As a newbie I’m curious as to how well the Speedster top handles in the rain. Is it safe to drive in a full rain without getting the interior very wet? I live in N.E. GA where we get our share of rain.
Thanks,
Greg
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
It handles it pretty well for an emergency top (Porsche's words) but will leak, particularly around the side curtains. One of the best things that you can do is to fabricate a set of plexiglass side windows made to fit more tightly, provide much better visibility, and even improve ventilation. Lots of us did so and it was one of the best improvements you can do. That said, a Speedster is an open car with temporary weather protection when needed, it shouldn't be viewed as a true convertible. For that you'd need a Convertible D.
@Greg54 asked, "Is it safe to drive in a full rain without getting the interior very wet?"
No. It will leak, sometimes quite a lot in full rain, especially when moving but sometimes when stopped, too. Not all cars leak at the same amount (and some are very leak-free), but plan on figuring out how to dry the interior carpets and seats. I would just park it in the sun for a day, moving it to get direct sunshine on the soaked areas til dry.
Typical leak areas are around the windshield (especially along the top seal), down both sides of the windshield, at the bottom corners of the windshield (especially if the side windows are not in), and at the rear, lower corner of the windshield. Some cars will leak along the top of the side windows when driving at turnpike speeds (the side window top edge tends to get sucked outward and open a gap).
Some cars leak into the cockpit just ahead of the rear wheels from spray from the wheels.
If the car is stored outside or if left outside in a downpour, it will leak.
So funny reading this directly after "why are there so many low mileage Speedters for sale thread 
Don't forget Rain-X for exterior of windshield and Fog-X for interior (and rear view mirror). Modern car defrost where the AC kicks in is greatly missed!
So a guy buys a new to him Speedster. First sunny day, he and his sweetie take it out for a nice drive.
He thinks it's great - The wind in what's left of his hair, the peppy sound of the engine, the vague responsiveness of the steering, the vibration of the suspension telling him what's going on at the road level - He loves it.
They stop at a red light and he rejoices in the smell of both raw and burnt gasoline wafting over from the back of the car like the waves at Hawaii's Waimea Bay in surfing season. Love is in the air.
They continue driving but fail to notice the dark cloud approaching from their rear until it's too late and they get caught in a light rain shower. They pull over, and while they struggle to get the top up and side windows in, they and the car get soaked. Then, continuing on, they notice, in rapid succession, that there are leaks all over the place, a couple of which are dumping water on their knees or feet or blowing it on their heads, and that all of the glass is fogging up making it difficult and unsafe to see.
She, on the other hand, dislikes an open car, hates that her hair is blowing all over the place and that any hat she puts on tries to get blown off at any speed over 10mph. The sound of the engine is like a biker motorcycle in the back seat, the car seems to be wandering all over their lane and she can feel every little crack in the pavement (and there are a LOT of little cracks in the pavement). Not to mention that when they pass a big truck she looks directly across at it's BIG wheels and UP at the driver (who is leering down at her from above).
They stop at a red light and suddenly this God-Awful smell suddenly fills the cockpit turning her green and making her want to puke on the German Square-Weave carpet, but she holds it in with a mastery of sheer will power.
The light turns green light and they make their turn and now the Sun is in their eyes. She automatically reaches for the Sun visor but.... There isn't one. So she tries holding her hand in front of her eyes and finally gets her hat up from the floor, puts it on pulling the brim way down, and sits there holding the hat in place while tears from the exhaust fumes, the noise of the engine, the feeling every little pavement crack and the sun in her eyes begin to swell in her eyes.
She pleads to her pilot, "Can we go home, now? I have a headache", and he knows that lilt to her voice so, sadly, he heads back to the house where she downs a few Tylenol with a glass of wine and lies down, vowing to herself never to ride in that God-Awful thing again - EVER! He stays out in the garage, wiping down the car with a Micro-Fibre cloth, lovingly removing any road grime from their inaugural trip and dreaming of their next ride - Which will be solo. He just doesn't know that...yet.
THAT is why there are so many Speedsters for sale with less than 2,000 miles on them.
IMHO, almost all of us spec these cars wrong. I did - twice.
The first box we tick is for the "leather interior" option, and the second is the "German square-weave". Both of these materials look great, but are not weather resistant, and forever after this dictates how we use the car if we let it.
