Rumble Seat Water Sealing

[Rdelvalle45]

I recently bought a 1935 Ford convertible. On it first car wash water came into the back floor through the lower end of the rumble seat. In other forums they stated that that is the way it is, there are two holes on the floor for the water to drain.

Has anyone come up with a clever way to seal the rumble seat. It seems to me that the water draining into the inside of the car will cause corrosion problems.

I ordered a T shaped silicone weather strip that I am going to try to wedge in the seat opening; that could be removed when using the rumble set and put back on. Any other solutions will be welcomed.
New member

Roberto

[blucar]

The addition of a rumble seat in lieu of a trunk in a coupe and/or open car was problematic at it's best because the lower water drain channel has to be removed from the body in order to allow clearance for the deck lid to open.
I have a 36 Ford coupe that I have owned since 1952, for years I thought it would be nice to have the added passenger space that a rumble seat would provide. The Delux coupes all came with a back window that rolled down and the deck lid is the same regular coupe or rumble seat. In 1962 I came upon a coupe body that still had the complete rumble seat assembly in the car. I harvest all of the parts with the thought that I would install the rumble in my car.
Many times I started to modify my body to accommodate the rumble, when it came down to cutting the lower drain channel off of the body I would pause, to think the whole thing over. For over 25 years I paused many times, could not bring myself to cut the body.
Many people in the EFV8 group knew I had the rumble and wanted to buy it, I finally said, what the hell, sell it,which I did for a very healthy price.
Ford like many other manufactures never really addressed the problem of keeping water out of the trunk area, after all it was just a car, not a work of art until the buying public made it into one.
I find it to be very interesting that the Ford open cars of the 1930's were mostly Briggs bodied, the '39 Ford convertibles were the last to have the rumble seat option.
I have a '39 Plymouth convertible coupe, it is a Briggs Body, the last body to have have a rumble seat in the entire Chrysler line.
When I was restoring my '39 Plym conv I found that parts for the convertible were very hard to find, with my knowledge of Early Fords I found that the majority of the convertible parts, Ford/Plymouth were the same. Window channels, weather and rumble seals, with the exception of the lower deck lid seal, Ford did not have one where-as the Plymouth did have one. The Plymouth had a large hose that attached to the lower portion of the deck lid drain channel on both sides, extending down to a large hole in the tail pan. The Plymouth also had a metal L channell attached to the floor under the seat to direct any water away from the floor pan an into the rear tail pan and out of the body.
I guess that the Ford body was built to a budget, where-as the Plymouth body was built to a design. The Plymouth also had hydraulic brakes, independent front suspension, column shift and a power top, the first in the industry.

[Rdelvalle45]

Bill Thank you for your response. I think the only way I am going to keep water out of the car is to wedge a silicone or rubber weather strip around the rumble seat. If and when I decide to use the rumble seat then I remove the weather strip then reposition it when finish.
I am doing major surgery to the car starting in November but I want to have a solution for the rumble seat sealing. I ordered a T shape silicone weather strip that might work.
Roberto

[Karl Wescott]

Rather than worry about the impossible task of keeping water out, consider simply managing the water that gets in. The back of the rumble cushion had a retainer tray about 3/4 to 1" tall which with sealer will keep water out of the cushion, make small dams on the sides to keep water from going in front of that, and then drill (or open up) drain holes in the shallow trough that is now there. Remember as Ford did the sewer managers motto "SFDH".

[ford38v8]

Karl is correct, Ford used a dam between the wheel wells consisting of L shaped sheet metal mounted with a sealant under and at the sides. The water entering would find its way to the lower rear where it exited through two drain holes.


While hose washing, and during rainy outings, I also use masking tape on the topside. If you do this, take care to not let the sun beat down on it for the safety of your paint job.

[Bob/Pa]

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If it rains at show I carry a large plastic cover with magnets that I throw over back side and hold from wind with the magnets. I have carpeted the floor so I did put rubber sealall around the lid. That helps.

[Rdelvalle45]

Thank you guys. Bob what is the rubber sealall that you use? I will be carpeting the floor also and it will be good not to let the water in. I will look at the channels to figure out what to do if the water comes in.

For sure when I wash the car at a minimum I will use the masking tape. Just for car wash.

[Rdelvalle45]

Bob I just looked up sealall and that is like cocking. Did you cancel the rumble seat? How did you use the sealall/

[Steve in Denver]

my '36 5-window has a rumble seat conversion. There were so many holes in the deck that I probably did not need to worry about where the water goes as it just went straight down, yes, I know the floor needs to be replaced, but the next owner can worry about that.

Anyway, I built an aluminum tray to fit the area and put a drain hole on the driver's side. I also built a panel to cover the area between the top of the body and the drain tray.

And I built the rain gutter extensions to go on the side of the body as well. I am working on a drawing of the rain gutters if anyone is interested.

With my aluminum tray, I no longer have access to the hatchway for the top of the gas tank, but that could be fixed if someone wants to cut a hole and silicone a doorway in place. But I don't need access because I bought one of the stainless steel gas tanks that has the two holes in the top, NEITHER OF WHICH line up with the access hole. Who thought that up?

[Steve in Denver]

Here are the pictures

[Rdelvalle45]

Steve
I will like to see the drawing. I will be installing a SS tank also with the two holes.

Roberto

[Steve in Denver]

... and I recently found a club member that has this area exposed so I plan to take an 11x17 sheet of paper and make an actual imprint. I will get it posted as soon as I get it.
Steve
[email protected]

[Rdelvalle45]

Thank you much Steve

[blucar]

Reviewing the pix in #12 I see the same view as the rumble area in my '39 Plymouth Briggs bodied conv coupe, with two exceptions. My Plym has a hose connected to lower tail section of the drain channel that extends down into the tail pan area, exiting out of the body. The common coupes w/out the rumble had a drain channel built into the lower lip that drained the water away from the trunk via hoses on both corners that exited out of the tail pan.
My Plymouth has a metal lip attached to the lower edge of the deck lid, this metal lip has a rubber weather seal attached to it, when the deck lid is closed the rubber seal makes contact with the lower edge of the trunk opening.
Ford generally was very good at draining the water away from the windshield channel, doors and coupe rear roll down window's. I would suspect that the Ford Bean Counters did not see a big need to keep the water out of an open car.
The shape, etc., of the weather seal on the lower edge of my Plym deck lid was such that it appears to have had a very short life, portions of the metal lip was rusted away and only small portions of the rubber seal was still there, of course there was enough there to give a hint as to what the original looked like.