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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Windscreen leaks.

Morning all,
On the way home from a great day at midget 50 we had water running down the inside and through the bottom corners of the windscreen.
Stripping the windscreen to replace the rubbers is not a job I have done before and I ubderstand it can be difficult to dismantle it and refit it to the car.
I am torn between silicon sealant to bodge it and a proper strip down and new seals. One other factor that I should mention is that the rake of the windscreen is not correct either, it doesn't quite line up with the quarter lights. If I refit it I would sort that issue out too.
Any advice on the pros and cons would be really appreciated.
Thanks
Dave
D Brown

I had exactly the same watery experience. Trouble is, the water ingress is not always where it comes out. I was planning to run silicon sealer round the rubbers. I would not recommend dismantling the screen and am a bit iffy about removing it in any case (have you ever tried to refit one?)
Chris H (1970 Midget 1275)

Mine leaks like a sieve from the bottom seal, right down the back of the dash and dribbles on my leg. I've not done anything about it for exactly the same reasons, even though it's a slightly easer seal to do than the glass-to-surround ones, which also leak, but not as much...
Rob Armstrong

There used to be a liquid called 'seek & seal' that did just that, with winscreen leeks, but I have not seen it for sale in recent times.
Alan.
A Anstead

I remember Seek and Seal too, Alan. It did what it said on the bottle. I have not seen it for years now.
I don't think I am brave enough to remove the windscreen and fix it properly, so I think I will be getting a tube of clear silicon on the way home from work.
I may buy a screen from the devils junk yard and redo the glass seal on that first. Then swapping the screen will not be quite such a big job.

Dave
D Brown

An oft missed thing is to get the header rail seal tucked in front of the windscreen top rail lip otherwise in heavy rain water can get round and appear to be coming from various places

when I clip the header rail down I secure both clips then undo one clip and gentle ensure that the seal that on that half is fully in front of the lip of the windscreen frame do that clip up and repeat on the other side and half

I'd try sealing with silcone for now as there's no assure that a new seal will be any better, mine wasn't
N Atkins

Water water everywhere ! I was quiet pleased that my midget had completed its longest ever 150 mile round trip to midget 50 without breaking down, well except for the speedo cable breaking, I took the car out the garage to investigate this morning & found the carpets soaked, spent the day removing the seats & carpets to dry everything.

Alan.
Alan cotterill

Alan your car needs to get out more - and further :)

speedo cable can sometimes be a sign of the speedo starting to sieze up (but not always)

If you have any soundproofing matting that holds a lot of water and can take a lot of drying, I'd leave it out until the car is fully waterproof (in fact I don't bother with the soundproofing matting)
N Atkins

Ift its of any use I used Loctite 595 on my son's car and it did the job
Graham M V

Dave you think you have problems...
this is how much water I sucked up the vax this morning out from my carpets !
That was one hell of a soggy journey home.
Rob.


Rob Newt

Another one here who suffered from the sodden carpets (and leg!)
I will be looking to fill all the culprit holes

Mark
Mark Whitmore

Dave

I'd look at the state of the rubbers before trying to seal it with various things. I rebuilt my windscreen a couple of years ago because the glass had a big chip in it. I bought a second screen that had good glass but a crap fame and rebuilt 1 out of 2. I didn’t use any sealants (other than the grey stuff inside the frame which I re-used) and it's completely weather tight. Coming back from Midget50 I only had 2 drops run down the inside of the windscreen and I believe that was because I'd left it with the tonneau cover on for most of the day and the water was just sitting on the top of the screen. In my experience Midget screens aren't that hard to remove and install if you want a challenge try doing it on a B.

Bob
R.A Davis

Dave,
Is the problem the water coming between the windscreen and the body or bewtten the glass and the frame? If its the latter then I'm not much help, never done that one. If its the former we had that in the past & put black roofing sealant along the inside, worked really well and hard to spot so didn't bother me. However, pulling off the windscreen and replacing the lower seal is actually quite easy once you know the trick. That would let you sort the rake angle too.
The trick is to use a pair of cheap ratchet straps, the 1inch wide ones hooked over the edge of the winscreen and under the top door hinge. then just pull down til the holes line up. to uncurl the lower seal, place strips of gaffer/duck tape sticky side up on the scuttle and then pull them forwards when the screen is reattached.any extra curled bits can be dealt with by a credit card slid under. Guy has a picture of the ratchet strap method for its his idea!
Hope that helps. Any questions let me/us know.
-Craig
C Robertson

This thread was discussed between 13/06/2011 and 16/06/2011

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