what can i do about these cowl leaks? PICS INSIDE

ripping apart the cowl panel is out of the question because i had the car painted already..the vents are solid, but all of the seams are leaking(pics)
if i seal the seams from the inside i feel like thats not really resolving the issue..help please

 

Seam sealer might work, you'd have to get to it from the top, reach up and around...

 

I'm not the expert here, just did one. But, I'll offer some comments anyway.

The leaking seam in the picture is the cowl seam under the hood, right? Did you or your painter remove the cauking from the cowl seam under the hood? Or, is it cracked? If that's the leaking seam, I'd remove all the old caulk on that seam and renew it from the outside (under the hood). There are three layers of sheet metal there: the cowl cover, the cowl floor, and the firewall. The seam that needs to be sealed is the onoe between the cowl floor and the (bent over) fire wall.

For the seam around the "hat", I would caulk it from the inside -- under the dash. Don't know any way to do it from the outside without removing the cowl cover.

 

You stick you hand up through the hole, put some sealer on your finger, wear a glove.

 

yeah i can reach in there just fine. i will have to try that.. the leaks have gotten so bad; where the top door hinge bolts to the car is full of rust and rust flakes, its real bad. i will get a pic of it.. thanks guys

 

i was even thinking of pouring a rust encapsulator type of product through the exterior vents through a custom funnel so it will seal everything up. am i in fantasy world thinking that will work?

 

what seam sealer should i use?

 

cowl leak fix

I make a cover for the vents out of Magnetic rubber, covers vents and sealsout most of water, If your windsheild is leaking , which is of course very possible , you will have to replace gasket. Check on Classic Cowl covers.com or visit ebay under cowl cover maverick hope this helps

 

sounds like the body should be rebuilt in that area , so as to ensure structural strength

 

Then of course never let it get wet again , by using a cowl cover.

 

get a can of rustoleum and use some hose and a funnel to get it where you want it to go and get some metal hose or something and hook it to your air compressor and you can spray it around in there this stuff will seal it up with a few coats /// and it's some thick stuff

 

rubberized undercoating and a straw (like wd-40 has) will work in a pinch if you stick the straw down through the louvers on the outside and start spraying and coat everything in there... not the prefered way to do it obviously, but it was cheap and bought me 2 years before it started leaking again.

of course, later on i did a full repair of the cowls the proper way.

 

Unfortunately this won't work on Mavericks. Sealing the cowl keeps out alot of the water, but not all. It still leaks from under the windshield trim and the wiper arm. However, they are still great for keeping out debris.

 

I would think that with any of the rust inhibitor products such as rustoleum or por-15 you would have to do some surface prep and also apply it on the metal directly. pouring it on may work for a short time but I think water will work it's way through. It seems that your best bet will be to attach the problem from the bottom where you took the pictures, you have good access, I don't see why you can't fix it from there.

 

Maybe you can use some gas tank sealing compound. The biggest problem would being able to get the sealant up on the sides of the vent..

Or get a tube of 3m drip check sealent and a small flexable metal tube. Take the cap and drill a hole the size of the tube. Flare the tube ( like a brake line ) Insert the flare end into the cap and screw the cap on the sealent bend the tube as needed and seal the seams ..


Just my 5cts, worth Jay