With a Little Help from My Friends

Victor has always had a soft spot. On rainy nights, his tears would flow gently from somewhere around the back door and pool up around the trunk area. And yes, even two-ton, 21 year old, mini vans can cry. Only these tears aren't the kind you can wipe away with a tissue and kind words. It takes a little problem solving, some RTV silicone, and maybe some new weatherstripping.

I've known about this little leak ever since August when Victor and I first became friends. I pulled off the saggy weatherstripping and reinstalled it with some silicone to back it up. This was supposed to be the one and only fix, and the leak appeared to have gone away...for a little while.

Low and behold, the caulking on the back window was cracking and letting water in too. I caked that up with some silicone and the problem went away again...for a little while.

Last week, Seattle saw the most rain its seen in months, and the soggy floor in the back of the van reflected that fact. Where was this water coming from!? The leak that was afflicting the van this time was not giving away too many clues. The leak would get worse when I was driving (vibrations maybe) and always seemed to fall some place a little bit different (one day here, one day ten inches away over here, next day a couple drops over here too...). Finding the root cause and stopping it was baffling me.

Chance threw me a little luck and gave me a dry place to sleep this weekend. My friend Jackie was headed out of town to Idaho in hopes of a little wintertude, and offered up her studio for me to crash in. Eager to rest my weary eyes and ponder about the possible causes of the leak while not worrying about getting leaked on, I accepted the offer.

I'm going to attribute it to the good nights sleep and fresh mind that brought me to an astounding discovery the next time I looked at the van. I quickly took notice to the brake light housing precariously situated above the rear hatch. I don't know why I was just noticing it for the first time now, but fact is, it stood out to me this day.

Wondering how the housing was mounted, I unscrewed the two bolts holding it in place. Voila! Holes in the roof! Who puts holes in the roof like this? And doesn't seal them up!?

I wiped the area down, dried it off, cleaned the brake light housing, and shoved a crap ton of silicone in and around those holes. I know I put enough in; when I tightened down the screws that held the housing in place, the silicone oozed out the edges just a little bit...perfect.

Just to give you a good visual of what was happening (or so my detective reasoning tells me), the water was seeping under the edges of the brake light (even more so while I was driving...makes sense) and passing through the two mounting holes for the plastic clips. When the water passed through, it would drip onto the reflective insulation I installed. From there, gravity pulled the water into whatever direction was easiest to follow to get to the floor. Hence, why the water would show up in slightly different places each time. Wunderbar!

Sunday night, the Bruins played the Canadiens. I watched the game, so naturally, the Bruins lost. Either way, getting to watch some hockey with a solid grilled chicken sandwich, beer, and one of the best corn dogs I've had in Seattle was a good way to celebrate my defiance over nature. It rained Sunday night, and no water got into the van.

Cheers,

(Cries-no-more) Victor and (Dry-fo-sho) Ryan