The front left sunroof drain on my 81 300D has rusted out and water drips into the car every time it rains. I slid new plastic tubing down the line until it protruded from the opening in the door frame, sealed it in place with a beveled rubber washer and silicon, packed the whole area with plumber's epoxy and it still leaks. I've seen posts about similar problems and the answers alway begin with "pull out the headliner..." Fine. How do you remove the headliner? I can't figure it out at all.

Rod McDanel
Conway AR
81 300D

Whoop, There It Is...
 

Rod,

I ain't got a clue brother, but what I can do is post to this thread, which will bring it back to the top of the que... :D

Hasn't anyone got some help for this member, he's trying to do the best he can, fer chrissakes!

Scott, Rod,

Seems to me that just a few weeks ago there was a guy in New York(??) who had a similar question on a 126. After the usual bout of cleaning drains and running water over the are it was determined that the pipe stub that the drain tube attaches to had rotted out. Fix was either the body shop or a glass/window shop job.

A search on "sunroof drains" should bring that up as a recent question.

Rod,

Are you SURE that the leak is from the sunroof? Is it dripping on your head, or filling the back floorboard with water?

If it is filling the back floorboard with water, the problem is the drains under the hood, yes, the drains under the hood. There is one under each hood hinge and one inboard from that point on the firewall under the battery and under the master cylinder. Clean them with a piece of baling wire, for a city person, coathanger wire usually makes an adequately high tech substitute. In Conway, I expect you would be able to obtain either.

Best of luck,

Leak
 

Thanks for the replys. Sorry I got testy. The leak is the left front drain. The water drips from the joint between the head liner and the door pillar vinyl cover. When I retract the sunroof and poke around it is very obvious that the metal has rusted out. All three of the other drains are fine, I poured water in the channel and they all work. The leaky one works too, but has evidently rusted out around the drain hole. As I mentioned, I ran new tubing down the drain hole and sealed in a washer. Water poured into the channel does run out the drain, but also into the car and drips down on my leg and into the carpet, which takes forever to dry out (its been lying out in the sun or in the garage for a week and is still damp).

Thanks again, but it sounds like a job for a body shop. Any ideas about how much money I'm looking at?

Rod McDanel
81300D