If the car had vinyl dashboards, door cards and seats, and poly carpet - water intrusion would not be a big deal at all. Better yet would be to set it up on the assumption that water was going to leak in, and do truck-bed liner on the floor with a rubber floor mat.
... but we don't spec them like dune buggies. We get them all pimped out with Spinneybeck leather and carpets woven by elves somewhere in the Black Forest. They look fabulous, then it rains and we go full-on Keystone Kops trying to "save the liver".
We tell people to think of these cars as 4-wheeled motorcycles, then we spec them out to be as precious as a Faberge egg. Things got much, much better for me when I just started using the car like a car. It's going to rain. You and your car are going to get wet. You'll need to deal with it. Having nice things (leather and square-weave) doesn't mean you can't/won't drive your car when it looks like it might rain (which is to say, "always") - it means you make a conscious decision to stop seeing your car as an investment to be preserved, and start seeing it as an object of affection to be used and enjoyed.
The shift in thinking is really all it takes.
I drive in the rain and cold in the Spring frequently. I enlarged my window curtains so they fit tight in the top. Adding about 2 inches to exterior seals up pretty tight. You have to manually fit them in the top which is a PITA. I also added the rear view mirror clamp to pull the top down snug. In a driving rain I get almost no rain intrusion. I also notified the heating system to bypass the frame and provide heat directly to the footwells. Until the temp goes below 35f it keeps me warm. You will get additional engine noise however. It is still not much of a defroster either. Thinking of adding bilge fans to the tubing to improve that.
@Greg54 posted:As a newbie I’m curious as to how well the Speedster top handles in the rain. Is it safe to drive in a full rain without getting the interior very wet? I live in N.E. GA where we get our share of rain.
Thanks,
Greg
Depends on which make of Speedster you have. All leak somewhat - some much more than others. It's a sports car - they are supposed to subject you to all sorts of experiences, good and bad.
But really, these are sunny day, dry weather cars for the most part.
@Stan Galat posted:IMHO, almost all of us spec these cars wrong. I did - twice.
The first box we tick is for the "leather interior" option, and the second is the "German square-weave". Both of these materials look great, but are not weather resistant, and forever after this dictates how we use the car if we let it.
If the car had vinyl dashboards, door cards and seats, and poly carpet - water intrusion would not be a big deal at all. Better yet would be to set it up on the assumption that water was going to leak in, and do truck-bed liner on the floor with a rubber floor mat.
... but we don't spec them like dune buggies. We get them all pimped out with Spinneybeck leather and carpets woven by elves somewhere in the Black Forest. They look fabulous, then it rains and we go full-on Keystone Kops trying to "save the liver".
We tell people to think of these cars as 4-wheeled motorcycles, then we spec them out to be as precious as a Faberge egg. Things got much, much better for me when I just started using the car like a car. It's going to rain. You and your car are going to get wet. You'll need to deal with it. Having nice things (leather and square-weave) doesn't mean you can't/won't drive your car when it looks like it might rain (which is to say, "always") - it means you make a conscious decision to stop seeing your car as an investment to be preserved, and start seeing it as an object of affection to be used and enjoyed.
The shift in thinking is really all it takes.
I totally agree with your thinking, Stan! I have been riding motorcycles almost daily to work and for travel for 15 years. I’ve owned 39 different bikes and ridden over 225k miles. To me, this Speedster is better than a bike but it is still a machine to be driven and not just looked at. It is beautiful no doubt but, like a beautiful Ducati, it is still a car used for driving.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I guess there’s got to be more people like us who just want to drive our cars and deal with what comes.
Amen, brother!
@majorkahuna posted:I drive in the rain and cold in the Spring frequently. I enlarged my window curtains so they fit tight in the top. Adding about 2 inches to exterior seals up pretty tight. You have to manually fit them in the top which is a PITA. I also added the rear view mirror clamp to pull the top down snug. In a driving rain I get almost no rain intrusion. I also notified the heating system to bypass the frame and provide heat directly to the footwells. Until the temp goes below 35f it keeps me warm. You will get additional engine noise however. It is still not much of a defroster either. Thinking of adding bilge fans to the tubing to improve that.
Sounds great! Can you post some pics of your extended top?
I will see what I have. The car is in Winter storage for a while. Might be later May before our snow melts.
The center rod mirror is a great place for a soap on rope ...might as well kill two birds with one stone. Even with the top up you will need a car cover and lastly, Bruce's photos tell's the tale. 
Attachments
Images (1)
"We get them all pimped out with Spinneybeck leather and carpets woven by elves somewhere in the Black Forest."
