64vettegal

Took the vette out of the garage to do some cleaning and organizing. Left it outside overnight. We had a heck of rain. The next day I opened the door and there was 2 inches of water in the drivers side floor pan. I popped out the drain plug and out it poured. Put a blower in the car and dried the carpet.

Is this a common problem?

VettePower

You have drain plugs in your floor pans????

CCrane65

I've been caught in 2 rain storms in my 72 and did not get wet at all.

cc

64vettegal

Yep. My 64 had them so I figured the 77 would. I pulled back the carpet and there the were. Factory plugs still there.

I did notice the weather stripping around the drivers door is in very bad shape.

Sayfoo

My 69 vert definately did. After a new soft top and all new weather stripping, it definately leaked around the top to deck area, around the rear deck lid to body area, and around the top to window seals.
I don't know if it's the aftermarket weatherstripping or just the loose tolerances of the car.
Once you find out where it is leaking, you can build up the weather stripping to seal up the gaps. It took a little while, but I did manage to stop the majority of the leaking.

milo30

You have a coupe or vert? My coupe didn't leak unless the water was being blown hard and at an odd angle.

Glassbowtie77

Yep, My 77 has them also.

VettePower

Interesting to know. But not needed. I never take mine out of the garage unless there is 0% chance of rain!!

ACECO

Do all C3's leak water?

Maybe not all, but most I've seen do.

On my 75 most of the water seems to come in thru the windshield wiper valley area and down the inside of the firewall resulting in the puddles on the floor as you indicated. One of these years I want to address this, but for now like for many others, it just stays inside when it rains.

Good Luck!

70ZZ3 96LT4

my 70 has the drain plugs in the floor and also in the jack storage compartment. A quick look under the car will show the locations of the plugs. My 70 used to leak from the interior mirror and then some drippings off both of the lower portions of the dashes onto the floor mats. Found out in 86 that I had a windshield frame rusting problem when I had the the windshield replaced. The interior mirror leak was solved with a complete replacement of the top horizontal frame and two new upper corners. I fixed the other two leak spots as well with new parts from GM. Discovered that C3's have a design flaw. The fiberglass support for the rear of the front fiberglass just below the lower windshield corners, which is not easily seen is riveted to the steel lower windshield frame which extends below both lower corners of the windshield. The fiberglass support has a hollow area inside the support and fits over a hole that is made in the steel extended windshield frame. Even the new replacement steel from GM had the hole in the same place. On my new pieces I welded a steel cap on the hole. Water can run from the windshield and under the fiberglass fender support directly into the car. This was where the water originated from and was coming from my lower portion of my dash panel onto the floor mats. Not a lot of leakage, nothing to fill up the floor. My 70 did not have these leaks when I bought it new. Wish I could post pictures I took of the work involved. The lower windshield frame parts are not available from GM now and I don't know of anyone reproducing the lower metal pieces. The upper horizontal piece and both upper corners are available but not from GM.

I'm Batman

My 77 has them, too.

Typical, when all of the old weather seals are rotted and/or the windshield frame is rusted out. The seals rot fast, my 77's were trashed by 1991.

rclinton

I had that happen once on my 80. I found that the drain lines in the windshield wiper valley were plugged and water was building up and entering the cabin through the kickpannel area. cleaned out the drains and never got water back in.

enkeivette

baja216

Ganey

No.

a1sensei

Glass Act

No they don't, but if they do, something needs to be fixed.

a1sensei

But seriously:

With correct door/ window/ t-top adjustment (assuming the hardware to make adustments, move the window, latch the t-tops is is good shape) and good OEM type weatherstipping is used, the tops and door windows won't leak.

The windshield and rear window may leak around the edges as the gaskets get old, but if you fix it before too much rust develops and if you can find someone who is capable of relacing a C3 window (a bigger "if" than you may think), you can fix that.

In the cowl area (under the dash) there are a lot of holes and seams that were sealed with caulk over a quarter century ago. Do you think these might leak? Oh yea! Some of them you can just chase down and re-caulk, but some are in totally inaccesible places where the only solution is to literally disassemble the body (remove the doors, front fenders, etc.) and re-caulk as you put it back together.

Even brand new C3's sometimes leaked from the factory, so even if you do everything there is no garrantee you will be dry. I have chased this demon for years and have not given up yet, but it is easy to see why so many C3's are "clear day" cars. God bless, Sensei

Ironcross

If your a long time Vette owner you all ready know the answer. The only way they dont leak is to never take them out in the rain. All the windscreen does is keep the rain off your face.

This story is really not funny for the persons that was affected by this. But, years ago when 'Al first started making Vette interiors and carpeting he had problems. I dont know early on where he got the stuff but there was a lot of complaints about pant legs being colored from the dye bleeding out of the carpets he was making as a result of rain soaked floors.....

GrandSportC3

I've never owned a C3 coupe, just verts (5 of them) and ALL of them except for the 1980 Duntov Turbo Convertible leaked water into the interior.. I did change all the weatherstripping on all of them but didn't help.. I could never figure out where the water was coming from..
I would only get leaks in severe rain storms (and we get plenty of those in summer here in Florida). In normal to medium rain, there were no issues but as soon as i would get into a tropical dowpour, all the carpets, front and back would get soaked..