Wet floor fix...

Morgonzo

Morgonzo

Active Member
Hello all my Delica Brothers and Sisters, I wanted to share a couple of pics with you of my seam sealing adventures to stop the wet floor-board syndrome and stop my footwells from rusting.
I don't know how long it was leaking for, but in February I finally pulled back the drivers carpet and found this...IMG_2719.JPG no bueno! I knew it was time to do the front seam seal job. The first thing to do is remove the headlight bezels..IMG_2933.JPGThree Phillips head screws hold these on, one in the door jamb and two in front under the lenses. Gently pull forward and the clips will pop out. Safely set aside. Next to remove is what i've been referring to as the "Cheeks" of the van. This was the hardest part for me. There are 4 screws holding this panel on. 1 in the door jamb (easiest to get out but not easy!) 1 under the windshield rubber IMG_2902.JPG and two above the headlights (PITA!) I adopted a special approach to get these out..a wood chisel wedged beneath a ring-end wrench with the phillips bit taped into it. I used the chisel to apply upwards pressure to get the bit to bite. These screws were NOT coming out without a fight. I went and bought a brand new screwdriver bit set just so I wouldn't strip out the heads of the screws. Lot's of PB Blaster later...IMG_2911.JPGGROSS! the other side was the same. Time for the wire brush....IMG_2914.JPGLooks better, time for a beer and the Metal de-IMG_2921.JPG greaser....now with it clean i'll apply the seam sealer IMG_2926.JPG an important thing to look at is the seam to the side that extends straight down just behind the wire in the pic where you can see a touch of grey. I scraped as far down as I could reach and then applied the sealer over the whole area. The product i used was Dynatron grey seam sealer#550 and got from Vatozone for around 12 bucks. Now that you've sealed all the seams, just put it all back together and Voila! No more wet floors! It's been a couple of months since I did this and we've had HEAVY rain lately and I'm happy to report that my carpets and floorboards have remained dry no matter how hard the rain.
It's not hard, and even if your van isn't leaking it's worth doing for piece of mind.
Cheers,
Morgonzo.
 
Thank you for taking the time to post this! I'm glad you found that seam and fixed it. I really need to pull my cover and check for that also.

K
 
Kellyn, no problem!:) I'm glad I could actually add something thats helpful to the forum. I'm just lucky that i was able to post the pictures. If I had to re-size them this wouldn't have happened because for the life of me I cannot figure out how to do that o_O
Btw, are you still importing roof racks from FTS? I'm going to be able to buy one soon.
Cheers.
 
I finally got around to doing this last weekend (only drivers side was getting swamp foot but happy there wasn't any rust), it finally poured out and so far not a drop of water in my footwells! Very excited to not have wet carpet smell looming in my cabin after a rain.

I do have to say the screws to get that quarter panel off were a pain in the ass. I didn't have a JIS screwdriver set (I do now) so I stripped a couple with a phillips.

I ended up having to dremel a slot in 3 of the screws so I could use a flathead screwdriver (which worked) and I just replaced with new machine screws.
 
I did this and it fixed the bulk of my leaks. I also had to caulk all around the windshield, side mirrors, wiper fluid nozzles, and wipers. Probably some other spots I forgot. I used some heavy duty clear roofing urethane.
 
So I've been working on this for about a weeks now. Two cans of PB Blaster later, and I can not get the screws out under the windshield. If there not out by tomorrow night, I'm drilling them out. Small leak on the passenger side. No leak on drivers. Are you guys pulling the windshield seal out? I can seem to get them to bust free. Driving me nuts...
 
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Do you have the JIS screwdrivers? If not, the screws are almost impossible to remove. You can use a chisel and a hammer to smack them form the sides which tends to knock them loose. I did not remove the windshield seal.

I highly recommend the Vessel 980 and 908 Impacta screwdrivers.
 
Just drill them out and replace with new machine screws from the hardware store. So much easier than trying to save the old ones. I have JIS screwdrivers and still couldn’t get the ones out from under the windshield.
 
Kyre said:
Just drill them out and replace with new machine screws from the hardware store. So much easier than trying to save the old ones. I have JIS screwdrivers and still couldn’t get the ones out from under the windshield.[/QUOIMG_0806.jpegTE]

I ended up drilling them out last night. Pretty sure someone welded them on.
Click to expand...
 
As soon as the rains of the summer came. they showed me that my Delica was in need of the same repair....

I did, however, experience a small battle with the screw directly above the headlight housing. I'll tell the tale in pictures:
20180609_115909.jpg20180609_115914.jpg20180609_122014.jpg20180609_122317.jpg20180609_122439.jpg20180609_125602.jpg20180609_131723.jpg20180609_132848.jpg20180609_132903.jpg

So far so good!
 
Thanks for posting this! I just bought a '93 Jasper Edition and it's been raining hard for the past month here on the east coast. I've experienced soggy floors twice now and had no idea how it was getting in.
 
Hey experts,
When I look beneath my headlight trim in that small gap, I count 6, yes 6, Phillips-head screws tucked in there. Considering how rusted and hard they are to get out, I'm hoping one of you can point me in the direction of the proper 2 screws to remove. thanks.
as far as the one in the door jamb...yikes....
 
djxtreme said:
Hey experts,
When I look beneath my headlight trim in that small gap, I count 6, yes 6, Phillips-head screws tucked in there. Considering how rusted and hard they are to get out, I'm hoping one of you can point me in the direction of the proper 2 screws to remove. thanks.
as far as the one in the door jamb...yikes....
Click to expand...
They are the two smaller round-headed screws...
 
for those interested, and thinking this is necessarily an easy job...I was totally unable to get the bolts out. My 4x4 shop was unwilling, as they were afraid they'd crack the windshield, since they were watching it flex when they pried up the molding. Went to a body shop, per the first shop's recommendation. Body shop was able to get some but not all bolts and screws out. My "rubber" windshield molding had turned to brittle plastic more or less, so they needed to remove the windshield in order to get to the bolts. But since that molding is the only thing holding in the windshield, we had to find new molding. Fast forward to today, when they were finally able to find molding from a "1989 Mitsubishi Van," per recommendations on this website. Now they can have the windshield removed by a glass company, drill out the bolts, pull off the cheeks, grind and reseal the problematic areas, replace the cheeks, put in a new molding, install new hardware, and seat my windshield in the new molding.
what was a small project turned into 10 days of not having my van and many hundreds of dollars most likely, from a trusted shop.
just an FYI/warning...
hoping this solves my problems, though. and the new windshield molding will hopefully solve the moisture I used to get coming through and onto my pillars.
 
Wow, what an ordeal! Hope you have better luck in the future. Every time I get into a project on the van I worry that it will end like this.
 
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