Please help me cure my leak. The Leak is coming from the bottom of the bellows joining the van. The aluminum strip is in place and seems screwed down firmly. So how can I cure the leak? Opinions from anyone who has cured a similar leak or had new vinyl bellows fitted, please. Here is a photo of where the water appears to be coming in from the outside. Would it help if i ran a layer of silicon beading where the vinyl bellows join frame on the outside of the van? Here is the aluminium strip on the inside. What could i put under it to stop water getting through? What have other people done? At the moment water appears to seep in under the vinyl and wets the headlining below the black strip that you can see. Thanks for looking & i appreciate any help people can give, ideally based on your experiences. Thanks Paul
is the leak happening with your roof down or up? if its happening with the roof down then a new outer seal around the pop top might help, if its happening with the top up then as you suggested, a bead of sealer under the canvas should stop this, but I wouldnt have thought it would get through and get your headlining wet even if it is leaking there I'm supprised that water is getting in and soaking your headlining though, as the 'lip' where the black trim is, is about 1.5 - 2 inches high, and there arent normally holes along the edge for water to get into the van. The only place in my experience it could get in that way, is in the corners of the opening in the roof if they are not sealed correctly....and in that event water is probably comming in under the base of the pop top assembly. If your headlining along the sides is wet (a bit hard to tell from your pics) then water could be getting in through the upper part of the pop top which is quite common. Where the strengtheners are rivited to the upper part of the roof, overtime with the movement of the van, theses rivets become loose and let water in. is the upper part of the roof dry including the headlining?, is your skylight sealing or letting in water? dont forget that these vans can get damp from condensation - could this be the cause or is it localised water ingress? it might be worth getting in the van while some one sprays a hose on it to trace exactly where the leak is
Nice one Diddymen The leak is when the roof is up, but isn't the top seal. It was probably a poor description to say it was the headlining getting wet. I've attached another photo showing where it gets wet (1), although it isn't wet in these photos. It gets wet above the bunk, but below the black strip. I'm not sure if a band of silicon on the outside will be enough, hopefully someone else has had a leak from the same area and came up with a solution! The top of the roof now stays dry (2) after I re sealed the rivets with silicon
same roof as mine by the look of it at least it is dry with the roof down, that is one less thing to worry about lol!!! have you got a carpet type headliner around the opening? (1) in your pic .....does this carpet go all the way over the opening (under the black trim) down to the metal strip that holds the bellows down - if it does, the water could be 'wicking' up the carpet and travelling into the van that way? other than that, if there are no holes through the raised bit of the opening then I'm stummped as to how water is getting in there
one last thought, it could be travelling through the screw holes that hold the metal strips down under the lower part of the poptop there is a wooden frame, the strips get screwed to this from above, then under your headliner (the bit that gets wet) more screws hold the poptop base to the van into the same bit of wood......if your wood is damaged or a bit rotten, it could be getting in that way the only cure other than taking the whole roof off and making a new wooden frame (like I did ).....would be to put some sealer around the screw holes under the bellows metal strip...that should stop it getting in that way
Those strips look badly fitted with loose screws... other than that a bead of sealant between roof and vinyl is the obvious choice.
There are many ,many new ways of sealing leaks nowadays as compared with when these roofs were made in the seventies,so the problem should be fairly easy,even for a right plonker, to solve...
After looking at the pic.'s I'm saying a bead of sealer around the outside down at the edge that folds under the screw bar, and the bellows is where you need some silicone. Water very seldom travels up hill unless there is lots of force behind it. I'd say the water is running down the billowsin under the edge and through the screw holes.
Zed. Thanks. Not all of them look quite as bad as the one in the photo. I'll take the strips off and refit them, what size screws should I use? They may have used the wrong ones when the pop top was refitted 10 years+ ago. I'll be getting the sealant out then. Paul
Sikaflex 512 is best for sealing on stuff like that - it doesn't set like silicon stuff so it won't crack later... no more wet beds for me Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk 2
have you got a carpet type headliner around the opening? (1) in your pic Yes.....does this carpet go all the way over the opening (under the black trim) down to the metal strip that holds the bellows down Yes- if it does, the water could be 'wicking' up the carpet and travelling into the van that way? from your second 'YES' I would say this is how the inside lining is getting wet, water is getting past the bellows at the bottom (not a problem in its self). The headlining goes from the inside, over the top of the opening (under the black trim) and down the outside to the bottom of the bellows.....when the bottom of the bellows are wet water soaks up through the headlining/carpet all the way through to the inside of the van. if you remove the headlining/carpet from the outside face of the opening - cut along the edge under the black trim which will hide the edge and hold the headliner in place and you should solve the problem.....unless its getting in through the screw holes as well
I'll check out your suggestion with a big hose pipe and try and watch where it is coming in exactly - probably both!
Finally got around to doing the 'sealing' job last night, fingers crossed as i'm off in the van for a week. Thanks again to the TLB ers for the tips and advice - which i have followed. Here is a mini 'write up' in case it helps someone else who needs to do the same. I removed any headliner that was under the strip, to stop any water transferring this way (I did that a while ago) thanks diddymen. I removed every other screw in the metal strips and loosley screwed in replacement bigger stainless screws - this held the vinyl in position. Then replaced the other half of the screws with the new ones, again loosley Then we lifted the strips up so there was a gap - but kept the vinyl bellows in place. Then we put sikaflex 512 in the gap under the strip, before tightening down one strip at at time. The sikaflex 512 squeezed out under the strip and seems to have created a very good seal between the vinyl bellows and the metal strips. If this doesn't stop the water getting under the bellows and down the screw holes, then I don't know what will. Thanks again everyone
Just wanted to mention when I put new bellows on (never again!), new seals etc.. It has not leaked but still gets a bit wet through condensation. Also when I riveted the top section I covered all rivets with a blob of some sort of liquid fiberglass, this lasts for ever, once painted over it Defo won't leak through those again.
