Do you have water on your right side floor board?

[olie05]

I currently have my car down for some "rust prevention" and I was working around the cowl area. The whole thing was covered in rust (under the cowl panel).

 

As I was cleaning I decided to stick my hand under the passenger's side (US car, LHD) cowl stamping and feel around for dirt/rust etc.

 

I felt a very rusty (and distinct) hole in the metal passageway from which the fan draws air.

 

With no other access to the area I decided to cut out some metal:

 

 

With the cowl stamping removed I could clearly see the problem:

 

 

When it rains, the water collects at the bottom of the cowl area, until it drains out of either drain hole. If everything is working correctly, this little "stove pipe" piece of metal keeps the water out, and allows the air to flow in. Since mine is rusted out at the bottom, some of the water that collects at the bottom of the cowl panel finds its way into the cabin.

 

I have not decided how I'm going to fix this problem just yet, but I have cut out the stove pipe (that's what I'm calling it until someone gives me a more correct name for it.)

 

 

Comments?

Suggestions?

 

Has anyone attacked this problem before?

Edited June 3, 2010 by olie05

[yetterben]

No advice on the actual repair from me but.....Stop driving it in the rain. Why do people drive these in the rain? There has to be less than 1% here that need to drive these for dd duty.

[ComicArtist]

When my heater core was leaking, I found some nice pools of coolant sitting underneath my passengers side carpet.

[JSM]

Agree on not driving in the rain but to each his own. Regardless, thanks for posting this I have water on my 280z floorboard as well. Something good for me to check as my car has some rust issues.

[RTz]

If I only drove my Z in fair weather... I'd never get to drive it.

 

 

Thanks for sharing, Olie

[rturbo 930]

No advice on the actual repair from me but.....Stop driving it in the rain. Why do people drive these in the rain? There has to be less than 1% here that need to drive these for dd duty.

Or worse, leave them outside. My '71 was left outside for at least two years, just sitting. To make matters worse, it appears to have been under a tree. My cowl is rusted, as well as the lip on the fender that bolts to the cowl area, as well as the weather strip lips, and hatch sill. I suspect the car was in much better condition 5 years ago.

[19762802+2]

My parts car was left outside in Missouri for 9 years...yeahh. Anyways the best thing I could think of when I did this same thing is I left the "stove pipe" on slapped on silicone sealer all around the seams inside and out after I removed the rust and then painted it. After that I completely blocked off the hole instead of the half slant piece of metal. I never got to test it but I'm sure its fine that way.

[PR280z]

That`s an area where por15 would be of great help.

[Geking]

I had the same issue. Wirebrush, rust converter, a paint like por15, then some body seam caulk to seam it up. I made life more difficult for myself and I did not remove the cover. I did find that a drop light up top and working from the bottom made it easy to find the holes.

 

This was 3 years ago I did the fix, still holds water.

 

(I park my car on the street outside of the garage. With the care that people in my house take, I actually get less paint chips and dings on the street.)

[Guest skimattybee]

what i did was , take the three 10mm or 12mm (i cant remember) our of the blower motor, and unhook the hoses and the wiring harness for the blower under the dash. the blower motor should come right out after that, this give you access to the rusty hole from the bottom also. cut out the horn(thats the blower intake)which in my case was pretty much rusted all the way around. cut all of the areas that are badly rusted, unless it is rusted through or very weak i would leave it . it is a tight area so good luck on your weapon of choice (i used a small side arm air grinder with a cutting disk) once you get all of the rust out pick up some ospho, rust killing acid, and coat the entire area several times,(may want to put some on the bottom also) make sure the rusted areas stay wet until the rust turns black or blue color(this means the rust is dead) let the acid dry. take some ductape and cover up the hole from the bottom, cut out some fiberglass mat to fit the hole and overlap the metal at least an inch on each side, mix up some fiberglass resin and paint the resin over the tape and the ares that the mat is cut out for, lay the mat and paint on some more resin, i put 2 or 3 layers of glass mat and let it dry. once dry come back and pull off the tape on the bottom, make sure the horn will mount flush, i cut 3/4 in. off of the horn set the horn on the area that you glassed, and trace around. use a drill and a jigsaw to cut out for the horn, cut up some strips of fiberglass mat to lay on the edges of the horn and glass it in, spray some self etching primer on the matal that you put ospho , or some POR-15

i wasnt able to get any photos, i hope this helps!

[Guest skimattybee]

oh and for the blower motor, i added some seam sealer to the lip that mounts up to the horn to seal it air tight

[blue72]

My car had an entirely different reason behind an entirely different funny green water that was on my passenger side floorboard.....

 

[CarJway]

I had the same problem with my Z. Though, after reading these posts, I wish I would have corrected the problem differently.

 

I sanded down the entire area, from inside the car. As, I had everything out from the Painless wire install. I fiber-glassed the entire area from the inside, all the way up the air horn. This mostly solved my problem, as now I only get a few drops in my passenger side floor.

 

As for rebuilding the air horn, I would either weld up a box, or make it out of fiber-glass. I would make it out of fiber-glass, as a welder is not easily accessible to me. Since I don't want to tear into this again, I am planning to seal off the right side of the vents in my cowl, and only leave the driver side vents open. Not the best fix, but will solve water coming in.

[olie05]

seems like a lot more work to do it without cutting out an access panel. I cut off the air horn, trimmed about 3/4" off of it and epoxied it back on (after grinding off all the rust from the cowl surface) Then I took some seam sealer and sealed up the inside and outside of the air horn where it meets the cowl.

 

I'll be welding the access panel back in place soon.