Dear Adrian
When you say the seals have gone, do you mean the windscrean seals, door seals, rear quater glass seals? or some other seals, please excuse me if i have missed something here, my coupe gets wet in the driver side and rear footwells if i leave it out in the rain for more than a day or so.

Cheers
Andrew

 

What about "great stuff"? the spray foam that expands and can then be cut however you need to... It's lightweight, but it can be messy if you're not careful.

Maybe I'm not on the same page- are we referrring to the black covering, or the stuff underneath? Should/can both be replaced, or just the black covering underneath the mats?

 

You have: some carpet on the sides glued to the black rubber mat. This mat just falls apart after a few years. Then you have the white foam... not sure what is under that (have not gotten the courage to look underneath...)

As far as "Great Stuff" I guess it will work but you have to use some clear plastic (a bag?) or that stuff will stick to the metal... not sure I would want that.

 

Hmm. now there's an idea. What about taking a layer of 8mil plastic, after carving out the old crap beneath the black stuff, and spraying the foam into the plastic. You might even be able to remove the plastic after the foam dries, and then just lay the foam into the bottom of the car. As for the covering, the tool box stuff Adrian spoke of would work, or something similar. I guess I was just wondering if the black stuff or the white stuff was the culprit of the smelly cabin.

 

You are talking about a huge mess. The Great Stuff foam goes everywhere. Plus... You probably will want to be able to take whatever you put in out so you can dry it out. The Great Stuff might trap moisture and start a rust problem.

 

good pont. so do we just replace the black stuff then?

 

The problem with the original stuff is that is soaks water.
I don't know if that was the intention of Porsche... but I don't like it.

Replacing the old sound proofings with new originals is not an option to me.

Does somebody knows a material ( I'm thinking about rubber bullets ) that you can mix with an elastic glue ? If I can find a material like that, it should be possible to "spread" the material on the floor of the porsche in the right shape. (acouse, first a plastic on the floor to prevent that the materials sticks on the floor)

 

I'd stick with the idea of carpet pad... (I use it in parts on my car) It's cheap... a good sound-proofer... if it gets wet... throw it away and cut out another piece. I'm not sure where one could find a waterproof foam. Would you really want that? Then the water just sloshes around... OR ... goes someplace else.. Like your carpet!

 

What is a carpet pad ?
Is it a layer of multiple carpets ?

 

Carpet pad is the layer that goes below a carpet (In your house) to provide more cushioning for the carpet... and to allow it to wear better and longer. They make 3 - 4 different grades of it. As I stated in an earlier post... It's very inexpensive. You could buy a remnant at a carpet store for $20 - $30... enough to do a large room. That should keep your Porsche happy for a long time!

 

Dear Andrew,
The most common seal problem is in the door surrounding the window. The water runs down the window and into the door. The door drains, if you look at them are often covered/blocked by the lower door seal. Because the passenger door is rarely used this is th eone that fills up with water.
The water then drips out of the lower inside section of the door into the carpet.
The quickest way to see if your doors are filling with water is to stick some tissue or absorbant materials into the door compartments and see if they get wet.
I actually demonstrated this at a Tech session and people were quite surprised.

Another area not looked at are the rain and condensation drains in the air distribution assembly. If they are blocked, water will enter the system and flow down the pipes and drip out into the footwells.

Ciao,
Adrian.

 

What happens if you just rip out the insulation and don't replace it - does the car become unbearably loud? Is that from engine, noise or road noise??

I don't even want to look on my car - scared of what I might find!

 

It's a little louder as I remember... But you need to get the old, wet ones out. I took mine out in my old Targa... I just left the carpets in place in the front after drying them out... Leaving out the underlayment. I went bare in the rear... You couldn't see it anyway. I kept a plastic cup under my seat so I could bail when needed... And a lot of McDonalds napkins to plug the leaks during a rainstorm... Those were the days... Though I'd much rather have what I have now!

You need to do something though... One way or the other. Ignoring the problem will only make it worse.

 

Last week I installed the "Great Stuff" foam after laying down plastic first. Where the foam meets the plastic it wont cure (it starts to break down the plastic). Once the top has set up you can remove it from your car and pull off the plastic, it will finish setting up in a hew hours.

I did learn that the plastic needs to be tacked down with glue or something before you apply "Great Stuff". If you don't, the plastic will pull away from the floor and you will end up with a bumpy mat that doesn't conform to the contour of the foot well. I learned that the hard way.

 

If you just rip out the insulation and don't replace it, I think you will damage the electrical wires.
The electical wires are protected by the sound proofings.

On my 964, the tape arround the wires was damaged by the water.. I've renewed the tape and cleaned the whole foor well and repainted it. (after removing the seats).
Now everything looks very clean, and I want to keep it like that :-)

This pictures show's my 964 after removing the sound proofings and carpets.
It looks bad.. but it's only superficial rust