33 HR, 818C & GTM owners: how's the weather-proofing?

[Cobradavid]

For you folks who have FF cars with a roof and windows: how weather-proof/rain-proof are the seals around the doors and windows and other glass?

I'm seriously considering the awesome 35 HR pickup as my next vehicular project. However, my roadster is already my no-rain car. Therefore, the truck must be weather-proof so I can drive it in the rain without getting water inside.

David

[AZPete]

In my 818C, 2 months ago I had to drive about 3 hours in a constant rain, which is rare here. After 1 hour freeway, 1 hour city streets and 1 hour freeway, the only leak was at the top of the windshield that was professionally installed. I added silicon sealant - done.

[carbon fiber]

Depends completely on your build skills and time invested making it fit right. My GTM was nowhere close to "weatherproof" if built as it came from FFR. Cutting, re-glassing and mods were the only way.

[DaveS53]

The truck has framed windows, so it's an entirely different situation than hardtop cars. Soffseal sells a universal weather strip (SRE725
A) for this purpose, that works well, if the gap between the door and body has the right width. A weather strip like this must be at least taped into place while the body work is being done, to be sure that it's not so thick that it interferes with the door fully closing. The soffseal website isn't great, but their catalog has a couple of pages, dedicated to street rods and customs.

An even bigger problem can occur, if the window frame area is nothing but a hollow shell, like the doors on my '37. Filling the entire area to create a precisely flat-plane channel with a 5/8 width and 9/16 depth for a flexible run channel can be a huge task. Metal run channels are also required inside the door, precisely aligned with the channel in the window frame. A proper sill weather strip, available from Hagan, should be used at the lower edge of the frame to keep most of the water out of the door. Water drain holes are still required.

I probably spent 80 hours per door getting power windows working on my car.

I still didn't do enough work to close the gap between the window frame and body, so the door isn't as waterproof as a production car, but it's good enough to drive in the rain.

FFR has a really poor record when it comes to proper windows and seals for their cars. I wouldn't expect that to change.

[Cobradavid]

Thanks, guys. I especially appreciate the first-hand experience comments. Hopefully even more FF builders will weigh in with their experiences.

David