Featured Hot Rods Do you avoid the rain?

When grandma told grandpa to go to the store for something you never heard him say
"Its raining and I don't want to put that new V8 in the ditch".

 

I get caught in the rain, hell I live in the PNW! I found out my wipers didn't work on my roadster last fall while at the beach. Came home and fixed them and cleaned up the undercarriage. Would I purposefully plan a trip in the rain in a roadster? No. Again, I live in the PNW, we all own pickups for bad weather.

 

Some of these comments make me sad. Its just a car, a car that was built to drive. If I had a car I was afraid to drive in the rain I wouldn't have that car.

 

yes, no fenders
last thing I need is throwing a rooster tail on a cop behind me let alone a hapless civilian.
that and no top roadster kinda takes the fun out of it.
I have been caught in the rain but it's best avoided.

 

It's funny because here in the PNW guys like Paul, Hitchhiker, & 123 aren't afraid to drive in the rain and Billy with two of the nicest rods in the PNW isn't afraid to be caught in the rain. Get over here on the east side of the Cascades and I know a number of guy who won't even go out and open the garage door if there is anything that resembles a rain cloud in the sky.
I'll admit that I have backed out of going to a few one day shows over the years because I didn't want to be wet all day and not because the 48 or my old 51 Merc might get wet.
Back when Henry's haulers had their annual rod trot at Marrymore park near Redmond Wa I drove over the p*** a number of times to go and one year got caught in the snow at the summit with two inches of fresh snow on the ground and Paul Harper and the guys from Roslyn and CleElum were late because they had to stop for avalanche control not long after I had gone through. The snow turned ot rain a few miles down the road and pretty well stopped by the time I hit the truck stop at North Bend for Breakfast. I'm not sure we got rained on at the show that day but rain didn't keep man from going they just drove the car that needed less effort to clean it up afterwards.

 

One of my buddies used to have a pair of mud flaps with brackets that had a quick and easy way to attach them to the car for his no fender rod. I think he had some fenders for the front that fastened to the backing plates made from mudflap material too. I know that in my T bucket I got wetter from water off the tires on a turn than I did from rain falling out of the sky at times.

 

I have slicks and no wipers so yeah, I avoid the rain.

 

Mine don't do well in the rain. No wipers,carbs outta hood, and slicks.

 

a nice summer rain washes the bugs off really well...

 

Yeah, I avoid the rain if I just had my monthly shower that day! But seriously, I've been caught in the rain many times, even in fenderless roadsters with no top. One time driving my '25 Dodge roadster, fenderless and *******, pulling a 4x8 fibergl*** trailorboat camper and heading to Bonneville from Central Oregon I stopped just over the Oregon/Nevada border cuz it was WAY hot outside! When I took off again, fresh road tar. Then in a few minutes it started raining hard. Hand wiper on a 2 piece windshield that at 70 the top half bowed back enough to make the wiper barely work. Don't know about Nevada but in Oregon fenders are required in rain. About the time I was ready to stop in the middle of nowhere cuz I couldn't see, it stopped raining. More throttle! Lot's of mile to go still!

Yep, I'd do it again! Except the little camper thing. I'm too old for that now.

Dave

 

Here in the PNW it’s basically impossible to avoid the rain. Therefore I just deal with it.

 

On some panels I can only get cavity wax on the backside of the panel along the weld seam. On other panels I'm not able to reach the weld seam on the backside. So there is some bare metal. Bare metal will rust quickly and water will accelerate the rust.

 

I prefer not to drive in the rain, but it sometimes happens...

 

There is a product called seam sealer, that will prevent water ingesting.

 

Mmmmmm, hoodlums huh...???

 

If you afraid of rain over here you either never leave the garage, or sell

 

Now there's a Testament !

 

I spent a couple hours at this gas station waiting on a Florida thunderstorm to lighten up. I’ll drive my roadster in light rain, but only if I can see where I’m going. All part of the adventure.

 

YUP! I know that feeling. I have also experienced how hard raindrops get once you hit 40MPH.

In the end, our cars have seen more rain before we got them, than they'll ever see while we own them. If it's a pre-'32 car, it's probably forded a few creeks, too.

Roger

 

Was anybody here at Columbus Goodguys last year? Saturday afternoon and evening was a washout.

 

The annual Portland swap meet, you can pretty much expect it to rain a bit and to be cold as well, and there is one other element that is to be considered !

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If it rains it rains! Wipers work and I love RainX Like Driver 50 said it's all part of the adventure.

 

I have a peripheral obsession in my current build. Leaks. I obsessed about my cowl vent. I sealed the whole rear of the body (39 Tudor) because all Ford did was spray the asphalt sealant and ship it. I ran strip calk in all the pinch welds around the trunk and rear quarters. Every screw I run that might see water, sealed. Every floor opening will get gaskets or sealed threads as well. Every engineered drain will work. The fender bolts will get rubber seals, there were seals on the fronts at the cowl (dried out) so it gets new ones. I'll seal the rear bolts when I replace the rotten fender welt back there. My rear windows will get the sealant at the pinch welds which is a mess to manage, but they won't leak. Why? So I CAN get caught in the rain. If I can't run over the car with a garden hose because water gets in then it ain't worth a bent ****. If I know it's gonna be a **** show of weather, sure, leave it home. If I have to drive an hour in rain to get to an event 2 or 3 hrs away where it's sunny and warm, I'm going. If I get caught in rain so be it. My wipers will work along with the gratuitous Rain-X treatment. New felts and door seals. Lower seams are also soaked in POR-15 as are other areas that might seep. I'm not so much worried about rust, I worry about mold and mildew. The only rust of concern is if a seam leached rusty water and permanently stains the carpet or headliner.

Rain, pure Michigan. Cars, pure Michigan. Worry? Nah, prepare. If and when it rains I plan to do EXACTLY what they do in Russia.

 

I went to a car show and it was raining. The girl at registration said I had to raise my hood. I replied that it was raining, she replied it would be for a very short time. I then pointed out that my car was hoodless....

 

I've never thought of driving one of my hotrods to the Portland Swap meet! I'm always afraid I might get to the parking lot at day's end and discover I had less parts on them than I had when I arrived!

 

After surviving the Louisville flood at the '92 NSRA Nationals rain is just a inconvenience. HRP

 

A long time ago, I took my friend's 40 Dodge coupe to a car club outing up the Logan P*** in the rain. When I hit a puddle of water, that car just went squirrely all over the place and I was somewhere in the middle of the pack of cars. Couldn't believe it could hydro plane that bad. White knuckle ride there and back. A week later, my friend was out driving that car and a front wheel broke off. What happened, was he previously had the front brakes converted over to discs and the fellow doing the work had the wheel bearing a bit too tight so that when I hit a puddle, it was enough slippage in the water that the wheel would seize up. Luckily, when the spindle snapped, the brake caliper held the car up.

 

More often than not it rains during the Back to the 50’s weekend. Several years ago I followed a T roadster most of the way home in a torrential downpour. Whenever I get caught in the rain I remember that yellow roadster, and remind myself that it could be a lot worse…

 

Dude, I'm surprised that you haven't figured this out by now. Expensive enamel isn't going to wash off when it rains, while expensive water-based paint might melt right off. Pretty sure that's how all those runny looking paint jobs happened back in the '80s.

 

We're like the post office round here.