Firewall area repair

[Rusty_Quarters]

My firewall area right behind the engine is beat up pretty bad, has had all kinds of holes drilled in it, and hammered on, while I have the cab off, I was thinking about covering this area with a flat piece of sheet metal and redrilling only the holes necessary, has anyone done this, do you have pics? Any ideas or tips. Also, the cowl drain area on mine is rusted out pretty good goes through to where the cowl vents are inside, WHY would you have drains that go into the engine department, and WHY would ma mopar put a rubber plug in these holes so trash, leafs and dirt could pack in there and rust up?

[shdnobetter]

I don't get it either; I was under the dash the other night and discovered rust perforation just behind the driver's side vent door. This means instant wetting of the carpet, floor pan, etc. with a long enough rain. What I don't get is how the area of the cowl between the fender and door is supposed to drain; the little rubber flaps on the firewall are 2 inches or so above this area! This might explain why the are mentioned above is rusted through. What I wouldn't give to throw some questions at the designer(s) of this truck!!!

[nfury8]

The cowls are designed so the water that comes through the "screen" HA!
diverts to the sides and out onto the fender tops and then to where ever.
It does a fair job inside the cowl, as long as the cowl is kept clean and
free of debris. Easier said than done. I have been think of adding a fine
mesh screen behind mine.

I wouldn't want to use the new metal to cover up the old, then you would
have a bigger mess on your hands. The cowl is pretty solid, when not
ate up by rust. So cutting out a section of the firewall sheet metal shouldn't
be to big a deal. Just make sure that the floors are braced and the remaining
firewall doesn't flex, throwing off the locations for the tunnel, steering column
and other goodies bolted to it.

My crew had a couple extra holes in the firewall when I got it. The smaller ones
were welded up, but there was one that was over an inch. I welded a piece of
sheet metal over the backside of the hole and welded the edges on the back to
hold it securely in place. Then on the front, I placed 3 small tacks on the inside
ridge. Then ground the humps off the tacks, flush with the firewall. The end result
makes it look like a knock out.

[Russ]

Those rubber flaps were supposed to let water and debris fall out while keeping engine compartment air from entering the cab. They do seem to be pretty good at keeping leaves in though. When I was working on my truck I noticed that the hole was placed above the floor of the cowl so that it would hold at least a quarter inch of water. I took a dremel and ground down the ledge so that there is no blockage there now. I will need to make some new rubber covers since the originals won't cover the holes now. I also put an aluminum screen under my cowl cover to keep out leaves. My washer bag has started leaking so I don't have a working washer now. When I fix that I'll have to make some openings in the screen for the washer nozzles.

[Rusty_Quarters]

I have been looking at how rusted out these areas are on my truck, pretty bad, so some cutting and metal shaping and repair is needed, so I think that since I could care less about originality (if thats a word), I am going to put some channels going downward to below the fender line welded inside the cab and to the inside of the firewall/cowl area, I will shape the inlet part to the original area so that water instead of going out to the top of fender will go down this downspout if you will to below the fenderline, and then I will weld new sheet metal and get rid of those holes all together. the downspout will be covered with carpet on the inside of the firewall/floor anyway. I think this will work and I can make the downspouts out of some 1/2" x 1 1/2" thinwall tubing, and coat the inside with some plastic coating paint like refrigerator paint. I think this will work good as I want the firewall smooth anyway. and mine is in really bad shape, so anything is an improvement.

[Rusty_Quarters]

Russ,
I like the hole repair, I think I may just weld up everything not needed, and then beat as many dents and waves out of it as possible and then just slather it with a couple coats of body filler to smooth it out, cutting it out just seems like a lot of work. I also thought about making a removable aluminum cover for that area, and putting some conduit for wires under it and hiding all the wires under the hood, I have some strange ideas sometimes, but the nice thing is there is no way for me to put this truck back to original, (To many missing parts) so there is no foul with me making it custom.

[Russ]

Actually, BR (before rust) all of the water entering the cowl had to drain out of the oval vents under the hood. There's no passage out to the fenders at all, unless it's due to rust. If you have the doors and hinges removed you can put your hand up into the top hinge hole and feel the partition. If water should make it to the outer cowl it would come into the step area which is inside the door seal. Dodge did a poor job of designing this area in my opinion. I had a 69 Chevy truck and the entire top of the cowl was removable so it could be painted at the factory. Dodge should have done it like that.

[Rusty_Quarters]

Here is the best pic I could get of the firewall, taken with camera phone, my digital camera does not have software for my ancient pc.

[Tufftruck]

Rusty Quarter:
Please include pics on your progress, I have the same problem with mine. During a hard rain or when I wash the truck I have water on my floorboards and it's coming from the little rusty holes on the inside of the firewall. Not only do I have to fix it, I have to some how get the water to drain out. Don't know how to get to the inside of that area except to cut out a big piece of metal to get in there and then weld it back in. Can't even see in there much get my hands in there to do anything. Don't even know how to apply any type of rust proofing in there, at least properly. Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated.

[Rusty_Quarters]

Tufftruck,
I see your in clovis, thats not far from me if I can figure out how I want to do mine, I will invite you down to check it out, its only about an hour 15 from you, as you know it has been pretty cold the last day or two, so have not done much, oh and that holiday was in there, mine is in pieces right now, so it is pretty easy to get to any part of it.

