Help With Major Water Leakage in an 81 Targa

[UrQuattro]

Hey all,

Firstly, to y'all who responded to my recent thread about scratching my paint, thank you for the kind words and the support. It definitely helped.

Anyway, so, i thought that my car only flooded/got completely soaked when it was parked facing downhill in a rainstorm.

Well, over the past 24 hours, here in San Francisco, we've had a pretty major storm, and when i got home after work, i went out to the porsche to take a look at how it held up. It is sitting horizontally in my driveway (i dont have a garage space), and when i opened the door, I found that the driver's side footwell was SOAKED. It was flooded with about 1/4 inch of water. Enough to completely saturate the floor mat that is there, and have a few puddles there.

After the ensuing outburst of obscenities (especially after its history with flooding, and my having worked so hard to get it looking good and getting the interior in good shape for once), i pulled out the floor mat, and then pulled up all the water that was there...

I felt around, and the rear driver's side mat did not get wet at all, and the passenger side is dry and fine...

I dont know what to do... I dont know exactly where the water is coming in to the car at. I can say that other than the floor, I did feel some dampness along the lower door sill carpeting.

I just feel like there's nothing I can do to fix this...

I can say that the front quarter windows that butt up against the A pillar dont seem to maintain a consistent contact along the a pillar. Plus, the top of the metal window frame does not extend all the way up to the side seal of the targa top.. I put a little bit of weather stripping at that gap the other night, but i didnt think that it left so much open as to let that much water in...

I just dont know where else the water comes in.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I dont have any repair manuals for this car yet, and i am new to p-car ownership...

BTW, is there supposed to be any kind of seal on the front quarter window frame that guides the powered window up and down? It has this little piece of rubber on it that the window comes in to contact with on the rear edge of the top of the frame, but the window goes high enough up in the track as to extend about 1/2 inch or so above the quarter window frame - it makes that little nub of rubber look like it is pushed up artificially high...

I wish i had pictures to show, but i dont have a digital camera right now that works with this computer.. I will attach a picture of my car that i took a while ago just so you see what it looks like, but it doesnt show the window setup very well...

Any help at all would be so incredibly appreciated...

[jtfreels]

Not much help at the moment, but I feel your pain. We've had a bunch of rain in the last few days and I've had some odd leaks for the first time.
Weird thing part of the sill carpet on the drivers side was wet, the bottom part, not the top. Nothing on the door or door pocket, can't quite figure that one out, Unless it was "wicking" in from under the door?

Jay

[HarryD]

Give us a shot of your car looking at the windshield with your targa top attached.

One issue is that if you have a more recent front top seal, it may not fit correctly.

Do a search with the terms targa top and look for posts by carsinc and you will find a wealth of information.

[Hotwatermusic]

Rain is the bane of my existence since getting my 74 targa. When I know it's going to rain, I always cut a big hefty bag down both sides and put it over the top covering the targa top and draping down both windows. I only tape it to the glass, all around. I also have a new targa to windshield seal that's specifically for my year group, the normal targa seals don't fit the older cars right. It's definitely helped. If it's a really bad rain, I take towels and fold and drape them over the windows so they are both inside and outside the car and then roll the windows up. They soak up any rain that would get inside through the top-of-window-to-targa gap, or my hefty bag barrier.
Also, if I know the rain is coming and can prepare, I put towels inside on the floor where the water would drip, so it at least doesn't get on the floor.
I will soon be done with all this though, cause I am in the process of making a waterproof car cover for the hard rains. It will completely cover it to the ground, so even splash-up won't get on the car. My non-galvanized 74 doesn't like a drop of water.
I only wish the PO would have taken this kind of care in the rain. My passenger side A piller is rusted through from years of water draining down inside, behind the covering. The channel that holds the passenger side part of the windshield seal has no lip, it absolutely rusted to dust. Didn't catch that little detail til it was too late...

[UrQuattro]

The targa seals on the car haven't been changed for at least 10 years. I think they were redone in 1997. I'll take the pics, but if you are looking to see if the front edge is raised up, it is. I've tried bending it down to help with the wind noise. It is fairly quiet up to about 80 and then it gets loud. Before I added a strip of weatherstripping on the car itself by the windshield targa seal, an that helped significantly. Before then I couldn't go abov about 55-60 without deafening wind noise.

Now when I drive, the wind noise is coming from the top of the two front corner windows as well as the middle of the a pillar and also the rear window/targa bar seal because it doesn't maintain a consistent contact with the window when the door is closed.

Michael

[80-911SC]

quick answer for when its sitting in driveway car cover,

that rain is carrying all the way thru the vally , been wet and dark here all day , hope the sun creeps tomorrow like they say it should .

those targa tops have a lot of adjustments , there are shops that do just that , there is one in south city but i don't remember that does convertables and targa

[DRACO A5OG]

In my experience, I have sat in my car when it poured and noticed a drip coming from the upper portion of the quarter window where the Targa Top side seal meets.

If you can post the pic of that area from the outside and inside. I bet the leak is eminating from that joint.

Also the front seal over the window shield may be the contributing issue, if not the original factory seal not the factory replacement it will cause seating issues. Dan from carsinc can let you know if your year had issues.

Temporary Fix, place some tape at that joint and it will channel the water away from that point and it should stop the leak.

Another test is when you wash your car, run the the water over the lower part of your windshield and check inside and under your dash to see if there is a leak.

[carreraken]

I've had my front windshield leak - best to check it too.

Read this thread re: targa seal.

[cmetzner]

I am about to replace this seal. My current seal stands away from the front of the targa bar. I tried to glue it to the front of the targa bar with 3M adhesive but it appears that the weatherstripping is so mishaped that the glue will not hold it tight against the bar.

The result is that when it rains, I get a lake in the footwell of the back seats. Nothing down the windows. I assumed that the water is coming in at the top of the targa bar seal and running down the inside of the targa bar and into passenger compartment.

Questions: Is this seal supposed to be glued tight against the front of the targa bar?

Is it common for the targa bar seal to fail in this manner and cause this flooding?

Thanks - Chuck

[c0metdot]

[twistoffat]

Hi, Did you try the blotting paper trick or watching the video suggested on this thread. The window should only come to the top of the corner window. The little rubber stopper on the top of the corner marks the limit

Finally Got Some Pictures of my Car, Help spot problems with targa top leak

[cmetzner]

I have an air leak and water leak.

The air leak is due to the trailing top edge of the side windows being pushed away from the car. The weatherstripping pushes the window out so that the rear corner of the window does not fit up and under the seal attached to the targa top.

The water leak is from the targa bar weatherstripping not fitting tight against the targa bar. Tried to glue it with 3M but the seal pulled away. The result is that rain gets in under the seal; travels under the targa bar and soaks the rear passenger footwells.

I have the new targa bar seal.

I think the existing targa bar seal has been recovered with cloth. This may have something to do with fit. The channel along the top where the seal is glued has a layer of leather. The PO upholsterer who recovered the inside of the targa bar wrapped the leather into the channel. Also, I noticed that the plastic rivets are scraped smooth from reuse. Leather was also wrapped into the channels down the side of the targa bar. But I had cleaned those out when I tried to reattach some of the seal.

I am going to install the new seal and readjust the windows this weekend.