Driving a classic car in the rain

[Kern Dog]

Who dares to do this?
Out here in California, we get rain at what we consider the "normal" times of the year : Winter and Spring. Yeah, there will be the occasional Summer and Fall .010  storm, but for the most part, we are dry. I'll freely admit that I have never had my Charger out in the rain. I can blame that on several things: It takes too long to clean road grime from the car, The idiots on the road could slide into me and finally...It isn't my only car to drive.
Years back I had 2 vehicles. A truck for work and a Camaro for everything else. I loved driving that car. It only had a stock 350 but it stopped and handled great. I drove it it all kinds of weather with absolutely no regard for its value. Now I have a car that can easily outperform the Camaro in every category and I hardly drive it. Its not that I'm too old or not interested in it. Life just gets too busy to do all you want to do.
I used to drive in the rain with the window down, stereo cranking and having a blast. What the heck happened?

[Ponch ®]

I don't drive mine if its raining, but only because the weatherstripping is shot and I'm paranoid about water seeping in and all that. Otherwise I wouldnt mind.

I got caught last weekend while I was clearing out my storage locker (yes, I was using it as moving truck...haha) and it started raining. First time in the 2 years I've had the car. Drove it home as soon as I was able to and spent a good 20 minutes making sure everything was dry. On the plus side, I found out that my wipers work.

[ws23rt]

What did happen?  There are lots of different folks that like the classic cars but you are pointing out two types in one person.

I'm one of those two in one types.  I drove these cars when they were new and I was poor. They were double duty---transport and cool.

Today I use my 09 SRT challenger the way I used my old hemi RR back in the day. I drive it in the rain but would never drive my C500 charger in the rain these days.

The driving of the old classics the way we did when they were new IMO would only happen with me if I had a clone car.  I'm one at my age that feels the few originals left should be preserved as best we can for those that will be the next caretaker of history.

[charge69]

My daily-drivers all see rain every time it rains here as they are all parked outside. Back in the "day" , the now-classics were daily drivers for most people and were driven whenever they needed to take people from point A to point B. Whether or not it was raining was a moot point!

That said, my restored classic will never intentionally see rain again!

[ACUDANUT]

 If you choose to do this, your just asking for rust. 

[twodko]

My '09 Ram is my daily driver but I never drive my Charger in the rain.

[Drache]

Depends on the amount of rain. I drive my Dart daily if possible. I have found though I have to watch the amount of rain. Light rain, no problem at all besides my car loving to go "rabid squirrel" if I'm not careful with the gas pedal. Also the biggest reason I don't drive it in the winter.

But in heavy rain? Nope.

See I have this air intake that sticks out of my hood. It's annoying. People love it at the shows but in reality it's more of a pain that it's worth.

Last year during a cruise a bunch of us knew it was going to rain but said "screw it" and went for our cruise anyways. The problem was, it started to rain, HARD! I mean windshield wipers couldn't keep up on high speed hard. My intake was sucking in so much water, I couldn't idle my car. I literally had to drop it to neutral and keep the engine revving or it would die any time I came to a light or stop sign. 

Figured out later I used twice as much gas on the cruise as I normally do from having to keep the engine revving.

[green69rt]

I plan on a clone RT and will drive it in the rain if necessary.  If I can see rain coming then no.  I'm trying to do as much as I can to seal this car up or make it corrosion resistant.   If I had a restored XS or XX car I think it would be really hard to drive it if there was a cloud in the sky.

[Patronus]

I never put the wipers back on

[Windsor]

I drive mine in the rain. Not so much now that one of the springs/retainer broke and I have to make a new set. Kind of hard for the wiper to work when the wind is bouncing it around.
Granted I did watch a Trans Am hydroplane the other day, ended up *** end into the guard rail.

[Kern Dog]

My car gets loose on dry pavement with these Nitto 555s. I can only imagine what it is like on wet pavement.

[terrible one]

Never intentionally, but I won't let storm clouds deter me. I like to see the wipers in action every once in a while after hunting down a wiper motor and restoring/ servicing the pivots and linkage.

Plus its already rusty, it drains well! 

[fy469rtse]

I just wouldn't be able to , it would be a night mare,
Way too much power to try and get it to wet roads , I'm sure I will get caught though, that will be a stressful drive
I've toned it down heaps and still would not be ideal,
Had to drive it in the dark after getting it stranded long story , took the next night to finish and the get it home, that was ok , but add water in a car I'm not used too, 

[myk]

Same here.  I won't INTENTIONALLY drive it in the rain but I do get caught in it from time to time.  I spent thousands of dollars and months getting the rust cut out and new metal put in; I'll be damned if I'm going to go through that again...

