Fixing water leaks on the LDV convoy

Mike

September 9, 2013

Converting my van

I thought I’d post this for all the soaking wet LDV owners. I’ve seen a few people on various forums with a ‘mystery water ingress’ problem in their LDV Convoy. Leaks can be really difficult to get to the source of and just when you think you’ve sorted it you wait for the rain to come and your feet are wet again–very frustrating.

The picture above shows a puddle of water next to the central console right under where the water pipe comes in for the heating matrix–one assumption would be that the pipe has a leak and thats exactly what I (wrongly) thought. I reckon the only way to get the bottom (top) of a leak is to get the garden hose out. The water was actually coming in at the top corner of the wing, above the wheel arch. I never would have guessed.

I found this problem was exactly the same on nearly all the LDV Convoys I have seen in the breakers yard and guess what? they all had soaking wet floors. Now I know why no one puts carpets in these things.

Here’s how to fix the LDV Convoy water leak problem

Materials used:

Quantity	Item	Cost	Supplier
1	Autotek filler primer spray paint 500ml	£4	Amazon
1	HYCOTE Ford white paint 400ml	£7.49	Amazon
1	Davids fibreglass resin	£10.08	Amazon

water-leak-electrics — Not cool! water drips right onto the relays and main ECU loom

ldv-convoy-gutter-leak — guttering was blocked up with gunk and leaves which probably helped the rust along

gaps-in-body-panels — All the water from the roof and windscreen runs down through this gap in the inside top of the footwell. A good inch of water will collect very quickly. This has to be sorted before I put soundproof and carpet down

leak-in-van — This is the main cause of water ingress in all LDV Convoys. The seams at both corners of the guttering below the windscreen start to rust and rot. I cleaned up both corners with wire brush drill attachment

fiber-glass-in-gutter-seams — Rather than do a quick fix I filled the corners with fibreglass after rust converting. I put patches underneath and on top.

a few layers of high build primer straight onto the sanded fibreglass.

transit-white-paint — I used white paint (‘transit white’) . The colour match is pretty much exact I think

ldv-convoy-ecu-waterproof — For a precautionary measure (and also for fun) I put the ECU in a sandwich bag in an attempt to protect it against any water ingress

EDIT: Two (English Winter) months later and everything is bone dry. If you are a leaky Convoy owner then I hope this is useful for you. It is like a whole different van now it doesn’t leak 🙂