I was unable to move my car in the garage last night and my car got dumped on! Any way a couple of questions.

1. I know these things are about as water tight as a spaghetti strainer but where would I look for the source of my leak. Only the floorboards were wet nothing else?

2. After I removed the carpet there is a small hole in each floorboard. Should this have some sort of rubber seal in it and what is the hole there fore?

3. I have removed the carpet to let air dry is there anything else I should do?

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

the hole is to let the water out sorry for the pun but these cars have so many places to leak you could write a book about it

 

I can't figure out how a small hole in the floor would produce a leak while sitting still. The only thing I can think of is the birdcage may not be good. The leak could be coming down the windshield and somehow getting into the car at the side. Remove the side speaker panel on the side and see if it's wet in there.

 

those kick panels is where my vette always leaked from. after i cleaned the drains back there, and closed up the vents, it stays pretty dry in there now.

 

car is rust free and the bird cage is in great shape.

 

swtato,
If you're in a hot climate in Texas you might have the same problem we get here in the Caifornia desert. The black caulking in the windshield wiper bay gets dry and brittle, starts to look like melted candle wax and leaks like a sieve.
One of the members had a thread here a couple of weeks ago about re-doing this caulking and even posted pics of how good it turned out. I know mine's due for it too. Every time I wash the car water runs in on the driver's floor.
Greg

 

IT'S A C3 WHAT ELSE WOULD YOU EXPECT. I'VE HAD 5 SETS OF RUGS AND MANY SETS OF RUBBER SEALS AND YES I'M YELLING AFTER 37 YEARS

 

Geez Richard...don't sugar coat it for us.....why don't you just come right out and say what you mean!

 

I have the same problem, my air vents have rust holes in them, and thats the only place on my car that has rust, i had to take out the dash to find out, i put great stuff foam in there for now, but what i need to do is take out the windsheild and fix it.

 

We had the same here but it was in my driveway about as high as you can get and my cars behind it were fine. Plus if water got that high where my vette was I wolud of had about 6 inches in the house. I am baffeled how it got that wet but only in the floor pans?

 

I will check it out. Thanks

 

Is there anything I should do to the carpet to keep it from mildewing?

 

what i did is put towels under the carpet and under the heatsheild and rubber.

then took them out after a half an hour later, used a fan to dry a little better, then pulled up the carpet and let it air dry.

 

Do I need to use baking powder or some type of deoderant?

 

When I purchased my C3 (1968 coupe), I also had wet carpets. I believe the previous owner somehow left the T-Tops off accidently and did not know it. It may have rained (Rain in the Pacific NW, I can't believe it!). BTW, my car is very nice, so I don't think it was done intentionally. Anyways, here is what I did.

1. Carpets on the floor and seatbelts showed signs of mildew, I cleaned them them using a 50/50 mix of simple green and water to get the initial mildew off.

2. I removed the seats and found a LOT of mildew under them. I then lifted up the carpets and found that they were saturated with water in the seat wells, but nowhere else. I dried out the area with towels. I then sprayed they the carpets with the simple green mixture and cleaned the carpets and vacuumed them real well.

3. With the seats out, I took the time to clean and lube the tracks and give them a good "look over". Seats now slide back and forth like they should.

4. After an hour or so of soaking and cleaning the carpets and seat belts, I took a high powered hair dryer and started to dry the carpet. This took approximatly 45-60 minutes. A heat gun will do the same thing.

5. Reinstalled the seats and everything's good. I actually washed the car afterwards and could not see any evidence of water leakage to the carpets.

The car interior now smell nice too. No mildewey, or damp smell.

I hope this helps.

Tony

 

in my 78 behind the right kick panel there is a vaccum operated air/diverter door, this door was stuck in the open position and water would come in.

this could be your problem.

 

The above is why I asked you to check the kick panels for water that can come down from the windshield or the air door

 

Thanks for all the sugestions guys! I am going to go take a look this afternoon.

 

When I bought my car the carpets were wet, imagine that... I put it in the garage with the T Tops off. It dried out and no smell.