[Bandit72]

I treat them like I do my motorcycle...I won't intentionally set off in the rain but if I happen to get caught in a rain storm I don't sweat it...shit'll dry out

[Ghoste]

Thats pretty much where I'm at too.

[TUFCAT]

Plus it's all the cleaning ...... lot's of cleaning. 

[moparnation74]

I treat them like I do my motorcycle...I won't intentionally set off in the rain but if I happen to get caught in a rain storm I don't sweat it...shit'll dry out

I agree with that as well.
My only problem here in Texas is weather can change with the blink of an eye and then it downpours.  One evening there was no rain in the forecast.  We have clay soil here so in a heavy downpour water runs off and builds on roads.  That happened when I was driving my 4spd X and I ran through streaming water and my drum brakes filled with water.  If you lightly touched the peddle they would lock up.  Thankfully, there was no traffic and I had a 4spd to downshift.  Was a scary moment doesn't deter me from cruising.  I had to drive for the conditions.

[Dino]

I drive it in the rain all the time.  Would I take it out to the grocery store if it's torrential and I can just as well take the daily?  Probably not no, the driver's side vent seal is no longer as effective as it once was but as mentioned, not always wise to take a car like this out when it's that wet because you may be stuck at a stop for a minute spinning out.  Visibility also goes down quite a bit so accidents are more frequent.  And then there's the branches coming down when it get's really nasty!   

My car has seen several dozen Michigan showers though and so far so good.  I tend to run it through the no touch car wash a lot which has an undercarriage spray.  If I didn't do that then rust would progress no doubt.  The existing bubbles have not changed over the last 4 years so I think all is well.  A super greasy undercarriage also helps.   

[Troy]

Eh, I don't hardly ever clean mine so rain doesn't really matter. When I go to Carlisle, Mopar Nationals, Monster Mopar, etc. I either drive or tow on an open trailer (if I have to). I get rained on almost every trip. The only time it really sucked was running into a torrential downpour at the Nats just as I was going up the ramp to the highway in the Challenger. I had no traction and started edging sideways so I pulled over. In about 2 minutes for the windows to completely fog up and I couldn't see out. Luckily it's bright yellow so at least other people could sort of see me. Had to sit there and wait it out.

I took my Barracuda to a family benefit in an actual rain storm but, normally, I don't intentionally take a car out in the rain. If it rains while I'm out then that's just how it goes. I don't understand the point of owning a car that only moves from it's spot in the garage on sunny days with temperatures in the 70s. I live in Ohio - we don't get too many of those days! A typically drive through November and get the cars back out again in early March. Last year I had the Challenger out the week before Christmas and the Mach 1 out last weekend.

Troy

[twodko]

What Tuffy said is a deterant for me too........BUT my Q5 will be on
the road this weekend!

It's important to burn all that gas the Pious owners have been saving for us. 

[Cooter]

VERY few that put in the wrench time derusting one of these drives it in bad weather. The ones I usually see touting how they should be driven all the time crap are check writers on EBay.

[lloyd3]

Since I live in a fairly dry climate, rain is almost a non-issue. I did drive the car up to Boulder one time for two reasons. My company had a manager's retreat there and I wanted to show it off to the folks that had been hearing about it for years. The second reason was that it was Boulder, the pinnacle of liberal thought here in Colorado. I wanted to see how the denizens responded to my non-Prious.  On the drive home I got caught in the rain and once the initial shock wore off, I just enjoyed the drive.  It leaked a little, but not bad, The clean-up afterwards did suck, however.

[TUFCAT]

It all depends on the car, its current level of detail, and how much work the owner want to spend re-detailing it....IMO - Oh, and one more thing, how much was spent on the restoration!  

The rust exposure is always something to think about when getting an old car wet...like where does the water drain into (i.e. the trunk). The windshield channels may leak and drip water into odd places that prone to rust also.  

Sure they all got wet when they were new.   They were designed as well as possible for the day to keep water from being trapped...expel water through drain holes.  But when water gets into an area with blocked vent that should've been open, that's a recipie for rust.  

After getting your old girl wet, some attempt should be made to completely dry it out.  At a minimum, I recommend pulling it out of the garage and letting it sit in the sun for a while. The best thing is another drive the next day when not raining to get air and wind pushing over and under.  A car should never be "put-away-wet" ....I think we all know the old saying there.    

The other issue is windshield wipers....(and defrost system like Troy said) from my limited experience.  They both sucked compared to modern cars.

[tan top]

 mine has not been out in the rain  , since I bought it  !! second week of april 1989     , never wash it either    just blow it off with compressed air , then wipe a   tac rag over the vinyl top first  , then wipe the whole car down with a leather , rinced in  clean warm water from  a bucket  ,