i have a 1971 superbug and am having a few problems with leaks. the first is that everytime it rains my car wont sstart. it has always happened (if it purs rain for a long period of time) but has become much worse in the past month or so. Even when I wash it it wont start but if I leave it for a day, it's fine. I've been told that water is more than likely leaking into the distributor but I am not a very mechanically-monded person and do not know what to do to fix the problem for good. My second problem is that everytime I put a cd player in my car (in-dass cd player) water manages to get into it somehow. I thought I fixed the leak but obviously hadn't as the next cd player I put in lasted onlty 1 month. I think i may need to get a cover of some sort but I have no idea where to go to fix this problem and do not wish to install a new cd player and find out a week later that it is still leaking. I was wondering if anyone else has had these problems and if so, what you did to fix it because at the moment my car is in the garage and that's where it will be staying until I fix these problems because everytime I go somwehere I'm worried it will rain and I will have to wait for it to stop before I can go. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

Water is most likely entering the distributer, the rear hood
has air loovers in it, when you open the rear hood the air vents should have a water catcher mounted on the inside area of the hood, if not then some one has removed it and
you may have to get a new hood, or one that you can get
the water catcher off of and install on yours, some of them
were metal and couldn't be removed, some were plastic and
could be removed. There also is a spray for sealing distributer caps, should be able to purchase at any auto store. You have to run the engine untill it's normal temp to
remove any moisture. then spray the distributor cap and wires with the spray, let it sit over night before starting the
engine, if you run the engine while spraying or just after it
will ignite the spray, it must be dry. ONE OTHER THOUGHT,
some of the distributor caps had a air vent on them, a little
chimney looking thing if yours has that it will let water in
so look for one that doesn't have the air vent.
I don't know how the water is getting into the CD player
but the beetle had a front hood that some times wouldn't
seal when closed. When you open the front hood you can
see a black cardboard dash cover that covers all the dash
goodies and the player. some times the rubber seal around
the front hood leaked and it would let water get into the
dash area. Could be your black cardboard cover is missing,
and all the dash goodies are showing when the hood is open. if so we use to make a plastic roll and install in that
area to stop air and water flow.

 

Those wet CD players just might work if you put them in
your home for about a month and let them dry out. I had
several VW radios way back when that had got wet and the
insurance companies replaced them, they wouldn't work but
I placed then in one of my closets and after about a month
I was able to install them and they had dryed out and worked like new.

 

thanks for your replies. i'll give it a go.