The rainy season down here in balmy southern Florida is on its way out, and indeed, it hadn’t rained in nearly two weeks. Until last night, that is. That’s when the rainclouds decided to pay us one last visit before saying adios for the season. It absolutely poured last night. And the wind picked up, too—rain was slashing sideways across the driveway, threatening to lift me off my feet via the umbrella I was carrying while I pushed the trash can out to the curb.

Morning came, and all was beautiful again (if a little damp). Out to the driveway I went, jumped in KITT and fired him up to get him out of the way (so I could get my Trans Am out of the garage and go to work). Put the car into Drive and pulled out of the driveway.

KAFLOOM. Niagara Falls in the backseat.

I craned my neck around in utter shock, just in time to witness a steady stream of water cascading down from above the horizontal trim panel between my T-tops and the rear hatch, depositing itself square in the middle of the driver’s side rear seat. As I needed to get to work, I didn’t have time to investigate further, but we’re not talking a steady dripping or even a trickle—we’re talking a steady stream, like somebody got up on the roof and poured a glass of water into the backseat.

“C’mon, KITT! Is that how a friend treats a friend?” </michaelknight>

Fortunately, no leakage occurred anywhere over the front seats of the car. But having water pouring out of the middle of the roof, halfway between the T-tops and the hatch, is a little unsettling. Makes you worry that your supposedly solid metal roof has holes in it! But after doing a little research on the ThirdGen.org message board (I love that site), it seems the culprit may be my T-top weather seals after all, and that this problem is fairly common. Apparently a leaky weather seal in the center piece (the bar between the two T-top panels) allows water to enter, and as more water comes in, it just pools on top of the plastic trim piece between the headliner and the hatch glass. Then when the car moves, it all comes pouring out and into the backseat. Below is an illustration of a common weak spot in the weather seals:

All sounds well and good—re-sealing the weather stripping isn’t too hard, provided you have some good silicone and a dry place to let it set up. If it’s real bad, it’s possible the T-top center bar will need to be replaced, and if you pull that off, you’ve got to redo all the weather seals (at a cost of ~$400). The trouble is, I have no idea how long this leak has been going on. If it’s been a problem for long, chances are the inside of my roof is all rusted. I’ll need to pull the headliner down to be sure, but it could be a horror story in there. There might be just surface rust, which would need sanding and painting, or—it could be rotted real bad, which would require cutting and welding. Having the latter done by a shop is very expensive. If I find that to be the case, I’d better get real friendly with a welder sometime soon.

Funny though, because the previous owner told me that the T-tops didn’t leak. But then, he didn’t drive the car much in the last two years, either. It’s possible the leak developed during that time, in which case the rust might not be too bad yet.

Makes my taillight and hatch support replacement seem like small potatoes now, doesn’t it? Well, we’ve all got to start somewhere. I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me! Which reminds me, I really need to buy a good Torx driver set…where’s Bonnie when you need her?