This is a 1971 LeBaron 2 dr. hardtop.
I'm sorry these posts were so long, but I have heard from several sources
that the fuselage years were leaky, and I thought my experience might be
helpful. In a Popular Mechanics article from that period that was one of
the biggest complaints.
Good luck if you have a leak!
(It rained like crazy down here after I fixed mine, and the trunk was dry
as a bone the next day. Hooray!)
MM
roger crabtree wrote:
> What car was this on? RC
>
> --- Mark McDonald <tomswift@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >
> I'm amazed at how much I learned today. Okay, it's
> > trivial-- I guess.
> > But if you've spent as much time as I have removing
> > your carpet and
> > drying it out, and then doing it all over again a
> > few days later when it
> > rains again, it's a big deal.
> >
> > I think I fixed my leak. It's raining now, so I
> > should know for sure
> > tomorrow AM.
> >
> > The leak was coming from a single hole in the trunk
> > where the end cap is
> > attached. There are 4 bolts there, arranged in a
> > square pattern on a
> > vertical piece of metal above the taillight. If you
> > look at the 4
> > holes, it is the upper left hole-- the one at the
> > top, nearest the trunk
> > lid. When I removed the end cap, I noticed that a
> > trail of water was
> > flowing down the top of the fender directly into
> > that hole, and that
> > hole only. It's just a curious result of the way
> > that fender is shaped
> > on the fuselage cars, I guess. It's almost as if
> > there's a "gutter"
> > there from the roof down the fender to the
> > taillight. In a heavy rain,
> > the water pours off the roof and travels down the
> > gutter into the crack
> > at the top of the end cap, where it goes into that
> > hole.
> >
> > I have never had a leak on the left side of the
> > trunk, but I was going
> > to gunk that side up too, just in case. But when I
> > looked at it I
> > suddenly realized why it never leaked on that side.
> > The factory had put
> > a big mound of rubbery stuff over that one bolt-- it
> > kind of had the
> > consistency of kneaded rubber, or maybe modeling
> > clay. (There is a name
> > for this stuff, but I can't remember it.)
> > Evidently, at some point, the
> > engineers realized the possibility of a leak at this
> > point and put a gob
> > of this stuff on there to solve it. (There is also
> > a hole in the lip of
> > metal that forms the bottom of the end cap, so that
> > water can't get
> > trapped in there.)
> >
> > Before I bought my car, I think it was damaged on
> > the right side near
> > the end cap and whoever did the repair did not
> > bother to put any gunk
> > over the hole on that side.
> >
> > The fuselage cars have a reputation as being leaky.
> > Having seen the
> > stuff they put around the bolt I feel a little
> > better about the quality
> > of these cars now. The leak was due to later
> > meddling-- not the
> > manufacturer's carelessness.
> >
> > If any of you have a leaky trunk in your fuselage,
> > check that bolt.
> >
> > Mark
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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