Leaking rear screen Gasket on Clipper cabriolet

hi all and thanks for looking ,

recently over the past few months ive noticed a lot of condensation on my 90 clipper cabrio and have so far sealed up a few areas at the bulkhead which were letting water in at the passenger footwell and have alsi cleared out the door drain holes and scrubbed the inside of the doors .however still car was steaming up then one day i noticed a drip of water on the bolts that hold the frame hinge to the glass seal and shazam i found the source of the leak its not a huge leak but enough to let water get inside between the seal and the glass on the inside .

so i peeled back the lower outer edge and noticed that there was about 4 inches of seal has perished fallen out or was bodged when they fitted the seal too the new roof just before i bought the car it had a new mohair outer about 6 years ago.

so without taking the whole window and gasket out ive got hold of a tube of proper windscreen rubber sealant ( NOT SILICONE ) so i plan to run as much of a bead as i can to the inside of the rubber seal from top to bottom on edges of where the glass goes into the seal and where the seal meets the roof frame  of course masking up the glass and roof material so i get no sealant on the bits i dont want sealant on  but what i would like to know has anyone done this sort of thing before  on either a golf or any car and did it work ? dont want to start having to down the expensive route of taking rear glass out and a new seal and frame if i can avoid it esp if a 8 quid tube of windscreen sealant does the job

any thoughts are appreciated  thanks

Stuart

 

What is the metal window frame like, any rust? My window used to leak there but it due to the frame rusting away I used a mirror to get a good look as I was finding bits of rust landing on my parcel shelf.

There is suppost to be a bead of windscreen sealer under the seal, there is a guide on fitting a new roof which shows you where to run the sealer as I had to do it when I replaced my roof and window frame.
As long as the seal and window frame are in good nick I hope this will solve your problem. If you do need to replace the seal its a straight forward job to remove the rear window and replace the seal with out the need to touch the roof as long as the staples holding the roof tight are still good.

Cabriolet Hood Replacement - The Mk1 Golf Owners Club

 

yea theres a few chucks of rust dropping off the bottom the the frame from the inside if you run a finger or KEY .DOH  so shall whip the window out peel back the rubber seal and hope the frame is saveable rust treat it paint put a good bead of seal to the frame then put the rubber gasket seal window over the frame using para cord to pull the gasket over the frame then once its all in place will go belt and braces and mask up out side and inside before running another thick bead of seal then press down to seat the seal to the mastic hope this sorts it other wise its a new frame and seal …just wish it was summer as always you need a dry day to do this ….

robtech said

yea theres a few chucks of rust dropping off the bottom the the frame from the inside if you run a finger or KEY .DOH  so shall whip the window out peel back the rubber seal and hope the frame is saveable rust treat it paint put a good bead of seal to the frame then put the rubber gasket seal window over the frame using para cord to pull the gasket over the frame then once its all in place will go belt and braces and mask up out side and inside before running another thick bead of seal then press down to seat the seal to the mastic hope this sorts it other wise its a new frame and seal …just wish it was summer as always you need a dry day to do this ….

How did you get on with this?
I need to replace the frame, but hood is in good condition so would prefer not to have to replace hood too.

Well i did the repair a while back and it worked great ,basically Mask off carefully with good masking tape the outside of the hood where the rubber seal meets the canvas or vinyl  roof .

you dont have to remove the window i did it with mine still fitted

then mask off the glass where the edge of the glass meets the seal .

bit fiddly but worth the time to mask off

ok now get some windscreen rubber sealant   i used this stuff but mind the bottle is for those LArge Caulk guns  but you can bodge this by cutting the extra bit off the bottle if it doesnt fit the gun ..you should use less than half the bottle .

rite start at the top of the rubber screen wedge the tip of the bottle into the rubber seal and slowly work your way around the seal it takes a fair bit of effort to pump the gun as this stuff is thick and doesnt flow that easily but dont cut to big a tip in the tip of the bottle and you want to just take your time making sure the seal goes into every bit of the seal you will know its sealing when you start to see it coming out the seal onto the masking tape …once you have done the outer move onto the glass part of the seal and repeat once its done get your finger and press on the seal and push down on any escaping seal .then get a cloth paper towel or what you have and dip it in some white spirit and wipe off the excess thats on the seal and masking tape ….

let the seal go off for 20 mins or so until its not as tacky soft Depends on temperature outside then carefully peel off the masking tape once its all off you can smooth any bits of seal thats messy or on the roof or glass use white sprit and thats it..  DONE

it worked on my car and mines outside 24 7 and sees a lot of rain .inside the metal frame you could peel the lip up and just coat it with some kurust  or similar to help it stopping from rusting but this will be fiddly due to needing to peel up the rubber but it is do able.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Arbomast-Autograde-Windscreen-Sealant-Complete-With-Nozzle-380ml-/251925903765?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3aa7f43995

thats the stuff i used