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Fender Vents


Challenger

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deja, I went to look at some of those punches on ebay. Some were described as guitar amp or electric punches. Looked the same as all the others. Are they?

 

Tom

 

Sorry I didn't see this sooner. No clue why they call them guitar amp or electric punches but we use Greenlee punches for electronic chassis fabrication. Anything made by them should be fine for auto sheet metal punching.

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  • 3 weeks later...
I just noticed this in some old photos. My car has a hole and tube in the inner fender that looks like it vents air. Not sure if Ill make it bigger but atleast they (datsun) knew what the problem was.

 

Got my pin in hand and getting ready to burst your bubble... What your seeing in the picture you have there is the water drain for your cowl, you have one on each side and the rubber tube actualy runs inside the car. It connects to the bottom of the cowl just inside the firewall then runs through a hole (with a grommet on it) to the outside but inside the fender. This is the hole that gets filled up with leaves and crud then does not let water drain from the cowl and causes some of the rust that our cars are known for.

 

P1010002.jpg

You can see the hole fairly clearly in this shot and you can tell it is aft of the firewall (and aft of the holes I drilled for venting).

 

Dragonfly

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What your seeing in the picture you have there is the water drain for your cowl... You can see the hole fairly clearly in this shot and you can tell it is aft of the firewall (and aft of the holes I drilled for venting).

Dragonfly,

 

You can see that rubber elbow for the drains up under the dash on each side.

 

Some people have been upgrading the cowl drains by gluing in a 45-degree PVC elbow, then a length of big flexible tubing behind the fender to the underside of the car. I thought that you could just go straight from the drain hole through the floor, but I wonder if pressure from below would blow air up through the cowl, which would be a problem ( moisture into the heater & interior.)

 

Anyway... do you think you could hammer the corner of the tub below the cowl drain to help air flow directly from the wheel well to the vent? It would make the fender vents on my GTO body functional.

 

I love your paint colour! Mine is the same colour, but the PO was cheap, and the paint wasn't so shiny. :-( What colour or number is it?

 

thxZ

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Dragonfly,

 

You can see that rubber elbow for the drains up under the dash on each side.

 

Some people have been upgrading the cowl drains by gluing in a 45-degree PVC elbow, then a length of big flexible tubing behind the fender to the underside of the car.

 

I would be carefull about doing that, the tube is the primary restriction for leaves etc. and if you add more tubing you are increasing the potential for needing a drain snake to clean out any clogs.

 

 

I thought that you could just go straight from the drain hole through the floor, but I wonder if pressure from below would blow air up through the cowl, which would be a problem ( moisture into the heater & interior.)

 

I think that the pressure in the cowl would be higher than the pressure under the car but you would probably loose some of the positive airflow through the drains that help keep the water out and helps push out smaller obstructions.

 

Anyway... do you think you could hammer the corner of the tub below the cowl drain to help air flow directly from the wheel well to the vent? It would make the fender vents on my GTO body functional.

 

You could do that but I would not recomend it, by doing that you loose the functionality of the drain (which works for both rain and washing the car, also see my comment above about draining under the car). You would also still have a fairly small hole in which air could flow out of the engine compartment to the fender vent. Also the beating applied to the corner of the tub is going to look much worse than the holes you could drill like mine or many of the others on here have done.

 

I love your paint colour! Mine is the same colour, but the PO was cheap, and the paint wasn't so shiny. :-( What colour or number is it?

 

thxZ

 

The paint is a stock 1991 corvette color, I don't recall the number but it is a base/clear coat type of paint but I believe it is called "Teal Green".

 

Dragonfly

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I would be carefull about doing that, the tube is the primary restriction for leaves etc. and if you add more tubing you are increasing the potential for needing a drain snake to clean out any clogs.
This isn't something new, but something the guys at ClassicZCar have been doing. You need to keep the diameters as large as possible for proper drainage. Snaking the drain tube, if neccessary, is not a bad trade-off to restoring the inner tub & fender after it rusts apart- again. :shifty:

 

 

 

I think that the pressure in the cowl would be higher than the pressure under the car but you would probably loose some of the positive airflow through the drains that help keep the water out and helps push out smaller obstructions.

True, as long as you keep the drain tube pointing aft for negative pressure.

 

 

 

Also the beating applied to the corner of the tub is going to look much worse than the holes you could drill like mine or many of the others on here have done.
You don't have to hammer it; it was my first thought. It could also be cut & welded to look smoother. You do need to be careful not to create a weakness in the body by altering that corner.

 

 

 

The paint is a stock 1991 corvette color, I don't recall the number but it is a base/clear coat type of paint but I believe it is called "Teal Green".

That's what the PO said it was. I got my car in 2001. Maybe I could pick up some for touchups, but the painter had a hell of a time matching the paint to my car last summer.

 

my color:

 

thxZ

TomoHawk Car_thumb.jpg

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That's what the PO said it was. I got my car in 2001. Maybe I could pick up some for touchups, but the painter had a hell of a time matching the paint to my car last summer.

 

my color:

 

thxZ

 

Hey... thats not the Tomohawk... It seems to me like you showed the Tomohawk at Motorsport a few years ago, wasn't it that really great looking blue one that I may have accidently drooled on? Oh yeah anyway that paint has a very fine metal flake in it which does make it a little more difficult to match but unless you are going for trophies with the car you should be able to get a paint shop to mix some up for you that will only be noticed by you or a concourse judge.

 

As for the drain/vent thing IMHO what you are talking about doing is a lot of work for a very minimal gain. I personaly think that if you really want to have functional side vents you would be far ahead to punch/cut/drill holes in the sides rather than using that fairly small for the job drain hole.

 

Dragonfly

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What's a Motorsport?

 

 

 

Unless you ahave the fenders off and youy are doing some moderate restoraion or upgrades, you probably don't need anything more than a quick coat of a sealer to keep the body tub from rusting because water & dirt is draining behind there.

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  • 3 months later...

hey, this is a z im buying, but i will be changing the vents.the stock 77-78 hood vents are on the side of the front fenders. The stock 280zx hood vents are in the rear fenders, and the top of the front fenders. im removing the vents on top of the front fenders, and changing the front-side vents with 70-70 trans-am fender vents. 304894329.jpg

304894325.jpg

304894322.jpg

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