purpledrum

I wanted to create this thread for anyone going through the woes that I have experienced with my 1992 SC400.


My car had a leak. A terrible leak. The carpet on the door panels would get SOAKED. I searched for the leak, but I couldn't find it. I looked at various posts on this site trying to find the source, but I had no luck. One day I noticed that the leak had spread. Not only were the door panels getting wet, but the carpet was too. The carpet under both seats was flooded, and it had been happening for quite some time. I still couldn't tell where the leak was coming from, but I knew that I needed to do something about the carpet. I removed it from the vehicle, and inspected the damage.




The carpet was stained and moldy. I got started killing the mold with bleach. I decided I wanted to dye the carpet black. I got a bunch of rit dye and a spray bottle and began spraying the carpet. Once I was out of dye it looked like this:

I know what you're thinking. That looks TERRIBLE. Yes. Yes it does.
I had to come up with a plan b. I bought a 48 gallon trash can and a bunch more rit dye. I put the carpet in the trash can. I then mixed a single 8 oz bottle of dye with 10 gallons of water in another, smaller trash can. I mixed up cans of this concoction until the can was full.

I then let it sit. For days. 3-4 should be fine.

When I pulled out the carpet, I got this:


Now we're talking! Not bad. Not bad at all. I was excited to put it back in the car, there was just one problem. I still hadn't found the leak...

It took a bunch of tests. I poured water over the car. All over the car. I sat in the car waiting for water to trickle in. I would get nothing. One day I got the bright idea to detach the door panel and investigate to see if water came from there. Bingo. Behind the door panel there is a little plastic bag type thing that water is supposed to drain off of by design. It looks like this:

As you can see, these bag things were pretty busted. This was nothing that a little dum dum (strip calk) and duct tape can't fix! After sealing that up and observing no leak, it was time to put the carpet in.

Now I'm a happy camper! Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any questions about fixing this particular leak or dyeing/installing a carpet in these vehicles.

Carbon J

iTrader: (3)

Looks good, I plan on dying my carpet black also after I change my seat leather. So all you used was Rit dye in black, what did you clean your carpet with before hand?

purpledrum

I vacuumed the carpet real good. It may also help to use a brush of some sort to help get out dust that is real deep down in there before you vacuum it.

RudysSC

You have a lot of patience sir lol. Nice find, and the black carpet looks killer!