Leaking doors

Has anyone been able to completely rain-proof their Scamp? Does anyone have doors that actually fit the holes?

My doors seem a hopeless case. Neither are the shape of the body so gaps vary from 1/2" at the top to touching at the lock to 1/4" at the bottom. Drivers door hinges allow the rear bottom corner to scrape on the sill while front top corner scrapes on the underside of the roof.

Sitting in the car while it's raining shows water dripping from various places round the doors, from the quarterlight perspex windows and from the windscreen area somewhere. The last two should be fixable by resealing these bits but I can't see how to sort the doors effectively. There doesn't seem to be any provision for fitting proper weatherseal.

Has anyone found a solution to constantly sodden mats in a Scamp kept outside?

Your problem is that you have got someone else's doors.

Doors are made individually because no two Scamps are the same shape

Seems odd as I'm sure the Scamp and it's doors must have been jig built and the whole reason for a jig is that everything built in one is exactly the same!
Having said that I must admit those doors don't fit the body at all well. I know when building a Dutton Sierra kit the instructions told you how to bend the Escort doors to fit the Dutton body if the gaps were too large?? Jigs just aren't what they used to be.

So hands up anybody who's got a Mk2 with doors touching top and bottom and a gap in the middle- they're mine!

The components might have been jig cut

But the assembly was down to the individual

'Seems odd as I'm sure the Scamp and it's doors must have been jig built and the whole reason for a jig is that everything built in one is exactly the same!'

Well that's the theory but these are Scamps

You're still doing better than my MK2. The passenger door is currently in my dining room waiting for the glue sticking the new window in to dry. Hopefully be refitting the door on Wednesday. Can I suggest a tarp (not so good when driving) and drill some holes in the floor to let the water out?

Charlie

Yes she's got a tarp over the cab as I type but a bit small so not doing the job too well. There are two half inch holes in the floor so the water never actually 'sloshes about' but previous owner went to a lot of trouble to carefully glue a fitted carpet down which holds the water well till it finds the exit holes. She'd been kept in the dry and used rarely before me so probably never had a big problem with the elements.

Are you using any kind of seal between your doors and the frame? Only idea I had was to use some stick-on rubber draught excluder type stuff if and when I can get the doors to fit a bit better. All attempts to glue on odd thicknesses of rubber so far have been a complete failure.

What you need is a proper car door seal fitting and a roof gutter...

Ive got the mk2 to the point where it leaks slowly enough for the water to run around rather than in....thats about as good as i think it will ever get to be honest .....did get v wet in switzerland last year though with the wettest spring in 30 years and all.

Only door seal I know of is the type that pushes over and grips to the edge of the body seam with a soft rubber 'tube' taking up the gap between door and body. With no seam to push over it wouldn't fit the Scamp opening. I'll have a look and see if I can find any other profiles available but there's really no way to fix anything bar glueing.

I have made a new sheathed plywood roof a bit wider than the original and have 'upstands' along the sides to stop water running down the doors and this helps a little as long as the rain drops gently from above but 'slanty' rain or windblown rain bypasses the roof.

Thanks for the comments and advice.

jonrev wrote:Only door seal I know of is the type that pushes over and grips to the edge of the body seam with a soft rubber 'tube' taking up the gap between door and body. With no seam to push over it wouldn't fit the Scamp opening. I'll have a look and see if I can find any other profiles available but there's really no way to fix anything bar glueing.


Thanks for the comments and advice.

It's a Scamp, you can modify it by adding a steel angle to the inside of the door opening, you then have a seam to attach a proper seal to.
If you want it water tight, you are going to have to do the job properly, and not just the 'afterthought' sealing that they originally came with.

Something like this perhaps?

TBH it's not 100% watertight, but at least most of the ingress gets directed out again.

Genius!  Pretty sure I was just about to think of that myself??

As you say that barrier will pretty much direct water out even without a seal. It's the fact that the smooth inner face of the box section almost encourages the water to run in that's the big problem. A small section angle all round will stop the running water and a standard door seal will finish the job and stop the draughts. I may even have to rename my Scamp.

By the by, Those door hinges look impressive too. Been looking to sort some beefier hinges I can make up to be adjustable so I can align the doors once I've cut them about and re-welded to fit the car.

Thanks RTT and RM

The hinges came from the people who supplied my replacement kitchen door.  The beauty of them was eccentric plastic inserts which could be turned to get the alignment right.  Unfortunately though, the inserts tended to fall out when I lifted the doors off, I've no spares left and the firm is no longer in business.

And if all else fails???...................Holes in the floor to drain off excess.

Hi All,
Well I actually managed to get Teabag into my garage when the weather turned really nasty last year. Could only get to the drivers side door opening due to width but did get some work done.
Thanks to suggestions on here I welded inch angle iron framing all round the door opening to form a lip for a proper weather seal. This has actually worked pretty well and after cutting and re-welding the door frame to fit the opening I now have a pretty dryish car that side. Passenger side was no quite so successful but only a small damp patch after all the rain recently so I'm a happy chappy and pretty sure I can get her watertight with a bit more fiddling.
Original seats were Jaguar leather things with electric reclining and heated bum pads and weighed a ton. They were also so big they wouldn't tilt as they hit the roof?
Sublime to the ridiculous, I bought a pair of Reliant Rebel seats. Tiny things you can lift with one finger. Spent quite some time with blocks of wood trying to find the most comfortable driving position before fitting them.
Is it just me or is the Scamp really awkward to drive comfortably? I can't seem to get a position where legs and arms are both at the right angle and distance. Either my legs are uncomfortably bent or the steering and gearchange are out of reach! I'd like to sit a bit higher but bash my head on the roof if I try. Apart from a generous midriff I'm not an odd size. 5'9" and pretty average. Maybe I've just got to get used to it?
Having only done about 10 miles since the MOT I'm looking forward to another quick blast 'round the block' once I get the battery back in and the engine started. Wonder if it will still feel as awful to drive now I'm expecting it?

Well done Jon
Now get the battery on it and get out there

Instant cure.......big holes in floor!!

Put the battery in today and after a few turns of the starter away she went. Not bad after sitting unused for so many months.
Had left the bonnet off and while waiting for her to warm up a bit I thought I smelt petrol Peering around the carb I could see fuel dripping onto the exhaust. Figured it might be a sticky float valve I grabbed a screwdriver and tapped the float bowl a few times. Fuel was not dripping any more- it was pouring out.
Shut off and slid a small mirror down the back of the carb to see if I could see where the petrol was (still) dripping from. Turned out to be the little flexible transfer pipe from bowl to jet was just sitting in position but completely loose at the bowl end.
Took the carb off to the bench and have no idea what has happened. The nylon tube passed through the brass locking fitting but had no sealing at all. It seems, looking at the few bits of info I've found, that there should be a washer and a rubber ferrule thingy which the brass fitting tightens onto to grip and seal the tube. Neither was there, the fitting was tight and I can't see any way these bits could have squeezed past and fallen out.. The tube had been just sitting in place. So how had I run the engine for at least an hour while tuning and testing. Then driven 4 miles to the MOT. Then gone to collect and taken it for a 5 mile run with no sign of a leak or petrol smell. I'm dumbfounded.

Half-inched by the gremlins.