different underneath, but then again, that's not why I was under the cars.

I don't necessarily want to hijack the thread, so feel free to PM me an answer.
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Old Mar 12, 2006 | 07:17 PM
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The floorboards are metal on 76-82 cars...and are an annoying rust location. It was done because of the catalytic converters. The archives have plenty of threads dealing with rust repair on them.
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Old Mar 12, 2006 | 10:37 PM
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Originally Posted by I'm Batman
The floorboards are metal on 76-82 cars...and are an annoying rust location. It was done because of the catalytic converters. The archives have plenty of threads dealing with rust repair on them.
Interesting, I never realized that the floorboards on the later C3's were metal like that.

By the way, I believe that starting in '76, they started running the engines hotter, so they put the metal there to keep the engine heat out of the cockpit. Only the passenger side would have needed the extra "protection" if it was done for the cats.
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Old Mar 12, 2006 | 10:56 PM
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I noticed a bit of wet carpet after a good hard rain. When I removed my dash panels was god time to look. Take a good bright light, stuff it up under the dash and turn the lights out, the obvious leaks will show through,hope that helps,,,,,Terry
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Old Mar 12, 2006 | 11:33 PM
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common problem if the door panels do not have the plastic barrier that came stock on them,looks like visqueen with white gummy stuf holding it in place. water runs down the inside of the door and out through the forward large hole and onto the sill then into the carpet.The plastic stops just enough so that it can flow thru to the drain hole at the rear of the door ,also check that this drain is not clogged with any thing like pine needles etc. good luck
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