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Leaking roofs.....a fix?


ejparrott

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I know this might be a stupid question, but I'm sure its possible.

I had an accident with my 88's roof a little while ago, but no worries, got a spare. Took the time to clean it up, went over the seams and the gutters with sikaflex, cleaned out the drain holes, fitted large washers with lots of sikaflex to some holes where a light must have been bolted, and fitted the radio ariel with sikaflex.

Sod it the damn thing's still leaking! The old roof used to leak and I always suspected the windscreen top seal, which I changed when I swapped the roof. That did for the previous radio, and now my 6 week old brand new radio has popped too, obviously water ingress yet again. Needless to say, I'm extremely p'd off with it at the moment, and I'm now looking for suggestions for solutions. Would it be an option to fibreglass the roof over the top, or does the roof flex too much for this?

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On Defenders it is common for water to enter the roof through the joint at the bottom of the side channel, where the layers of material come together. The seam sealer visible in the channel is often cracked and this let's in lots of water.

If the roof on your Series is of the same construction then this may be the case for yours too.

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Its not condensation is it? Unlined roofs collect it in buckets. Get in on a damp morning - and the roof looks a bit damp on the inside. Set off down the road - put the brakes on for the first time - they'll grab - its a sign of health that they haven't gone oily - as the rust pulls the leading shoe on - and all the water globules run along the inside of the roof - getting steadily bigger till they let go - usually into your lap.

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i had this problem with brian before the roofliner was fitted, it was a mixture of bad condensation, and the gutter leaking through to the inside. what you need to do is run around the inside of the cab with sillycone, i.e. what looks like a rain gutter on the inside of the cab, where it joins to the roof, sometimes you can see daylight through the gap too.

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Have you had the headlining out yet to get a better idea of where it's coming in?

Not yet, the LaSalle headlining was a complete ***** to fit, nowhere near as easy as they make out in the current LRM!

If the roof on your Series is of the same construction then this may be the case for yours too.

Yup, exactly the same construction. This was a problem on the original roof, which was cured by running round with sikaflex, so before painting this roof I took a powered wire brush all round and sikaflex'd it, to prevent it before it happened again.

Its not condensation is it? Unlined roofs collect it in buckets. Get in on a damp morning - and the roof looks a bit damp on the inside. Set off down the road - put the brakes on for the first time - they'll grab - its a sign of health that they haven't gone oily - as the rust pulls the leading shoe on - and all the water globules run along the inside of the roof - getting steadily bigger till they let go - usually into your lap.

I'd hope its not condensation, this also used to be a big problem with the old roof, so after painting the replacement roof, I turned it upside down and insulated the inside with some 6mm soundproofing and insulating material. The brake issue is one I have every morning!

i had this problem with brian before the roofliner was fitted, it was a mixture of bad condensation, and the gutter leaking through to the inside. what you need to do is run around the inside of the cab with sillycone, i.e. what looks like a rain gutter on the inside of the cab, where it joins to the roof, sometimes you can see daylight through the gap too.

Well I did the outside, which I would have thought would keep it at bay...obviously I might have been wrong...

No rain overnight, and no drip from the edge of the headlining, so I think I can be pretty certain it was a rain issue and not condensate, we'll see later today. This afternoons job is going to have to be to remove the radio and see if it can be repaired....I'm not spending £60 on a new radio every 6 weeks!

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I'm going to pop it out this afternoon, lost the original radio keys somehow but made some at work this morning. I might try the hose, it'll be worse than rain so should show it...I wonder if me and the wife'ly be able to just drop the headlining down on top of the seats, rather than taking it right out....

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The roof is made of two sections on an 88 and three sections on a 109. Each of those sections is made from three skin pieces, spot welded together underneath each of the outboard exterior ribs. You can see these lap joints easily inside. If you look at the ends of the exterior ribs, you will see that where the curved section reaches the flat tip there is a drain out to each side (in other words, there is a semi-circular "crease" on each side of the ribs' ends between the spot welds holding it to the roof). If those drains fill up, then water getting into the ribs will accumulate and enter the cab through the spot welded lap joint of the skin panels. Clear the drains as well as you can with a piece of coat hanger wire.

The riveted flange joint with the gutter tends to leak, especially around the front corners, as the rivets stretch with age. The cork gasket also breaks down, causing more trouble. I cleared the gutter of all much and previous sealant before applying a thick spread of white Tiger Seal that filled the entire gutter to a level above the rivet heads, as is done on Defender roofs.

I also have the LaSalle head lining, and agree the LRM article is misleading. Most of it was easy to fit, even around the sunroof I fitted years ago, but the Alpine Light surrounds are a pig. However, between the lining and the camping mat applied to the roof skin behind it, condensation has bee dramatically reduced. It is still present, but drains through some holes originally drilled for wiring in each corner of the interior gutter.

I also applied "Captain Tolly's Leak Sealant" (available from most chandlers) to the Alpine light seals and all the grommets for roof lighting and antennae, and that made a considerable difference.

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Well the afternoon didnt go to plan and I havent got the radio out, although it appears to have started working again, so it's not lost yet! Wifey's going to have the 88 to go to work tomorrow so I can have an uninterupted day on the series II, but we'll be spending some time on Sunday with this one I think, I'll get back to you all with any news.

Thanks guys!

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If you look at the ends of the exterior ribs, you will see that where the curved section reaches the flat tip there is a drain out to each side (in other words, there is a semi-circular "crease" on each side of the ribs' ends between the spot welds holding it to the roof). If those drains fill up, then water getting into the ribs will accumulate and enter the cab through the spot welded lap joint of the skin panels. Clear the drains as well as you can with a piece of coat hanger wire.

Hmm...guess where I'm going to be looking first!!

Seems like I got a bit enthusistic with the sikaflex...all three are sealed up!! I'll get these opened out again and see what happens - we had a right shower this morning, without doubt far too much water for it to be condensate! I got the radio out, well saturated, and I can see one spot where there's water dripping through the insulation (it was raining hard earlier) It doesn't tie in directly with a roof rib, but it could very easily be tracking behind the foam.

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If you look at the ends of the exterior ribs, you will see that where the curved section reaches the flat tip there is a drain out to each side (in other words, there is a semi-circular "crease" on each side of the ribs' ends between the spot welds holding it to the roof). If those drains fill up, then water getting into the ribs will accumulate and enter the cab through the spot welded lap joint of the skin panels. Clear the drains as well as you can with a piece of coat hanger wire.

Well, I went on the roof at dinnetime with knife and wire...I've removed a LOT of sealant from these drains, not all my sikaflex either, there was some grey gunky stuff underneath, and also a lot of mossy organic carp. Sure enough, when I stuck the knife in the nearside drain, a lot of water came out. Its been raining quite heavy again this evening, so we'll see if I get a cold shower in the morning again..

I also noticed that the middle rib has a 1/2" hole drilled in it for some reason, and where the ribs 'bend' over the roof, the gap is not sealed, so I can quite easily see how water's been getting in there!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well, to hopefully bring this one to a close, I'm delighted to say that it looks like Nick was bang on. We've had some quite considerable rain recently, and I havent noticed any water coming down off the headlining at all. Radio also appears to be working nicely again too, after I took it out I couldnt get any life out of it at all, then over Christmas we had a look again and found the reason why, the manufacturers for some reason thought it would be good to put a plug and socket in the power line 6" off the plug for the back of the radio - it'd got pulled when I removed the rad, so it just wasn't getting any power.

So Thanks Nick, and a donation to forum for a problem solved!

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