You really know how to hurt a guy, Stan...
In the end, a box full of micro-fibre cloths, a roll of blue painter's tape for sealing the top/bottom of the windshield pre-deluge (see photo above), maybe a large sponge for sopping up deeper puddles inside and, of course, a remarkably effective windshield de-fogger sponge, like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Travelo...gid=pla-569152803356
Can do wonders in the post deluge period of just getting home. The drying-out period can be from several hours to several days, depending on the choice of interior and quantity of water absorbed and I totally agree that vinyl is much better than leather in an open car.
To give you Newbies some hope, ALL of us have contended with water intrusion to some degree, and our efforts to plug all of the leaks has gone from very successful to "I don't give a $#!+" I'm somewhere in the upper half of curing them and have replaced my de-fogging sponge with a gas heater but would still avoid driving in the rain if I could. Jack Crosby has sealed up all of his water leaks on his Vintage Speedster and documented it on here for others to follow (I documented my efforts on my CMC with a Vintage top, too) so if you're really concerned, check out what others have done. Don't listen to those Intermeccanica owners, though - They have power roll-up side windows and something more like an articulated-frame Cabriolet top that probably seals better than a Miata top. They also wear "driving gloves" and cute little driving hats which, this time of year, have this suspicious logo on them: "LL Bean".
Just a reminder, NONE of the original Porsche 356 Speedsters came from the factory with any carpeting on the floor (or the kick panels, for that matter). All they had was a 1/8" thick, embossed rubber floor mat - Didn't even have the Porsche logo. The cure for water pooling up more than 1/2" on the floors (they were a hearty bunch, back then) was to drill some holes in the floor panels to let the water out. While I don't recommend that, as a rule, it is very effective. I do the same thing in my spare tire well, way up front, where my gas heater sits. Just in case. Hasn't failed me yet.
@Gordon Nichols posted:So a guy buys a new to him Speedster. First sunny day, he and his sweetie take it out for a nice drive.
He thinks it's great - The wind in what's left of his hair, the peppy sound of the engine, the vague responsiveness of the steering, the vibration of the suspension telling him what's going on at the road level - He loves it.
They stop at a red light and he rejoices in the smell of both raw and burnt gasoline wafting over from the back of the car like the waves at Hawaii's Waimea Bay in surfing season. Love is in the air.
They continue driving but fail to notice the dark cloud approaching from their rear until it's too late and they get caught in a light rain shower. They pull over, and while they struggle to get the top up and side windows in, they and the car get soaked. Then, continuing on, they notice, in rapid succession, that there are leaks all over the place, a couple of which are dumping water on their knees or feet or blowing it on their heads, and that all of the glass is fogging up making it difficult and unsafe to see.
She, on the other hand, dislikes an open car, hates that her hair is blowing all over the place and that any hat she puts on tries to get blown off at any speed over 10mph. The sound of the engine is like a biker motorcycle in the back seat, the car seems to be wandering all over their lane and she can feel every little crack in the pavement (and there are a LOT of little cracks in the pavement). Not to mention that when they pass a big truck she looks directly across at it's BIG wheels and UP at the driver (who is leering down at her from above).
They stop at a red light and suddenly this God-Awful smell suddenly fills the cockpit turning her green and making her want to puke on the German Square-Weave carpet, but she holds it in with a mastery of sheer will power.
The light turns green light and they make their turn and now the Sun is in their eyes. She automatically reaches for the Sun visor but.... There isn't one. So she tries holding her hand in front of her eyes and finally gets her hat up from the floor, puts it on pulling the brim way down, and sits there holding the hat in place while tears from the exhaust fumes, the noise of the engine, the feeling every little pavement crack and the sun in her eyes begin to swell in her eyes.
She pleads to her pilot, "Can we go home, now? I have a headache", and he knows that lilt to her voice so, sadly, he heads back to the house where she downs a few Tylenol with a glass of wine and lies down, vowing to herself never to ride in that God-Awful thing again - EVER! He stays out in the garage, wiping down the car with a Micro-Fibre cloth, lovingly removing any road grime from their inaugural trip and dreaming of their next ride - Which will be solo. He just doesn't know that...yet.
THAT is why there are so many Speedsters for sale with less than 2,000 miles on them.
