Bodge or Buy? (Roof Leaks!)

[Sian]

Hi All,

My roof isn't well Discovered a pond under (but not in) the passenger bin, along with a damp passenger footwell. At least I found it before full on flooding.

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Fortunately it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the problem!

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Unfortunately I'm not sure there's any easy way I can rectify this? Utimately it means a new roof but I was wondering if anyone could think of any temporary 'cost effective' fixes?

It's my daily driver but luckily I already have a hardtop so I can still use the car.

If anyone has any thoughts or advice, even if it's about a new roof, please help!

As a plus, I decided to drive my worries away with the heater on full blast to dry out the footwell - and cook my ankles!

Sian

[Sian]

No idea why the images are upsidedown!

[househead]

Can't quite make out how big your tear is from the photos but you could try gorilla tape? It's my go-to duct tape for repairs. Used it on tents, an inflating mattress, all sorts. Pretty sure it's waterproof. Only worry is that it might not stick well to the fabric. Probably a better chance of it on the inner side of the soft top. Gotta be worth a shot before shelling out for a new roof

[wotugonado]

I have a good roof on my car, it has spent most of my ownership with the hardtop on, so the roof's not seen much weathering since I've had it. Not sure how easy to remove they are?
But could be an option if
A:your cheap fix doesn't work.
B: it's easy enough to remove.

[Carolyn]

All these original vinyl roofs are reaching end-of-life.  Once they start splitting, they'll carry on splitting.

You can. of course, patch and repair, but it will get boring eventually.

Or you could contact Jack Smith Trimmers in Swansea and get a brand new cloth roof installed in half a day for £300.

Loads of us have gone this route and we're all very happy with the result.

[Sian]

Can't quite make out how big your tear is from the photos but you could try gorilla tape?

The tears are a few inches below my thumb and finger. Pretty much the whole seam has fallen apart! I may try the tape idea at least for now whilst it'll mainly have the hardtop on.

Not sure how easy to remove they are?

Thank you, it's good to know there are other options. I think if I were to go to the faff of removing (which I doubt is easy!) I'd probably be best replacing it with a new one. Thank you for the offer though

Or you could contact Jack Smith Trimmers in Swansea and get a brand new cloth roof installed in half a day for £300.

I've heard good things about Jack Smith but never properly looked into it. Thought I'd get another couple years out of it but I guess the roof had other ideas!

[B_Tank88]

I tried the stormsure repair kit before I ended up getting my roof replaced, it was very tricky.

If you have full access to the vinyl laid nicely on a flat surface, I'm sure you can do an excellent repair with stormsure but my rip was behind one of the roof cars and it was very difficult to get a tidy repair on it.

First of all the tape just would not stick so I had to clean the cloth surface thoroughly from the inside which was very difficult itself, and then lining up the tape and getting it to stick was also a struggle but got there in the end. It looked very messy but it did make a watertight seal.

It kept me dry until I got the roof replaced from Jack Smith which I'm very happy with.