Hi Folks

hole for worn out grommet is in upper left.

Rust around round black access panel. Also not sure if I should be worried about the cracked sound dampening sheet... rust under it could be a problem.

I am dealing with drying out the carpet of my 05 LR3 after water got in via a warped cowl. When I lifted the carpet on the driver's side, I ran across more rust than I care to see, suggesting this has happened before... maybe it was a minor issue that I hadn't noticed? Anyway, I noticed a couple things under the carpet that I was hoping the forum hive mind might be able to clear up. First, there is a rubber grommet that has degraded to the point it no longer plugs the 1" or so hole it is supposed to plug. Second, there is a round black plate right in front of the driver's seat and where it attaches has some of the worst rust. Before I start working on restoring that area, I was wondering if any of you have photos of the driver side floorboard so I can see how it is supposed to look. Also, if any of you have a parts diagram for that area, I would love to see it. Photos of the area I am talking about are attached.

Thanks much,
Captain Sygo

 

Sorry to bump an old thread!

Did you ever have any luck with this? Looking at a nearly identical situation in my car- Haven't taken the seat out as I don't have a T50 on hand, but likewise wondering how hard it is to get under that floor vent (?) and how much teardown may be required. Likewise, the hole you have pictured for me did not have a grommet in it. the one just left of it did, however- that portion of my floorboard was not in bad shape, but rather the lowest points were the worst- sound deadening came up *very* easily.

 

Sorry for my slow reply - I've not been visiting the forum much for the past while. After lots of searching for images of the drivers side floor, I ended up finding one that suggested to me that the round dark "port" wasn't a port at all, but just part of the floorboard. After getting the area thoroughly dry by lifting the carpet and pad and by blowing warm air at it for a long while, I decided that the easiest thing to do would be to simply give the floor a good coating of rustoleum. There's a cream color that they make that's a great match for the Chawton White of my land rover (in fact, it's good enough that I spray painted an area above the tailgate where the original paint and primer had completely flaked off, leaving bare metal. Other than the lack of a shiny clear coat, it's quite hard to tell where the original paint stops and the rustoleum starts. Anyway, I isolated the area where I'd lifted the carpet from the rest of the interior with painters plastic sheeting, and then did my best to cover the surfaces under the carpet as best I could. I didn't bother taking the seat out and was satisfied with how it all came out. More importantly, I did replace the cowl, but that didn't seem to completely solve the water ingress problem - some was coming in via the sunroof. I had cleaned the drain recently so I knew that wasn't the issue, and since I basically never use my sunroof, I decided that the simplest solution was to put a bead of silicone caulk around the sunroof to keep the water out. It renders the sunroof useless, but I've had no more water ingress since then.

-Captain Sygo

 

Thanks so much for the follow-up. It's still pretty chilly here in IL, so it may be a month or two before I get to it, but I appreciate your reply, now having a bit more confidence for when I go to do this job- as of now It may end up being an interior teardown if I end up coming up with a plan to address my dashboard, and the headliner is due too - I ended up R&Ring the sunroof a little bit at the beginning of winter, but it's either still not aligned right or the seal in the glass has lost some of its volume, but the last two carwashes I did at least didn't put any more water on the floor. A test with a 16oz bottle showed around 12oz coming through the sunroof ducting on one corner while I was working through that one!