Dodge Ram 1500 V8 Sport Water Leak & Graphene Coating

The owner of this Dodge Ram 1500 is 87 years old. He came in because the door sill on the driver's side was holding water -- you could open the door and watch it run out. He had already had somebody change the door pillar gaskets, but the job had not held. The gaskets had been fitted loosely, which left a gap for water to creep past and work its way down to the lowest point.

The investigation found several potential entry points: the door pillar rubber on both sides, a sliding rear window with a box section that had no drain plug, a rear brake light with an indentation the owner had already attempted to seal with silicone (it had not made a difference), and the door membranes. On this van-bodied truck the construction is different from a standard car -- the rubbers are bespoke, and finding replacements is not straightforward.

Gary had previously tried to save the original rubbers by packing them with sealant. It had backfired -- the sealant was oozing out and water was still finding its way through the undulations in the rubber. James spent the best part of an hour cleaning the recess out, Scotch-abrading it for grip, and resealing it properly. Gary was upfront on camera: "That's our mistake -- we won't be charging you for that hour." We left the van outside to test in natural rain before returning it.

While it was with us, the car had a full makeover. Everything stripped, clay-barred, then the DA machine through every panel -- dual-action, not circular, no swirl marks. Gary clarified mid-job that this was going to get a graphene coating, not a standard ceramic. The wheels were ceramic-coated. The headlights had unusual nodules that the machine could not reach, so those were done by hand. On collection morning the owner could not stop smiling. He drove the V8 off the forecourt and Gary watched him go: "87 years old and he's got a toy like that. What a man."