I stripped my 4 door down (interior) a week ago. painted floorboards in rustoleum flat black, and truck bed liner(2 coats). rubber around my windshields (front and back) is dry rotted. im ordering the gaskets in 2 weeks (thats when autokrafters claimed availability) i tested for my front floor leaking. if i spray water straight down the cowl vent its fine if i spray standing near my drivers side door it starts to stream onto my driver side floor. ive got plenty of cutting tools but with only an arc welder do you think i can repair and reinstall the cowl. can someone point me to a cowl tech article if possible how should i go about repairing cowl with the least amount of welding/body work? also ive called several glass places and they will install but are afraid to remove my glass. i figured removing is easiest . From everyone ive talked to they are scared of glass installation on anything over 20 years old. Should i just go on and attempt myself having never done so? ive read on how to do it but not sure if i could seal it up myself. ive read past articles on chrome/trim removal. is the windshield chrome screwed in or is it just clips holding it in? also the trim around the glass of the door, it just needs pulled off correct? any advice would be appreciated.
there is one screw on each side of the bottom trim around the windsheild and there are clips. and also www.steelerubber.com have allllllllllllllll of the seals and stuff even the rubber that goes between the cowl and the hood
I lucked up with my leaking cowl. I was able to fix it with Por15 putty. The hole was at the bottom of the vent chimney.
Pull the fender off, and see if you can see where it's getting in. You can see into the cowl, through the drain holes, to see if it is rotten. You'll need a mig welder, and arc welder won't do sheet metal...
yea ill pull the fender next non rainy day, its just a very small stream that leaks, my opinion its leaking where rthomas's was because it seems to flow around the vents case and to the wall next to the emergency brake, but ill check everything without cutting first, as an arc welder is all i have.
put your gasket on the window. you can use some sealer if wanted . take a peice of rope that will fit in the outside groove that holds the glass to the car. set the windshield against the car and have someone pull the rope from the inside. it will pull the seal into the car with no hassle
Cut the gasket and remove the part that goes over the glass from the outside. If you try to remove the glass with the seal intact, you'll likely break the glass. A single strand of 14 gauge insulated wire works well to put it back in.
Fiberglass will be better than an arc welder. Gas would be better than arc. Have you though about renting a mig welder?
dad says we have a mig as well, i thought we had only an arc in the basement. so now that i know then i guess we would be able to manage any patching. while i have the fender off shes getting wire wheeled, rustoleum, and truck bed coating. --i see some of the guys on here with media/sand blasters and how they prep the surfaces. i would have my car almost done if i had that and didn't go over every surface by hand. but you do with what you have
Kindof on the topic, My cowl has been fiberglassed over to match the hood, but I want to take it off and do some rust repair myself, whats the easiest way to take the cowl out? do I remove it from the inside? need to take the fenders off? Its pretty rusty when you look up under the dash :/
You will need to pull the windshield/The instrument panel and the front fenders to gain full access to all the pinch welds/spot welds so you can drill em out and pull the cowl panel...
