Leaky Top

By: Wayne Mandeville

Have you ever been in your Model A during a hard rain? Chances are that you have and experienced a leak in your top. It is frustrating and drives most of us crazy. Once the rain is over, the decision has to be made what to do to stop the leak from happening again.

If the vinyl top is in good shape and only appears to be leaking where it meets the metal, most of us get out the tube of silicone sealant. Not a bad solution and if done properly it can give great results. One of the challenges is to get the sealant to look good is having straight clean edges and not to get it over everything. You don’t have to have the end result looking like it has just been randomly smeared on and then hurting the looks of your car.

Here is a tip that can help in the application of the sealant. Once all the cleaning and prep work has been accomplished, take the time to carefully tape off the seam between the vinyl top and metal top with masking tape. Allow enough space on both the metal and vinyl top for the sealant to adhere, and closely follow the lines of the existing top seam material. This allows you to run a minimal amount of silicone along the joint, and work the silicone down into the crack/seam.. If some excess silicone does work its way to the side of the joint, it is on the tape and not your painted top or vinyl top. You can easily clean the excess up and make the final joint smooth and good looking.

Hope this helps and maybe I can see you in the dry during the next storm.

Wayne