Cars with no roofs, immune to the effects of rain/snow

[KrillBee]

I really love biking when the road surface permits it. I love being outdoors while transporting myself from one location to another, despite how cold or wet it is. However, sometimes during the year, the sheer amount of ice and snow makes it much less safe to be on only 2 wheels. The cold does not bother me, since I can layer and wear proper protection, but the snow/ice is still a major issue.

I want something with 4 wheels, that has stability, but is still not enclosed from the environment. I would like to have a car with no roof, like a perma-convertible. The interior would have to be made to be suited for this purpose of course.

I've realized I could probably do some things to modify a factory convertible and make it more waterproof on the inside, such as replacing the cloth seats with hard plastic ones, ripping out the carpet, drilling some drainage holes in the floor, applying some type of "rhino" material on the inside of the car (like the way they put that in truck beds), and putting some type of sealant over the cracks and areas where I wouldnt want the water to harm the electrical components.

I believe it is possible to make a no-roof car with a waterproof interior, but the real question is "has it already been done?"

 

[Saga]

Sounds like a silicone-sealant nightmare. After you're done weather proofing all those crevices, imagine how difficult it would be to disassemble otherwise easy to unsnap and work on components of the dash, console, etc..

 

[RGUN]

I doubt you're going to find a convertible with cloth seats.... every convertible we've owned has leather seats just for that reason, so if it gets caught out you arent totally screwed.

 

[thedarkwolf]

Sounds like you want a jeep and probably an older one.

Rgun my miata has cloth seats.

 

[JJ650]

An old jeep or scout maybe?

 

[Hyperlite]

yeah, old jeep.

 

[dawp]

or one f those old, VW powered dune buggy

 

[sdifox]

what's wrong with those powered folding roof? You just fold it away while you are driving and put the roof back when you are done for the day.

 

[Vogel515]

a 4-wheeler?

 

[radioouman]

I drove a current model Chrysler Sebring over the summer. It was a dog with the 4-cylinder, but the top was the best quality that I've ever seen in a convertible. Virtually no wind noise, no leaks, excellent.

Not that I would buy another Sebring just because of the quality of the top, but I was impressed.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Old Jeep. When water starts puddling in, you remove the plugs and let it drain.

 

[lurk3r]

My Suzuki Samauri fit this bill to a T, the seats were cloth, but thats an ez fix, there were even drain plugs you could pull in the floorboards.

 

[Saga]

A neighbor two years ago had a cloth top marina style Jeep Wrangler - the ones with the waterproof speakers in the ceiling (if they all don't have those, not really a Jeep guy), and it was a semi-decent day outside so he had the cloth rolled down. Apparently, he went out to a bar with a few friends of a birthday party and got WAY too drunk for his own good. Ended up coming home so drunk he had to pound on his daughters side window at 1AM for five minutes to wake her up and let him in because he couldn't get the key into the keyhole. Being Nebraska, the weather can change from 60 and sunny to -10 and blizzard within about 6 hours at any given time during the Winter, and this is exactly what happened. In his stupor, he forgot to put the top up on his Jeep, and he did not have a garage. A few hours into the morning it began to rain, heavily, and it was around 20 degrees. In the morning, he had an almost two-inch thick coating of ice over the entire jeep. I think there are still pictures of it somewhere, but it ended up getting covered in a foot of snow on top of the ice the following afternoon/evening due to a snow storm while the guy was still passed out.

I'm no expert on how weatherproof most electrical components are, as outside of tubing many parts of the wiring harnesses I've worked on were just wrapped in electrical tape up to the caps. What I DO know is the Jeep was gone by the end of the week and replaced by a new Grand Cherokee. I felt it too polite to ask for specifics, and he never provided them, but I'm sure the explanation would have been pretty amusing.

 

[EightySix Four]

This

My aunt has one and it's amazing.

 

[dawp]

or maybe a t-rex

 

[Jahee]

This..?

 

[angry hampster]

Bugatti EB110 would suit your bill.

 

[SoulAssassin]

People rip out the carpet and line (their is better stuff than rhino-line out there) the inside of their jeeps all the time. I know a ton of people that have done it. There was actually a guy who did his entire dash but I don't think that turned out well.

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=482530

 

[spidey07]

I'd say jeep is your best bet. Or hard top convertible.

-edit-
misread OP - jeep.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

"old jeep" is the correct answer, 10 bonus points for "vw buggy" and several million bonus points for "ariel atom"

 

[iamwiz82]

It doesn't have to be an old Jeep. Any previous generation fits the bill pretty well. My 99 sat without it's top from June through October. I pulled the carpet and had plastic bags to put over the seats just to keep from having a wet butt. Just remove the drain plugs and you are good to go.

 

[AMCRambler]

What will you do when said roofless vehicle fills up with snow? Or do you have a garage to keep it in?

 

[SoulAssassin]

Originally posted by: AMCRambler
What will you do when said roofless vehicle fills up with snow? Or do you have a garage to keep it in?

They make covers like these:

http://www.quadratec.com/products/11186_209_07.htm

 

[KrillBee]

I really like the jeep idea. Gas mileage probably won't be as good as it is on my current car, but then who cars. In the summer I'd rather be on a motor cycle, and that's when gas prices are the highest.

 

[Corn]

I'm trying to understand why someone would choose to drive with the top down during a rain or snow storm.