Guys I have started restoring one of my 74 Grabbers & now it is time to do the dreaded "Cowl Vent Repair". It is going pretty well so far. I have only been working on it about 3 hours & I have both side pieces drilled off & I have all the spot welds drilled down both sides & all across the bottom. All I lack are drilling the ones accross the top & I will be able to remove it.
How to: I dug up a great "How to" for the Cowl repair from 2002 that was done by "MAV MARK". Thanks Mark! This is great step by step documentation. I will be following this. See links below. http://www.maverickcomet.com/defaul...emoveCowl/RemoveCowl.asp&FR=3&BD=1&Offset=300 http://www.maverickcomet.com/TechArticles/CowlRepair/CowlRepair.asp
Mike, I just finished drilling mine out. I expected the worst- only had a small rust-thru and a lot of surface rust but since I had the window out and fenders off- figured I'd better do it right! Turned out to be a good thing- Found a huge mouse condo by the D/S hat- that explains why there wasn't a back seat in mine! Now I've gotta figure out how to use the mig welder. The info on the board has been incredible. I never would have gotten this done without it! Good luck with your cowl! Looks like you've got it under control! -Bill
I thought I had gotton every strand of mouse house out of my car until I flipped it over on the roll over stands. I cleaned it out again but just this morning, flipped it back up straight, then back over again. WOW, where does all this stuff come from??? I'm loving these photos of the cowl fix. Sadly to say, I'm in the same boat. Mostly driver's side. Hey Bill, you're from Scranton - maybe we'll meet up some day. Bob
I pulled the heater box out of my 73 today, and I couldn't believe how full of crap it was, almost filled to the top with sticks and leaves, no wonder they rot out so bad. I'm lucky my cowl vents are solid, I might just give them a coat of Por 15 while I'm at it.
Thanks for all the comments guys! I have only spent 5 hours on this project this weekend & I have the cowl off. I thought it would have taken longer. I used Eastwoods spot weld cutter & it only took one. After getting my cowl off it doesn't really look like it was leaking. When I bought the car the cowl vent was covered with tape which led me to believe the obvious. Now I think it was the windshield that was actually leaking. Oh well I'm glad I'm in here now I can treat all this surface rust with POR 15. There were a lot of pine needles in there but no holes. I will go ahead & replace the "hat" while I'm in there because it is pretty corroded.
The vent looks like it wasn't too long before it may have started leaking. It's a good thing you caught it in time.
