I have not had time to look my new 72 Mav. over very much yet but I know the floors get wet after a rain. I know it is probably the cowl vents but the package tray under the dash also seems to fill up with water when it rains. Could this mean maybe it is my windshield gasket leaking and not the cowl vents? I know I am just wishing here. The floors still seem solid though I have not pulled back the carpet yet. clint
Pull back the carpet and prepare to be surprised... Hope you caught it soon enough to prevent a major repair job. you know, it seems that over the 8 or so years they produced this car, they would have recognized the poor cowl design and fixed it. I guess they figured it was an economy car and not meant to last for the long haul. Kinda like a SMART car...
Sounds like perhaps both cowl and weatherstipping are bad.Yes you may be shocked at what you find once you peel the carpet back.Good luck!!!
Clint, if you have a pressure washer, wash around the windshield gasket, especially at the top, and watch for water running down inside the glass. That's where the brown car I got from you is leaking, a new gasket when it gets painted will solve that.....
My package tray would fill with water,too. Ended up there was a leak at the windshield and the water followed a brace from the firewall to the dash just above the tray.
I did pressure wash it the other day and I tried to stay away from the windshield gasket. Even then it did have some water run down inside the front glass so I guess the windshield gasket leaks also. It has to come out to work on the cowls anyway right? The only surprise I will get is if the floor is still solid when I pull back the carpet. lol I knew the floors were wet when I bought her. You never know though. I have had a couple of NICE surprises from this ol girl so far so I might get one more nice one. clint
You know the old gallon of water thru the cowl vent trick, too? That way you will know for sure if the cowls are leaking....
that will tell...when pour the water make sure you don't get any on the windshield or on top of the cowl. if no leak, pour some at the bottom of the windshield and see if it leaks...if it leaks there it could be...gasket or channel rusted out...
well, my cowl finally sprung the dreaded leak this past week, not happy. How hard of a job is it to repair that?
depends on the direction you take to repair it...do a search on...cowl repair...and take your pick... ...Frank...
when I park my car uphill and pour water into the cowl it leaks like crazy. But when I'm parked flat it doesn't leak. I mean, I've never tried a whole gallon of water but... I'm thinking of repairing mine by cutting the grill off and approaching it that way, might be tight space but that way I can also close up the grill area which I wanna do for looks anyway.
I'll do the water just in the cowl. I know the cowls are full of junk anyway. I need to pull the fenders for some repair also so I'll clean out the drains as good as I can from there. As far as repairing the cowls if bad and they probably are, I might just fix the car the way I want it, park it in the shop and try not to drive it in the rain. lol clint
I think that since I don't use the vents, I may cut the section out and make a repair from underneath, but I haven't worked out the details yet. I may cut an access panel behind the fender to treat the areas after I'm done
I had to move the Maverick out of the shop to work on my son's Focus. I am changing the timing belt on it and wishing like anything it was a Maverick. To the point. Before I moved the Maverick I figured since it was good and dry I would pour some water into the cowls before I moved the car. I poured about a gallon into each cowl vent as quick as I could and looked inside to see the water works. NO WATER! It all came out where it is supposed to behind the fenders. So I guess all of my water leakage is from the windshield gasket. I need to talk to the old fellow that I bought it from and see just how long this thing sat in the field. I assumed it had been out there since it was parked in 84 but considering the great shape of the floors and now the cowls I bet he had in under the carport until recently Sure wish I had the money to get some disc brakes, 5 lugs, wheels, v8 conversion parts, paint, wheels....... clint
cowl repair This is a picture of a cowl of a 66 Barracuda I used to own. It had a cowl leak also. I just cut the grill part out and welded in a filler panel to close it up. The heater and defroster still worked fine. They managed to get air from somewhere. It was a lot easier than drilling out all those spot welds on the cowl. My maverick also has a wet floor. I haven't found the leak yet. I haven't had the chance to look. But I did take the front half of the carpet out and I am going to run it with no front carpet until I fix it. I used POR -15 on the rust. No carpet so it can dry up. Thank God the floor was not gone yet. Because once it is, the frame and torque box rusts from the inside. I also fixed the cowl of a 69 Road Runner once by cutting a hole in the part of the cowl that is in the engine compartment. (the top of the firewall) I did some body work on it and you couldn't see it when it was done. I will be using either of these methods to fix my Maverick. I don't want to remove the whole top cowl panel.
