I've had a water leak with this piece of magnificence since i bought her, however i've sealed and prodded every know orifice that can leak, and now i'm stuck with the old water from her past leak..

I've tried folding the carpet up and squeezing it out, but it seems very dense, and even after minutes of squishing it still is full of water..

I'm tempted to cut the foam out, but it's already disintegrating and cutting it will only end up with a pile of unusable shit..

Would propping the carpet up and using a heatgun on low allow the foam to dry out do ya'll think?

H

One of my old SAAB 900 combi suffered from serious water retention issues, eventually traced to blocked drain holes. Like squidge out water when you stepped in level, sometimes actual shallow puddles if parked at a suitable angle.

I stripped the carpets out, gave them a good shampoo by hand with 1000 and 1 or similar (hey they were already saturated) and put them outside every sunny day for a month or so. Which dried them out. Basically practice for the potato harvesting season!

These days I wonder what would happen if you took them out and gave them a really good go-over with one of the vacuum cleaner type carpet washing systems. As I understand it they leave your house carpets pretty much dry when you have finished.

Helped that daily transport was a motorcycle so could arrange to do very few miles sans carpets.

Clive

This fall right into my area ... in our resto/custom projects part of the deep cleaning and "renewal" of interior parts includes heavy washing to get rid of several years of dirt, and the foam soaking is a classic occurrence.
Sorry to be blunt and drastic, but with the proposed ideas will be nearly impossible to get rid of the wetness, you might also incur in a mushy smell that you might never get rid of, or the foam rotting and disintegrating, which I seem to understand is already happening.
The type of cells of the foam are not made to hold water, nor they easily release it ... I've had a car leaking water in (it is a parts car in our wrecker yard) and even after a full summer with little rain the bottom part would still be wet ... I've had another in which I was unable to pull the carpet out to access some connectors, the water turned to ice (it was winter) and it "glued" the foam to the metal :-)

The P38 has a very very thick foam, even by other brands' luxury vehicles standards ... really high and heat formed very precisely to the metal floor. Don't cut it, even if partially missing it still keeps the shape somehow.
The only real solution is to take it out and let it dry, the way Clive did.

Would propping the carpet up and using a heatgun on low allow the foam to dry out do ya'll think?
Propping a piece up and putting heat is a miserable solution with questionable results. DO NOT use a heat gun because the concentrated heat melts the foam, which contracts sharply and makes a horrible smell (don't ask me how I know). At most, you can use one of these small heater like for the bathroom (obviously you need a mains... uh, you guys in UK got what, 110V?). And you need to think to leave it for hours and hours, and you will never be able to get all the foam to dry anyway, since whatever remains in contact with the floor is still ... wet. And besides the time and electrical expense and the risk of melting down the heater directly, you also need to keep the car ventilated from time to time .... ah! and you might end up twisting/deforming the carpet - depending on the "propping element", which will probably ruin it. Been there, done that :-( (all of it including the heater meltdown lol)

What Clive suggests, to do we do it regularly in our workshop with the vacuum cleaner/carpet washer (we use a Karcher SE400, borderline between a home appliance and a pro machine, but okay for regular use).
But only when you cannot get the carpet out, otherwise the best way is to really take everything out, power-wash it with good household cleaning materials, and then use the vacuum to take the biggest drip and then let it dry naturally. Obviously is a nice season job.
This type of "wet vacuum" machines can help you take some of the water in the foam underside the carpet, but it is a long an tedious job. Nevertheless, if you cannot get the carpet out now, and you have access to one of those, you can give it a go for the time being and guaranteed will remove some of the water.

Sorry for the long post. Now, some candy ... here's the underside of the carpet, see how precisely it fits!

And here is being washed .... lots of dirt, it changed actually color

leolito wrote:

obviously you need a mains... uh, you guys in UK got what, 110V?

Nah, we get proper 240V, none of this wimpy 110V like they get in the States.....

I think Leolito is far more of an expert than I am, and my experience is from my Disco 2 (which we got for roughly scrap price due to the water leaks and the ensuing electrical problems). I lifted the carpets up and let a fan blow under them for a few days, which seemed to work, but the D2's foam might be different.

Cheers Gents..

Leolito there is some great info there, cheers!

H

When I got mine it had some sort of slime in the foam under the car. I put old towels under the carpet to get the worst out, and then graduated to blue centre-pull paper (screwfix etc) which wicks the rest out.

StrangeRover
Take it from me... remove the seats and take the carpet out then the foam and let it dry. Your P38 is in great condition and you shouldn’t short cut a job like this. If she has been sitting with damp foam I can assure you that you will have corrosion on floor at the very least, and most definitely inside electrical contractors.
While the carpet, seats and foam is out, take the time to wax oil the floor of the car and clean up all the electrical contacts that are visible.
While it may seem a pain in the rear to do this..... believe me, you will be glad you did.
Ask me how I know.

