Written by Pat Prociv

I own a 1975 Dart SE (the wife's), a 1975 Valiant Brougham (college boy's), and a 1974 Valiant Scamp (high-schooler's). The Scamp is a recent acquisition, so it leaks water everywhere. The other two are DRY inside the passenger compartment. The wiper pivot posts were not a real leak source. The firewall body joint sealant was not a leak source. The real problem was the lower outboard corners of the windshields. Chrysler in their infinite corporate wisdom, cut down the bedding channel that the windshield sets in, right where they needed it most, at the lower outboard corners. This is where the water leaks in past the rubber "gasket" due to excessive rust in this channel area: it leaks through the rust and crud, goes down inside the dashboard area, over the instrument cluster, corroding the ammeter and headlight switch, then down to the bottom of the dashboard where there is a "lip" formed on the sheet metal edge. The water then runs like a river back and forth across the lower dashboard, and, depending on whether you are turning right or left, it trickles out onto your right shoe and sock, or (worse still) onto your Honey's feet. (Makes a real impression.)

The only fix for this leakage is to remove the windshield and gasket (seal) completely. After you have cleaned all the crud out of the bedding flange or "channel" areas, then you will see some really ugly and deep rust, especially on the left and right windshield posts and the lower outboard corners. You MUST clean the entire bedding surfaces down to BARE METAL, or you will only be WISHING to fix the leak. Use assorted power wire brushes on a drill motor, or if you can find one and don't mind a humongous mess, sand or glass blast the areas clean. Follow this with the best quality catalyzed epoxy primer you can find, use several coats, allowing complete curing between coats. With the windshield out, now is an excellent time to re-finish that top of the dashboard, maybe spray paint the metal surface, vinyl spray the pad, and paint the deteriorating defrost vent louvers. Let everything cure before you jump into reinstalling the windshield. If the gasket is re-usable, clean it thoroughly with lacquer thinner. If you need a new gasket, I haven't looked for a source, so go fish. MASK EVERYTHING inside and outside the windshield area, and cover the new carpet, and the steering wheel, and the seats, and the doors upholstery, the sunvisors and headliner, and everything else you don't want black gooey sticky permanent staining sealant on. Now you can reinstall the windshield with lots of sealant (NAPA parts stores have some good stuff). Clean up with the mildest solvent: try mineral spirits or cheap lacquer thinner. Wear disposable gloves. I can't take you step by step through the windshield R&R, so find someone experienced to help you. (I cracked my first windshield.)

But the trunk is still a moss garden and the rear quarter panels are both rotted and the spare tire is about to fall through the bottom of the well, along with the welded straps retaining the fuel tank?? Time to do the same treatment to the rear window, but that only fixes 85% of the trunk leaks. If you have a vinyl top, remove the horizontal trim strips along the base of the rear "pillars" [the C-pillars] between the rear doors and the rear window. The leaks here are at the retaining clip holes, so just clean up the areas around each hole and reinstall the clips using a NON-SILICONE sealant. ( See the lumps under the vinyl on the pillars? That is the rust in the welded body joint pushing the old factory bondo up against the vinyl. Incidentally, J.C.Whitney sells a relatively cheap vinyl top replacement kit for about $120, but the 3-M #77 Spray Adhesive will run you about $85 for about 6 cans or more. It's really not too hard a job, just be sure to pre-fit the fabric, draw a center line on the car roof and a matching centerline on the glue-side of the fabric, then lay and spray. ) The last leakage into the trunk area, and the one that I'm convinced eats the quarter panels, is the taillights. The foam rubber seals don't. I have not perfected the sealing of the taillights, because I have not been able to come up with a decent gasket that seals, but still allows for acceptable ease of removal of the taillights in future maintenance. But now that we've pin-pointed the problem, the cure is just a matter of effort.

Can someone tell me why my engine temperature gages read low- not high, not zero, but just lower than actual temperature. The engine is operating at normal temps. I've swapped out the temp probes, with the same results. The wiring and plugs seem OK. I'm thinking it could be the "instrument voltage regulator" attached to the back side of the instrument cluster, but I haven't pursued that yet. Any definate in-put?? Thanks.


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