This is rather a looong story, hope I don't bore anyone.
Lily was on the road in September, with no problems at all until the last week. I noticed it was taking several extra turns of the key to start her when were out shopping in Norwich. We parked in various places and luckily she started every time but when we got home and I parked outside to unload I turned her off and then she wouldn't re-start to go in the garage so Al had to push her. We chatted to Jeff and Andrew Vanham so Al got advice on what to check including the ignition switch. Junk's was swapped in and still just a cough from the starter motor so we booked her in to our pedantic garage man for October 23rd. We have an off-site garage just 100 yards away from him, so we arranged to bump start Lily and put her in the garage in place of Paris who was due on the road in October for the Scotland meet. He was happy to bump start her when he was ready to do the job. He likes this arrangement as he's always short of parking and sometimes needs to push work on our non-essential cars back a day or two so he can finish off jobs on other people's daily drivers. Our Saab was in the bodyshop, so Al had to use GT Sven to tow her. His rear towhook is missing so he had to reverse on his smart new towrope which turned out to be alarmingly short. I had visions of Lily kissing Sven, but it went well and she started at the first attempt. So Lily went to Attleborough and Paris came home.
We went off to Glasgow for 10 days to visit my son and then go on to the Scotland meet, taking Eva (Al's turbo) and Paris. We got home Monday night, had Tuesday to sort ourselves out then went off to London on Wednesday for 3 days. Home again late on Friday 20th and found to our relief we'd had no damage or flooding from storm Babet. Paris had to go to pedantic on Monday 23rd for her mot (passed with minimal advisories) and we had to drop Lily's keys off, having put her in the garage on a Sunday when he was closed. Imagine my horror to be told that the whole area had flooded badly on the Friday. It wasn't deep enough to get into any of the cars pedantic had in, and all the flood water had drained away over the weekend. We went to check on Lily and found her driver's seat absolutely saturated. The passenger seat just felt a bit clammy. The driver's window was fully open so we thought at first it had come through the roof. However, there was enough water on the floor to cover the pile of the carpet so presumably it had come over the drivers side cill and the garage floor isn't quite level. Back to pedantic to postpone her booking and ask him to put Paris in the garage when she was done, then back to cover the seat with a large piece of plastic so I didn't drown when Al towed her out of the garage (Saab this time). We were both very relieved when she started. While Al was taking the tow rope off and locking the garage I looked back and she'd left a trail of water from the exhaust, plus water was running out from here there and everywhere. Hopefully she shed most of what was underneath on the 30 mile drive home. The only electrical problem I noticed was the handbrake light stayed on so I guessed the water was up to the mechanism / wiring under it.
Here's the telltale silt on the front lip
and inside
drivers cill also coated with silt
Al took the interior out, which wasn't too difficult as he'd put the half leather seats in so the bolts weren't rusted solid and he'd slit the carpet over the central tunnel where it's hidden. That piece of Volvo deadening mat was securely glued onto the tunnel, so it stayed in and was the last thing to dry properly.
After using towels to remove the water on the floor, 2 dehumidifiers and a small fan heater went in - dreading the electric bill!
Ah, yes, we can see where the water came up to under the handbrake
I noticed that the door card cover was peeling away along the top so worried the card was soggy so that came off as well.
It was actually bone dry but while it was off I taped plastic over the openings where there was no moisture barrier left. I'm glad I looked at this photo - I hadn't noticed the line of rust just under the window when I looked at the actual door.
While the interior was out, it made sense to use up the half pack of sound deadening sitting in the garage.
Now she's booked back in for her starter and check of the lower engine bay for trapped water later this month. Over the last 5 years we have had one car a year done by a top class bodyshop, respray everywhere necessary and everywhere underneath cleaned and waxed. We started with the worst one (Snazzy of the 200k plus miles) and then in turn accoding to degree of rust. Paris jumped the queue last year, I wasn't going to let such a rare car get any worse so she went in almost as soon as I bought her and virtually rust-free Lily got pushed back to this year. She has no visible rust at all apart from a small patch in the rear hatch reveal, so when the Saab started to rust at both ends of the rear arches and on the rear hatch, he jumped the queue as well and Lily got pushed back again. Now of course, I don't want to leave Lily with water trapped in anywhere it shouldn't be, so it's back to plan B to have her done this year and it'll have to be asap. I daren't think of the pain of a second big bodyshop bill in one year....
