Had a brainwave, or might be wasting my time.....

like many other people we seem to have a mysterious leak in our cabriolet so i've been having a snoop around, i have found (like many others) that the rubber seals that go between the door glass and the roof are filling with water sometimes, so i looked on line and found these for the grand price of 79p and ordered a couple (1st mistake)…..

https://www.vwheritage.com/vw_spares_Centre-weather-strip-seal-for-roof-mechanism-Golf-Cab-86-93-155871419_act_shop.product_pID_163196190.htm



when they came i realised i needed 4 ! so they mate against each other, but….

The rubber seals have a different profile to the sticky pads (here comes the punch line….)

Has anyone found a flexible something-or-other that could fill the very end of each seal so that these sticky pads can be attached properly ?  First i thought about using a bit of card with some thread through the middle to make a bung, put it in the seal and use the thread to keep it in place whilst i squirt some silicone in the end, but the sticky pads wont stick to silicone !! maybe a bit of sponge ? i dunno ???

or is this a waste of time ?


 

there are only 2 of these listed, info here:
seals questions | VW Vortex - Volkswagen Forum

its only fitted on later cabs and by the looks of it more to prevent wind nose than water ingress?

are you sayign your metal seal channels are filling up with water? if so thats your hood thats gone porous or its not correctly fitted down the sides

the rubber 'tubes' get some water in them, not much though, just enough to trickle out when i open the hood up, they dont look like water proof materials to be honest but they do bung the hole up !

Yet to get into hunting the leak with any enthusiasm as if you sit inside with a hose on it, there is nothing !!

Porous top? Plus have you replaced the foam gasket seals and the sillicone around the screw hole under the rubber seal? That's the most common leak point plus the front header seal. Where it runs across the windscreen frame, get the sillicone nozzle under the seal start from the corners and pump it in moving towards the centre by about 6 inches.
You can pull your seals so they align properly too. Adjust  so the gaps are minimal between the seals. The little bits you've shown are to take up any gap between the seals. But tend not to stick to great.

sounds like those seals may help then, especially if there is a noticable gap between the top seals down the glass. on mine i gave the seals a light tug at the ends so they extended out a bit more which helped, but there was still a smallish gap in the metal. for that i made sure my foam seals were a bit too long and folded up at the end. those seals you found look a bit neater than that solution though

On my hood I also had problems with the metal rails filling up at the top, it turned out where my hood had a real stitched join down the side (on some this is just moulded) there was a strip all along the inside that was bonded in to seal this gap, but all the glue had gone and it was letting water in.

If yours isnt doing that then your hood is ok here, just make sure its sitting right along the sides you shouldn't be able to see the side rails at all really once closed if its bowed up either side then the side wires have snapped or not fitted, or the hood material has shrunk and it wont help with your problem especially with driving rain or when on the move!

Oh and there should be plastic deflectors either side which help direct the rain away from the rails too, the early ones are made from really rubbish plastic and fall apart, later ones are much chunkier

this is what the hood should look like over the glass:


and not like this (you can see the deflectors here though!)

Indeed RJ plus adjusting the J hooks at the handles may pull the header in tighter.

I wonder how old the hood is?
Another issue is the hood not fitted properly at the front corners. Sometimes they end up cupping, so the water just sits there.


Where to put silicone under the front side seals.

nice stuff, the roof is two years old and to be honest looks a lot better than ony of those pics above LOL

One of the plastic deflectors has broken in half though.

I'll try and make some time at the weekend to inspect it all better (not often i hope for rain !! ) but i guess my main idea as to fitting the sponge endcaps onto the rubber seals still stands, instead of relying on just the thin edge of the seal profile, fill up the cavity at the very end and stick them on more securely.

only pics i can find that show the side, dont help much be we all like pics in a post…




 

yah yours is late enough to use those seals they came in around october 1985.

mine was an 83 so didnt have originally, but by the time i was done everything was late speco n it pretty much so maybe it should have had them as well

Here's showing where to apply silicone at front header seal.

When was the last time you treated the top to some proofer? 303 fabric guard or Ragg Topp?
Tops need maintaining.
I've come across new top installs and the foam gaskets not fitted just a ton of silo blobbed under the seal  retainers. Not all fitters know the ins and outs of these hoods.
I'd be inclined to inspect the foam gaskets and re-apply the silicone under the seals. Pull the seal out from the middle and slide the ends inwards to avoid breaking the clips at the ends.

have never touched the top with anything, the painter lifted that front seal edge when he painted it about 6 weeks ago as he couldnt get the seal off, he found it siliconed in place and too much grief to remove  

its the same old story, rear footwell soaked but nowhere else, no visible drips or signs of leakage when its raining.

read it a million times online….but no definitive answers<sigh>

Checked the scuttle drain holes? Often full of leaves etc. Water fills the scuttle then leaks down the blower hole, also have you checked the heater matrix isn't gone.
Also have you cleared the drain holes under the doors.
Outer scraper seals on these go crusty and water gets behind them and into the door bottoms fills them and it spills over into the car.
So it's door cards off and check, you can double up the plastic sheet behind the door to deflect water back into the door bottom. Leak point around the windscreen corners and perished loose grommets in engine bay?
loads of stuff to check.

if its just the rear footwell have a look at the vapour barriers behind the rear door cards (they do have them right? my cab was stripped and I assumed they did so put some in)

maybe check the rubber seals/chanels right at the back of the C pillars at the bottom of the hood, often these wear and dont deflect water as they should