My T-Tops leak and I can't afford to fix them the right way by buying new seals, and soon my camaro is going to be a daily driver. With the rainy season coming up I need to stop the water from coming in. What's the best temporary fix for this. One friend suggested duct tape and someone else suggested using clear sillicone.

 

Heres an old trick, Use tire shine spray on the rubbers, after a few treatments itll swell the rubbers back up. Other than that you can adjust your ttops by taking off the pillar trim and moving the mounts around. Doing this, I got 90% of my leak to stop, just gotta readjust the pass side on mine.

 

Mine weren't worn enough to replace but leaked. Carefully remove them (old ones can tear very easy so be careful). Cleaned in the tub with hot soapy water. Clean and check for rust in the channel and sand / rust treat / brush paint any spots. My car is black so black silicone bead in the channel and put them back in. Silicone takes a while to dry so you can slide the wxstripping around a bit during the process. Don't put the tops back on until after the silicone is dry. When done I still had a leak and almost kicked myself after all that but remember it is possible to seat and lock the tops slightly improperly which causes a leak. When I realized that I was good to go.

 

Guys, these cars are 20-30 years old! The weatherstripping is a requirement. Why do so many people buy these cars and then say they can't afford to fix 'em. What do you think you're getting with an old car? Fix 'em correctly and you won't need to worry about the leak for many years to come. Keep doing hack jobs and the "trash" stigma that 3rd gen owners have will never go away!!!

 

go to a1auto and get there seals there i got mine and there 198 shipped and there great there called metro seals its the body seal

 

Use GM seals if your going to do it.

Even tho I put new seals in mine after paint 15yrs ago, they still leaked a bit. I used electrical tape to go over all the TTOP seams when I used to leave it out in the rain.
As with any tape dont leave it on to long. This worked the best as far as adhesive cleanup. Its also cheap an comes in many colors, my car is black so you couldnt even tell it was on. I even drove around with it on 4 awhile..
Cheesy I know but it works well.

 

Wow that was helpful. With all the other stuff I have going on, I don't think I will be able to do the repair the right way before the rainy season starts so I'm looking for an alternative to keep the water out of the car until I can. The car has very little rust and I want to kepp it that way.

 

My '91Firebird had a bad leak on the passenger side. A heavy application of vaseline stopped the leak and now (after the vaseline absorbed) it no longer leaks.

Good for me and perhaps you, but as Scottmoyer said above. these cars are old, rubber deteriorates and to put it politely - "Shade Tree Fixes Don't Work".

 

A friend of mine also suggested vaseline and I am probably going to try that first. I hate doing it this way, but by the time I can buy the seals it will be raining most of the time and right now the car is dry and I want to keep it that way. If the engine in my burb didn't blow up on me I would probably have the $$$ sooner. Right now I have to get the burb rolling and also get the clutch linkage fixed on the car and then tackle any other issues that would affect the reliability of the car...it's going to be my daily driver and the previous driver drove the car hard. I may also have to replace the clutch and transmission too. At least I saved it from the crusher.

 

i have heard that vasoline will deteriorate the rubber very quickly. if you plan on replacing the rubber then that wont matter much. but to anyone else who is having leaks out of new rubber, this fix isnt suggested

 

I've heard it will not do it as fast as the tire dressing. But both treatments cause the rubber to swell a little bit.

I haven't had the chance to even look at the car yet. My Suburban (85 4x4 diesel) needs an eninge and that's my main focus right now. My g/f drives that and is needing that vehicle back on the road. I'm hoping to have that going by the end of the week and then I will be getting my camaro back toegther and drivable.