Ford Mustang Forum banner
1 - 13 of 13 Posts

asdrew

· Registered
'07 V6 Convertible, '06 GT convertible
Joined
·
276 Posts
Reaction score
351
Location
Clermont, Florida, USA
Discussion starter · #1 ·
Not long after getting my '07 convertible I found the wells under the rear seat full of water like others have. After 6 months of searching posts and videos (mostly older ones), I think it is now draining properly, so I thought I'd share the things I gleaned in one post.
There are two locations per side that are supposed to drain out the water that falls between the rear of the top and the body:
1. In the corner above the rear deck below the window. This goes through a tube to the rear quarter panel and is usually not a problem.
2. Water that goes past that runs down the front side of the wheel well, landing in the cavity under the rear quarter windows, then draining through weep holes in the pinch weld. This can get clogged and hold a lot of water which then overflows into the area under the seats, then to the rear floor board

Leaves, dirt, and such that get in the space between the top and body make their way down there, decomposing and filling the area that is supposed to drain.
This allows water to accumulate way faster than it can seep through the resulting muck, and here in Florida when we often get an inch of rain a day sometimes it fills up quickly.

Simply poking something up through the weep holes is futile, since the bottom of the drainage area is filled with a fair amount of body panel foam and the actual drain hole which has a fitting on it is not lined up over the weep holes anyway.

There are various maintenance methods to clean out the inside area, but getting into that space is challenging as all get out.
You can put the top down and pop off the interior trim in that area to see a few voids that go way down to the bottom. A leaf blower aimed into some of them will blow up quite a bit of debris, and a shop vac with 1.25" extension tubes can suck some of the area out, but is hard to get into all the crevices.
One video has a guy putting a pressure washer wand all the way in there and blasting the heck out of it and that can really help but getting all the crud out is the key to keeping it flowing.

Removing the speaker reveals a helpful plastic cover to pry off for much better access to the bottom of the drain area, That was a game changer for me and not mentioned in most of the discussions about getting the water to drain. Since my pressure washer wasn't on hand when this project was tackled, I used the jet setting on a garden hose.
Rotating as necessary between blower, shop vac and hose eventually yielded a clean bottom and clear drain. As work progressed, I could blast the area with water and suck the murky water up with the shop vac until blasting the bottom resulted in a pool of clear water which drained out properly.

Hope this helps someone who has this ongoing problem like I did!

I took a few pics, but the site is not letting them be attached right now, will add them later if possible.

Upper drain entry and exit, easier to clear out but not usually the problem:

After removing the speaker (and moving the hydraulic cylinder), the plastic cover can be pried off, yielding better access to the drainage area:

After cleaning, you can see the cavity floor. The white piece appears to be the drain itself?
 
Seems like a ton of work to take the whole back of the interior apart. Where is the drain exactly? Too bad you couldnt just stick a vaccum hose in at one behind a panel somewhere and blow compressed air up into the bottom drain hole to agitate the debris into the vacuum hose. Would sure be less work and less risky than spraying water all inside the car.

oh i see where you explained that..

“You can put the top down and pop off the interior trim in that area to see a few voids that go way down to the bottom. A leaf blower aimed into some of them will blow up quite a bit of debris, and a shop vac with 1.25" extension tubes can suck some of the area out, but is hard to get into all the crevices.”

sounds like the easy way to do it rather than taking everything apart. A Compressed air wand would certainly work better than a leaf blower
 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
Seems like a ton of work to take the whole back of the interior apart. Where is the drain exactly? Too bad you couldnt just stick a vaccum hose in at one behind a panel somewhere and blow compressed air up into the bottom drain hole to agitate the debris into the vacuum hose. Would sure be less work and less risky than spraying water all inside the car. oh i see where you explained that..“You can put the top down and pop off the interior trim in that area to see a few voids that go way down to the bottom. A leaf blower aimed into some of them will blow up quite a bit of debris, and a shop vac with 1.25" extension tubes can suck some of the area out, but is hard to get into all the crevices.” sounds like the easy way to do it rather than taking everything apart. A Compressed air wand would certainly work better than a leaf blower
After I posted that, I confirmed that the white piece is indeed the drain hole. It was not visible until after the muck was cleaned out.


A compressed air wand would work also, but the higher air volume of the leaf blower which was sitting only 15 feet away was a far better method in my case.
 
Discussion starter · #5 ·
Wouldn't be easier to drill holes in the pots under the backseat and install one-way drain valves in the holes? That's all my water is collecting.
That was my thought the first time I pulled the seat and found water there, but I quickly found out that water only collected because the area under the window overflowed to under the seats.
 
There was a thread on this back in 2009, Convertible top drainage
There is an image in that thread with the rear quarterpanel removed, which shows the drain from the rear window (the one that doesn't clog). I had just cleaned out my car (probably the last time I ever did it) and I posted an image of a shopvac attached to some heater hose, then attached to some copper tubing, so it became a sort of wand. I never removed the speakers and it was very difficult to see anything in that area. As another diy aside, I never had good flashlights or cameras, but in this situation you can sometimes grab a mirror and reflect sunlight into the dark area, and on a sunny day it can really help. Anyway, I had issues with pine needles clogging that drain. After cleaning it, I started parking my car with a car cover, and have been doing that ever since. Between a reduction of water, and a lot less leaves/debris I have not had to think about it in 14 years. ...and be careful with any idea of drilling under those seats as that is the top of your gas tank.