[Rusty_Quarters]

Here is a pic of the rusted out area on mine, this is actually about the worst rust on the entire truck, I had a passenger side floor board that was holy-er than should be but, I cut out and patched that area, and re-sealed it up. Not the ideal fix but will last a long time in California. Also, I have seen on other posts where vintagepowerwagon supposedly has floor board for our truck, but their catalog shows out of stock, and when I emailed them they said they didn't have any available at this time, so I got a piece of 10 guage steel, and cut out the bad area of floor board, then put a piece of 10 guage over it, used self tapping screws around the perimeter, with some henry's mastic for seam sealer, and then stitch welded the piece in. it will work although I am not proud and will hate myself until I can fix it properly.

[nfury8]

If the slotted cowl vent cover is removed and the wiper mechanisms are removed,
You can get your arm all the way down through the cowl to the holes for the vent
and heater intake. It is a little tricky with the motor in though!

With the doors and top door hinge off, you can reach in through where the top
door hinge sits and into the cowl as well. If you do the same on the passenger side,
you can see the bottom of the antenna base.

[Russ]

It's messy, but here's how I did mine. My cowl was not rusted out but I was determined to rustproof it when I had it apart. I did this with the cowl cover, front fenders, hood, and radiator support removed but the engine was in place. I first ground down the lower edges of the drain holes so that it wouldn't hold water anymore. Then blasted it out with a water hose to clean it. After it dried completely I mixed fiberglass resin, using the slow cure amount of hardner, and injected it into the cowl using a two foot piece of clear 3/8th a/c drain hose and a squeeze bottle. It took several pieces of hose and bottles to get it like I wanted it. I injected some from the top and some in through the vent holes to be sure it was completely around the air intakes. I did this on both sides. When I had it completely covered and it sat hard I used a rustproofing spray kit that I got from Eastwood to spray black rustoleum in to make it look better and to protect more of the walls. It isn't pretty but it doesn't show and it doesn't hold water.
I didn't use the fiberglass in the outer cowl areas but did clean them out and spray rustoleum into them as well. I also used the Eastwood sprayer to spray rustoleum into my rockers through the round holes in the front of the rockers.

[Rusty_Quarters]

Russ,
Your work looks great, unfortunately I do not have a good example to fix, mine is badly rusted out, so I am going to endeavor to cut it out and fabricate a sheetmetal replacement out of some thin gauge material, the whole area was so rusted out that I was tapping it with a screwdriver and it popped through it all over like going through paper, so here is a pic of what I have to deal with. This pic is the vent out on the ground the metal looks way better in this pic than it is, if you pick it up, it folds in half on its own weight.

[Rusty_Quarters]

Here is the inside view of the cowl vent area after I cut it out, I will cut and get rid of all the rust out area, and then make a new cowl vent box, and weather proof the inside this time.

[Tufftruck]

Well now I know I am not the only one with this problem. Great pictures.
Russ:
Is that a picture of the driver side? Very nice repair. Is that the factory seam sealer where what looks like the body panels meet or did you apply the seam sealer? If you did how did you get in there? Did you do any metal prep before you applied the fiberglass resin? Will the fiberglass resin stick to rusty metal and seal it?? Or does the metal have to be rustproofed before applying the fiberglass resin?? Any pics of the how you ground down the edges of the drain holes?? Looks like I have my work cut out for me.

Rusty Quarters:
Thanks for the pics. It looks like you and i have lots of work ahead of us.

[HellBelly]

I have plenty of cab patch panels, if you need a section let me know.

[Rusty_Quarters]

How would you cut out a patch panel for this cowl vent area as seen in my pics above, it is so rusted out, would you drill out the original spot welds?

[HellBelly]

What am i missing? I'd cut around the entire section you need and you cut the same section out on your truck and tack in the new one?

[Russ]

[quote="Tufftruck"]Well now I know I am not the only one with this problem. Great pictures.
Russ:
Is that a picture of the driver side? Very nice repair. Is that the factory seam sealer where what looks like the body panels meet or did you apply the seam sealer? If you did how did you get in there? Did you do any metal prep before you applied the fiberglass resin? Will the fiberglass resin stick to rusty metal and seal it?? Or does the metal have to be rustproofed before applying the fiberglass resin?? Any pics of the how you ground down the edges of the drain holes?? Looks like I have my work cut out for me.


That is factory sealer where the panels meet. I couldn't reach very far into the cowl but took the pics by holding the camera in it and taking several until I got a decent one. That is the drivers side. After it dried from being washed out with a water hose I did pour in some Ospho rust converter but don't think it was necessary. I think the fiberglass resin would have bonded well without it. I don't have a pic that shows my mods to the drain holes but it you look at them there is a ledge at the front lower opening that will hold water. I took a dremel with a steel cutting bit and just ground off that ledge until there was a smooth surface there. I also had to enlongate it slightly toward the outside to completely eliminate any chance of it holding water. I injected the resin until it ran out of the drain so I know I have it all covered inside. It's messy but I think it's good protection. My passenger side was the worst side and I did have a rust hole just inside the drain hole. I was able to use fiberglass mat and put it in through the drain hole to cover that. The larger drain holes will require slightly larger rubber flaps but I didn't have the originals anyway.