I looked through past posts and never really saw a true answer to my question. Is it possible to reach the cowl vents and repair them from behind the dash? I have to do some bodywork while I have the entire dash out and wanted to know if I could go on and cut out/repair the leaky cowl vents.
Yes it is.Once the whole dash assembly is out,everything is in front of you.Depending on how much rust/rot there is,a good repair is do-able.Are you planning to cut out the bad and weld in some new material,or fiberglass work?Either way,once you cut out the bad,get a good rust inhibitor,like rust bullet,or the por15 kit,and coat the inside real good.
Good ,yeah I will mig weld most of it. I will use the rustoleum paint (2 coats) and truck bed liner (2 coats) that I've covered 95% of the car with so far its worked out great, is fiberglass recommended for the cowl repair? thanks
Depends on how bad the damage is.If its heavy and comprmises the structural integrity i'd use metal and a mig.If the damage is light,and just fixing a few holes,fiberglass would work,but to do it right,welding in fresh metal is best.I would def. use something besides rusteloum,to stop the rust.It will just come back later.
we used the rustoleum enamel covered in truck bed liner on our tractors most recent salt sprayer and it's lasted 3 years opposed to 3 months of our old sprayers. i trust the stuff. i do have some fiberglass i am gonna use on my interior plastic molding pieces. i may use that if the holes are small like you mentioned. ive never used fiberglass but i saw them use it on the show american chopper and the stuff looks messy haha
Only problem is the mig will burn off any paint on the top side where it will continue to get wet. All the rustoleum and bedliner in the world wont stop it from rusting again unless you can clean and coat the top side.
Can you post any pics of the damage? Depending on where its at,you might be able to use a spray nozzle straw (like the ones on the wd-40 cans) on a can of etch primer and paint can.I've done it in the past.
no i havent seen it yet, i just finished the interior metal and paint work and I'm in the process of removing the dash (slow process in 20 degree weather) all i know is everytime it rained my drivers floorboards were soaked and it ran out where my floor vent is. i figure its a small hole around the fresh air vent.
Once the dash is out,you'll def.be able to see the extent of the damage.There's a couple of different threads around where a couple of folk's have cut the top of the cowl off,right above the hat area,did the repair,and welded it back on.Def.would beat drilling out 300+ spotwelds.Post some pics when you get your dash out.
alright thanks, yea i guess it's a matter of seeing what the damage is, ill post pics of the damage and how I fix the cowl. did ford/mercury have some mavs/comets painted at the factory within the inside of the cowl area the orange maverick i bought of recent has sit outside it's entire life and the inside of the vents are painted orange same as the body. they dont leak neither even though its seen more weather then my 4 door:16suspect.
Once you pull the dash, you'll be able to see how bad it really is. Drilling out the spot welds really isn't as bad as it seems, I did it in less than 2 hours. I don't think the cowls were painted much beyond what was blown in there when they painted the grill sections. Mavericks were dipped in e-coat, and I think Ford thought that would be good enough..I have 3 cars, 2 the cowls are spotless, and 1 was rotten (badly) I think it was just the luck of the draw, as to how it survived.
dave, yea it must have been the luck of the draw, it just surprised me my orange mav doesnt leak any and has seen the weather all 33 years of its life jsarnold, that one is bad, hopefully mine isnt that rotten i do want to take mine off like the picture the removal wouldnt bother me and paint that way its pictured but im no first class welder and im afraid it would look awfull if i welded it back
Go for it!! I never did any stick or MIG welding before I started on the Maverick. The only welds that will show will be some of the plug welds where you drilled out the spot welds. They're easy if you're not building a show car and you don't try to run a bead. Just 1-2 second bursts all around each hole and grind off the excess. IMHO, the only reason not to take the cowl off is if you don't want to paint.