 
This thread was helpful in eliminating where the leak was coming from. I think I found the spot where it’s leaking to my rear seat and then into the whole driver side floor. I let the hose run on that section of the exterior trim and it started coming in right through the interior (2nd pic).

is this a new top situation or a replaceable seal? Or is there another fix besides the seal?
 
Discussion starter · #10 ·
The water from the roof goes between the top and the body and then drains from there as described above, there is no seal since the water has to go somewhere. If water is making its way to the rear seat then the drains in the body are clogged up. try some of the procedures above to get them freed up.
 
The water from the roof goes between the top and the body and then drains from there as described above, there is no seal since the water has to go somewhere. If water is making its way to the rear seat then the drains in the body are clogged up. try some of the procedures above to get them freed up.
I’ve ran water down the inside of the wheel and the water seems to be flowing freely out the bottom. I think I will have to take the speaker panel off to get a better look
 
Not long after getting my '07 convertible I found the wells under the rear seat full of water like others have. After 6 months of searching posts and videos (mostly older ones), I think it is now draining properly, so I thought I'd share the things I gleaned in one post.
There are two locations per side that are supposed to drain out the water that falls between the rear of the top and the body:
1. In the corner above the rear deck below the window. This goes through a tube to the rear quarter panel and is usually not a problem.
2. Water that goes past that runs down the front side of the wheel well, landing in the cavity under the rear quarter windows, then draining through weep holes in the pinch weld. This can get clogged and hold a lot of water which then overflows into the area under the seats, then to the rear floor board

Leaves, dirt, and such that get in the space between the top and body make their way down there, decomposing and filling the area that is supposed to drain.
This allows water to accumulate way faster than it can seep through the resulting muck, and here in Florida when we often get an inch of rain a day sometimes it fills up quickly.

Simply poking something up through the weep holes is futile, since the bottom of the drainage area is filled with a fair amount of body panel foam and the actual drain hole which has a fitting on it is not lined up over the weep holes anyway.

There are various maintenance methods to clean out the inside area, but getting into that space is challenging as all get out.
You can put the top down and pop off the interior trim in that area to see a few voids that go way down to the bottom. A leaf blower aimed into some of them will blow up quite a bit of debris, and a shop vac with 1.25" extension tubes can suck some of the area out, but is hard to get into all the crevices.
One video has a guy putting a pressure washer wand all the way in there and blasting the heck out of it and that can really help but getting all the crud out is the key to keeping it flowing.

Removing the speaker reveals a helpful plastic cover to pry off for much better access to the bottom of the drain area, That was a game changer for me and not mentioned in most of the discussions about getting the water to drain. Since my pressure washer wasn't on hand when this project was tackled, I used the jet setting on a garden hose.
Rotating as necessary between blower, shop vac and hose eventually yielded a clean bottom and clear drain. As work progressed, I could blast the area with water and suck the murky water up with the shop vac until blasting the bottom resulted in a pool of clear water which drained out properly.

Hope this helps someone who has this ongoing problem like I did!

I took a few pics, but the site is not letting them be attached right now, will add them later if possible.

Upper drain entry and exit, easier to clear out but not usually the problem:
View attachment 792648 View attachment 792649
After removing the speaker (and moving the hydraulic cylinder), the plastic cover can be pried off, yielding better access to the drainage area:
View attachment 792650 View attachment 792651
After cleaning, you can see the cavity floor. The white piece appears to be the drain itself?
View attachment 792652
Hi thank you for your post I had already got this far on my project however I didn't remove the cylinder and my brother was to bring his bucket vacuum around to day whitch have smaller attachments on it, thank you for your post it was helpful to me thank you

Hi thank you for your post I had already got this far on my project however I didn't remove the cylinder and my brother was to bring his bucket vacuum around to day whitch have smaller attachments on it, thank you for your post it was helpful to me thank you
You have to take bottem seatbelt crank off to get to the pocket it's behind it.

There was a thread on this back in 2009, Convertible top drainage
There is an image in that thread with the rear quarterpanel removed, which shows the drain from the rear window (the one that doesn't clog). I had just cleaned out my car (probably the last time I ever did it) and I posted an image of a shopvac attached to some heater hose, then attached to some copper tubing, so it became a sort of wand. I never removed the speakers and it was very difficult to see anything in that area. As another diy aside, I never had good flashlights or cameras, but in this situation you can sometimes grab a mirror and reflect sunlight into the dark area, and on a sunny day it can really help. Anyway, I had issues with pine needles clogging that drain. After cleaning it, I started parking my car with a car cover, and have been doing that ever since. Between a reduction of water, and a lot less leaves/debris I have not had to think about it in 14 years. ...and be careful with any idea of drilling under those seats as that is the top of your gas tank.

View attachment 794022
I see your way you did it I like the copper line I my try that thank you.
 
Similar problem for our 2010 Mustang Convertible V6. Noticed water leaking into truck, originating from behind convertible top / passenger side rear, behind the decklid, dripping inside the trunk. Water settled inside spare tire well and rear quarter panel. The driver side and passenger side drains ARE draining, without issue. The water from rear of convertible top appears to be diverted into trunk. Looking for a fix here. One idea is replacing or completely removing the convertible top, and applying a silicone sealant inside that rain channel / seam at sheetmetal behind deck lid - but hoping for an easier fix?
 
1 - 13 of 13 Posts