Rusty Cowl

Tufftruck · Post by **Tufftruck** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 6:40 pm

I need some help and some information on a rusty cowl. It rained today so I went and look under the dash to see where the water on the floorboards were coming from. It looks like it's coming from the inside of the firewall just below the windshield. And it's coming from a rusy area I never noticed before. So I opened the manual vent on the driver side under the dash and took a mirror and looked inside. I could see a trail of water in like a trough on the other side of the rusty area where the water is coming from, under the dash below the windshield. So I go outside and open the hood and check it out, of course the water is entering through the upper cowl panel that covers the wiper system. It looks like the water is suppose to exit though two ovel shape holes on each side of the firewall in the engine compartment. I haven't taken the upper cowl panel off to see if I can see more yet, I plan to do that as soon as it dries up outside because I have to park the truck outside. Can anybody give me some info on this? Is this a common problem with these trucks and what would be the BEST WAY TO PERMANENTLY FIX this problem? It looks like I will be repairing or replaceing some rusty metal behind the dash, does anybody know if any of these replacement panel are avalible? Has anybody else experianced this problem and what did you do? I also have Jim's CD and will be looking through it to see what he did. Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Jeffc · Post by **Jeffc** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 12:57 am

Rusted cowls are not uncommon in these truck and
they often leaked without them being rusted out
(some may have even leaked from the factory).
Yes, the 2 oval holes are the drains for the
cowl and that is were the water is suppost to
go......

There are a number of ways to repair this;
a lot depends on what your willing to do.

You could try to find a good cowl and weld
it in.....

You could try to weld up any holes......

You might try what I have done in the past
and use por15 system, or the Eastwood =, and some fiber glass mesh (if there are weak areas)
and patch it and kill the rust at the same time.

Do not just fiber glass it, that will only
'cover' the problem and does nothing to
kill the rust .

You can gain access to the hole cowl by removing
the cover and wiper pivots, then you can get all
the way down the passage on both sides.

Post by **oneowner71** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 10:53 am

Luckily enough, I caught mine before it rusted. It usually is caused by leaves and such that fall in the slats on the cowl plate, then migrate down to either side and block the weep holes into the engine compartment. I found mine had a problem when the entire heater box was filled with leaves. I installed some fiberglass screen material on the inside of the cowl plate for everyday protection. I also went to a local sign shop, got some scrap material of their magnetic sign fabric, and made some magnetic covers for the slots I leave on when it parks or is raining. None of that will help you till it gets fixed.

I don't know of any repair panels pre-fabbed for that area. If you are comfortable cutting and replacing the areas with your own made panels, I would think that would be the way to go. Having not done it, I would think you would need to remove the dash assembly to get access to the underside. Someone here I'm sure has had to patch it, unless they all just swapped cabs.

Whatever happens, good luck with it, and take some pictures to let us know how it goes.

Post by **cowboy** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 7:11 am

Clint's right to get to it you have to remove the dash (not that hard ) & come in from under neath it , lot's of room with the dash out

steven · Post by **steven** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 7:24 am

I did it all, not fun

wally · Post by **wally** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 12:14 pm

also, after I did this repair (I welded everything, since it was all apart) I made sure that I caulked or seam sealed either end of the water way (where the water is SUPPOSED to exit out of the two openings each side) in such a way so that water would ONLY go out these two openings, and not sit in the corner, or in the small area below the water exit opening. This was done before paint. to be clear, the factory left a little area, which was below the water exit opening, on both sides, causing standing water to not be able to evacuate. If you build up caulk RIGHT UP TO the bottom of the opening, and ALSO, fill in a "burm" to either side of the opening, which will not allow water to sit in there, you will be doing yourself a big favor -trust me.

After paint, remember to WAX WAX WAX this area, so water has no choice but to leave.

This did in fact solve most of my problems (except leaves, which is a brilliant idea using the fine screen) but I can only vouch for my personal results.
hope this helps.

Tufftruck · Post by **Tufftruck** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 11:17 pm

Thanks for the input. I guess their is no easy fix for it. I have to do the floor boards so I might as well take out the dash and deal with the cowl at that time. I shouldn't be to surprised if I find more rust. It really seemed like the cab was solid. I really didn't want to do a full resto but well see.

Russ · Post by **Russ** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 6:31 am

When I had my truck apart I noticed that the way the cowl is made allowed at least a quarter inch of water to sit in the drain area. I took a die grinder and ground the front edge down flush to prevent that. That is definitely a bad designed area for Swepts considering that it also never was painted inside. Also, when you have the door hinges removed you can get your hands into the outer cowl area to clean and rust proof those. It's a messy job though. While you are into it be sure to remove the round plugs on the front of the rockers and clean out that area. I used Ospho and then Rustoleum in all of these areas. I bought a rustproofing gun from Eastwood that had a long wand to reach into tight places.