Ha, that story is very similar to mine. I had a beautiful Speedster custom built back in 2016 and still love driving it every chance that I can get; however, my wife refuses to ride in it. Never the less, I've made several new friends here in Charlotte since taking delivery and God willing, hope to continue doing so for many years to come.
Cliff
Attachments
Images (1)
My wife isn't a fan of open cars but gamely rode with me in the Speedster (and my MG before that) a few times. One time when I was out of town her car's battery died when she needed to get to a dentist appointment, so she took the Speedster all by herself. When I got home she said "I think I know why you liked the Speedster. Everybody was so nice and gave me a lot of compliments on the car. It was fun."
If you live in Charlotte, is she a NASCAR fan instead? (if she is, I'm sorry)
Maybe she doesn't like our "uncivilized" little European toy cars?
I mean, Jeff Gordon is a little more handsome than, say, Ferdinand Porsche or Mario Farnbacher, so I can see the bias she might have. 😉
Maybe you need to give her more incentive, like "Honey, I'm driving the Speedster over to Midwoods or Sweet Lew's for eat-in BBQ and sweet tea. Wanna come?"
If you get her to join you at those two, then sneak a bit farther out to Jon G's in Peachland and get the Briskett and Hush Puppies. You'll have her hooked.
Caution: She might not like the Biker vibes at "Mac's Speed Shop".
Rain Schmain.
“An adventure is never an adventure when it happens. An adventure is simply physical and emotional discomfort recollected in tranquility.” Tim Cahill
@Gordon Nichols posted:If you live in Charlotte, is she a NASCAR fan instead? (if she is, I'm sorry)
Maybe she doesn't like our "uncivilized" little European toy cars?
I mean, Jeff Gordon is a little more handsome than, say, Ferdinand Porsche or Mario Farnbacher, so I can see the bias she might have. 😉
Maybe you need to give her more incentive, like "Honey, I'm driving the Speedster over to Midwoods or Sweet Lew's for eat-in BBQ and sweet tea. Wanna come?"
If you get her to join you at those two, then sneak a bit farther out to Jon G's in Peachland and get the Briskett and Hush Puppies. You'll have her hooked.
Caution: She might not like the Biker vibes at "Mac's Speed Shop".
Hello Gordon,
Even though I've never had a car wreck in my life, except for a train she doesn't care about ANYTHING that is capable of going fast.
Other than that, she has been a wonderful wife and mom, and even if I could afford one, I wouldn't trade her for a 250 GT SWB Berlinetta.
Cliff
WOW!!. Just a great read. Let me check some boxes:
Larger side curtains that actually fit into the flap at the top -- check
Truck bed liner on the floor pan inside -- check
Plug and undercoat like crazy all penetrations around the inner cowl (aka firewall??) -- check
Rain-X defogger -- check
At least two bath towels and several micro fibers -- check
Positive lock top latches (thankyou ever so much Carey Hines) -- check
Extra clasp to hold the top bar at windshield -- check
two rolls of blue tape -- check
extra weather stripping in the top header groove -- check
Poly carpet that LOOKS like square weave, but isn't -- check
An attitude adjustment that even Stan would appreciate -- check
Ok, leather seats, so shoot me.
I am reminded of that green JPS #1 coupe (Tom deWolf’s?) that debuted at Carlisle one year. Chris and I went with him as he drove home after the event, because he had brought both his Speedster and Coupe to the show - Chris drove the Speedster. We drove to his place in a downpour and it was a toss-up as to which car had more water inside. IIRC, Chris had about an inch of water in the Speedster and there was more than 2” depth in the Coupe.
The Tsunami that happened inside whenever they got on the brakes was momentous. We were later drying Chris’ soaked sneakers and socks with the dash vents in the truck for about an hour. Good thing it was a long ride home.
The difference was that the Speedster (an early Beck) leaked around the windows like they all do, but the Coupe (an early JPS) leaked from underneath. That turned out to be the least of its problems.
... ahhh, the Little Green Coupe, I wonder whatever happened to that? I hope it got fixed, assuming it was indeed fixable. I think we got the mechanicals about OK. As to the rest, it sailed off over the horizon, and was never seen again. At least, not by me.
Yeah, that piston pin circlip was a real motor-wrecker. That got fixed.
The worst thing was the fuel hose on the back side of the fan with TWO slices started in it from rubbing the fan. Thankfully, I spotted that, replaced the hose and ATTACHED IT TO THE FIREWALL.
... and never to be seen again. Too bad. Under the right conservatorship, could have been a pretty neat car.