The best way to dry out the inside of a car is to use a dehumidifier. Leave it running 24/7 and see the water container slowly fill up. Leave it running overnight and when the car is parked up. It may take a week to thoroughly dry out. My car was getting damp inside over the winter causing the headlining to drop a bit. Dried out in a couple of days. I must have condensed a litre of water.
The aircon has a similar effect but how many of us have a working aircon? Aircon needs to be running on auto all the time even with the heating on.
I have a couple of dehumidifiers that I bought on Maplin yonks ago, though I have seen an updated version in a B&Q warehouse recently for about £55.
One stays permanently in my workshop at the back of the garage to stop my tools and lathes getting rusty. The other usually stays in the caravan to keep it dry.
Power useage is minimal. Highly recommended imho.

Good idea Dave

Dave3d, that’s a good idea but I don’t think it will not dry out that under carpet foam well enough for OP to be happy with, especially when he has done such a great job on refurbishing his P38.
Only option, in my humble opinion, is a complete removal as the foam and under carpet needs to be sprayed with an anti fungus or a bleach to avoid the stink associated with the dampness. You could bung a fiver to a local council worker next time they are in your area filling potholes and have home drive his steam roller over the foam pad, as this is probably the only way to get water out of the bloody thing. Getting water out of that is like getting a Scotsman to buy a round!
Seriously though, I had this problem and tried every method to remove the dampness and the associated smell from my carpet/foam padding. I finally relented and removed the seats and removed the carpeting and foam. I did have the Stanley knife around some parts of the carpet that runs across the rear drive shaft under the HEVAC/radio console, but you wouldn’t notice this once reassembled.
Another issue, other than the smell and a more serious one, is that if the damp was bad enough it will have caused corrosion to the SRS and others various plugs along with their associated looms running beneath the carpet and foam. You will be glad you did the job as you get to give the carpet a good old steam wash and shampoo after 20 odd years of grime.
Do a job right the first time and you wont need to do it again....
Just my two pence worth....

JMC, it will dry out bone dry given time. I know from experience. The moisture slowly evapourates out of everything.
I have used my dehumifiers for drying out lots of things. Carpets in the caravan, carpets in the house after using a carpet cleaner, wallpapering, fresh plaster in the house, as well as drying the inside my p38 a couple of times.
As I mentioned I also have one permanently running in my workshop to stop corrosion. It absolutely dries everything out. Makes for a far more pleasant environment as well, particularly with UK weather.
The principle to prevent corrosion is to lower the humidity so it is always above the dew point. At night the temperature drops and you get condensation on cold metal surfaces. This occurs at the dew point and is the cause of corrosion. The dew point temperature varies with the % humidity in the air. Lower the humidity and condensation does not occur until a much lower temperature.
Regarding the smells, I think they should largely go when the carpets are completely dried out. The musty type smell is microbial. A couple of deep vacuums may be needed.
If you have already gone to all the trouble of taking the carpets out, a more thorough job would be to use a commercial carpet cleaner on it .
A couple of clean water rinses then put the carpet in a sealed room with a dehumidifier running 24/7 to dry it out.

Agree with all. Mind you, methods with heaters and so on inside the vehicle are possible, but not that effective.
Best "drier" I have found some far is the Sun :-)
Nothing beats a good afternoon baking, both sides :-)
Any smell just ... disappears!

I would agree with that. Wind the windows down in the middle of the Sahara desert and the problem would soon go away.

Cheers Gents all advices are greatly appreciated..

I'd ideally pull the interior but she is used around the farm constantly and when the lockdown lifts she'll be doing the commute so i'm relegated to just squishing it out at the moment!!

Cheers all..

Then you are in for the acrobatics ... done better when you're younger, but.
Try to get rent or borrow one of them "wet" vacuum cleaners. Take out the bottom plastics (she can be used without them as well if needs be) lift the carpets by section and try to suck out as much water as you can.
With the same scheme you can move to the "heater" (keep distance between heater and foam!) in whatever downtime you can get. It will alleviate the problem ... do not use anything very sharp, it breaks the foam :-(
I use wooden blocks.

I have always peeled the foam away from the carpet and cut it out from underneath - then in the bath/shower, give it a proper rinsing to get the coolant and out and leave it to dry for a week or so. You'll be amazed how light it really is once its properly dry.

Once its dry, it goes back in and sits in place nicely - and you'd never know. I don't normally like to cut corners (pun totally intended) - but it saves removing the whole carpet, gets the job done, and doesn't leave the car in bits drying out for days on end if you need to use it in the interim.

The lazy man's approach is to get a couple of buckets of Damp Rid, park it in the sun and leave the windows shut. Don't expect quick results but it will dry out completely. Eventually.

Do you guys get enough sun in the UK for that?

We are doing at the moment but you can guarantee that as soon as the lockdown is lifted so we can all go out again, the weather will turn to crap.....