Water pissing in the passenger side

[Slimbo]

Hello my friends Ive not long had my mach 1 and Ive noticed that when its raining there is water pissing down on the passenger side footwell inside, Ive had a look (well as best as I could) in the bit beside the window wiper that is covered with a plastic mesh and it looks like thats where the waters getting in from. Its hard to really get to get in and about it and Im wondering that if I take the wing off will I get better access? There looks to be some **** down there like leaves and stuff . Is it possible just to blank this bit off? looks like a bad design letting all the water get in there. ,,,, Give me your thoughts as I know you lot are way more clued up that me.......thanks Slim Fae Scotland ....FREEDOMMMM

 

[machman_73]

Sounds like your inner cowl may be rusted through. There are some good threads on this subject. I'm sure there will be more people chime in on this. I searched cowl repair and came up with this.

http://www.7173mustangs.com/search.php?action=results&sid=0b6ffc425610e09be7cb599e83c3d747&sortby=lastpost&order=desc

 

[luxstang]

Well, that sounds just like the classic rotten cowl vent. That really sucks.

There are no repro patches available, and it´s gonna be labor-intensive. Don´t postpone it though, as it will only get worse.

 

[jorgem2]

Cowl area is rusted as others said, my car is starting to leak as well and I am considering caping off those vents since where I live there is no need to vent in fresh air.

There is no fresh air, its always hot so its either max AC or the windows and top go down.

I have seen some of the early mustangs with the exposed vents seal them off permanent to clean up the look of the cowl.

Any other sealing ideas?

Maybe removable aluminum plates hiding under the plastic vents

 

[don29163]

If you do not fix it, it will keep rusting away, even if you seal the vents.

 

[Slimbo]

Hello again, can I fix the problem from inside the car if I take the dash out? I really dont want to go cutting from the top as the top is in good condition but if I have to I have to . looks like a nightmare of a job .

 

[Bill73Ragtop]

Hello again, can I fix the problem from inside the car if I take the dash out? I really dont want to go cutting from the top as the top is in good condition but if I have to I have to . looks like a nightmare of a job .

It may be possible from the underside - won't look pretty but it might do the job. Gonna be tough to weld from the underside....you will need to strip out the interior as well as the dash to get access.

Try to get pictures of the inside of the cowl area to see how bad the rot is.

 

[goodnigh]

You need to go under the hood.

It can be a daunting problem. We

had just installed new carpet, then the

rains came. One thing we did was shine

a bright light from under the dash and

look for holes on top. We found a few and

patched them but it did help completely

fix the leak. Next, we plastered the cowl

area from under the hood with aluminum

foil and lots of JB Weld. It is a quick fix

but should handle the problem for now.

The rains are coming so we shall see.

mike

 

[RacerX]

Welcome to the leaky cowl club! A nightmare of a problem on our cars with no repair panels available.

I'm in the middle of replacement on our '73 convertible. A large job to say the least.

I have the front clip off, the complete dash area stripped and the windshield out.

Cut thru the 250 or so spot welds and the top cowl is off. I had to obtain a used top cowl as my top was also rusted thru under the windshield.

I'm blasting the replacement before applying epoxy coating and patching the bottom areas.

You have to cut out the rust and neutralize the metal or it will continue to eat away.

Not a fun ordeal but it will be leak free when done.

Curtis

 

[Spechti]

looks like a nightmare of a job .

Greets to Scotland!

It IS a nightmare job and it is best done by experienced tinbenders and guys who know ro handle a weld gun. A lot of us had this problem and is is the major weak spot on the 71-73 Mustangs. Fortunately some other topics on the list of corrosion-prone parts were improved compared to the previous models.

At least you can expect THIS. But I have seen some others here in Germany that were even worse.



Only cars with a lifespan in desert regions or extremely well pampered ones usually look better there.

There is no one-afternoon fix for this. Qualified repair means serious work. On my car, the cowl was only partially opened because the rest of the metal was okay. The whole cowl was sandblasted from inside an below, then painted with POR15. Then the upper part was welded in again and for further rustproof the whole cavity was spraed with a wax.

Michael

 

[Slimbo]

GOD ALIMGHTY what have I let myself in for lol

 

[72HCODE]

well the good news you can replace that cowl without removing the dash.

but you have to splice off the cowl from the outside to get access.

http://s1031.photobucket.com/albums/y377/72hcode/cowl/

 

[luxstang]

When mine was fixed, they first wanted to go from the inside but eventually decided to do it from under the hood. I think if you want to do it thoroughly you need to do it from outside.