So at first I thought I was hearing things, that it was a bit odd that whenever I accelerated or went around a corner, I could hear water sloshing around inside the driver's door.

 

Unfortunately, I'm not imagining things. It seems that, towards the back of the door, the window does not make contact with the outer window seal thingy. And when it rains, it slowly fills up with water.

 

I can push the outside of the door and the upper part of the inside door panel and the gap goes away, but as soon as I relieve pressure it goes back. I presume this is also why the windows rattle when the door is closed when they're partially down.

 

Any fix for this short of replacing the whole door?

A little silicone sealant?

Just shop vac out the door, dry your inner panel and spray the metal with

some WD40, to prevent rust.

Squeeze some outdoor slicone in there and it should help seal up the

leaky window.

Just make sure the window is down when you silicone so as to not allow the

silicone to stick to the window

 

Twitch

New door seal at PnP?

 

Had the same issue except for the fact that the door seal would attack me when I got out of the car.

 

$5.00 later the problem is solved.

 

Just a thought.

pull the inner panel and vacuum out all the dirt, mud, whatever out of the bottom of the door and make sure the drains are clear on each corner of the door.

pull the inner panel and vacuum out all the dirt, mud, whatever out of the bottom of the door and make sure the drains are clear on each corner of the door.

i agree the door should not be filling up with water.. yikes ..could cause door rot from the inside

It may have already done so. When I go and attack the surface rust that I know of on the car, I will find out if the bottom edge of the door is hosed. If so, I'm going to be hunting for new doors... I presume that hatchback doors are the same? Or are they wagon doors?

 

The seal itself looks to be in good shape, there's just a gap between the door and the seal because it appears, somehow, that the outer skin of the door and the inner guts of the door are separating a little bit.

 

 

Of course, it's raining buckets today, and until I sell the Hornet the BRAT has to reside outside...

Geoff, is this for an early Hatch? If so, you might be in luck. There's an '83 Hatch at PAP in Lynnwood. I saw it there last Thursday; looked fairly rust-free to me. 3rd row from the south fence; about 6 cars east of the center aisle.

Those Hatch doors will fit your BRAT, but you have to swap the window glass.

 

Don't forget to swap the door key locks also.