Leak at high top or windshield

[shadetreevanman]

Under that black trim is a aluminum track with screws going through it and through your roof. On my recent install, I had slight leakage until I pulled the aluminum off and ran a bead of urethane under the aluminum. To do that you will have to pull the black trim, remove all the screws holding the aluminum on, apply the sealant, and then reinstall everything. After getting my tools and parts together, it took about 3 hours to pull everything and reinstall.

Trying to seal just the rubber is a band aid, and puts the sealant out where it gets UV damage. By pulling everything the sealant is under everything where it should be.

Make sure your bead of urethane encapsulates each screw hole completely. I put a dab of sealant over each screw as well after I reinstalled it.

The van I took the roof off of did not have any sealant in this area, so I didn't think I would need any either. After a couple of heavy rains I changed my mind.

[JWA]

Originally Posted by Marcel Huijser

Problem identified and fixed

Glad this was relatively "easy" Marcel----was hoping it wouldn't be too tough a task.

And yeah have to agree with ConnieKat---great to find and fix anything DIY.

Sadly too many of these conversions with finished interiors probably leak from day one or soon after delivery to the end user---those interiors hiding the leaks for quite a while. ShadeTree did his new top the right way.

Even sadder is the converters could have done just a bit more to make a leak-resistant addition but that wouldn't taken a few dollars and hours more per job---can't cut into profits that way.

[marty]

Thanks for this thread! I've had a series of similar leaks.

At first, I thought it was just a crack in the fiberglass mid-top that I found at the back center above the center brake light on the high top. I fixed that with fiberglass mat and that helped.

Later, I put a bead of Proflex sealant around the top part of the black trim around the top. That helped, but like shadetree said, it was just a band-aid.

I have a 1990 E350 EB. I didn't realize how poor the gutter system is. During heavy rains, the water pools up in the gutters and I believe it's entering in the screw holes as well. So, I'll be doing a similar repair soon. Taking off the trim, replacing screws with sealant, etc.

[marty]

Just FYI. I pulled my black vinyl trim off and the aluminum trim attaching my fiberglass high top to the roof. Cleaned everything up. Shot some ProFlex sealant in the screw holes. Reattached the trim with butyl tape (there was butyl tape under the fiberglass high top but not under the trim). Replaced a number of rusty screw with all stainless screws.

Later though, after scouring the forums, I realized my water leak problem was likely coming from the rain gutter drip rails and it was hidden by the old seam sealant (probably original and 30 years old). There's a number of good threads on this. I did the arduous job of removing the old seam sealant first.

I used a heat gun, a hammer and a number of screw drivers to chisel out the old gunk. Took me and my patience a couple days. Once I started getting it off, I found my problem spots near the rear sides and corners. I had some rust but mostly just surface. Not rotted out holes like I've seen on other vans. I was able to get a 3" wire wheel in there to clean off the surface rust and get down to bare metal. Cleaned the surface. Applied Corroseal rust converter primer. That's where I'm at now.

I was gonna apply an epoxy primer next and then 3m 4200. But the working temperatures for October are getting too cold for me to apply an epoxy primer I think. So I'll probably do a temporary seal in the gutter with Geocel ProFlex to hold out water for winter. Then clean it out next summer and do the epoxy primer and an auto seam sealer or 3m 4200 or 5200 or Vulkem.