Best way to get into cowl area for cleaning? Where do I need to cut to access the cowl to remove leaves and twigs? Cut out whole vent area? Or just a few of the slats? Thanks
Oh, you really don’t want to cut into the cowl just for cleaning; it is a bitch to remove entirely (~60 spot welds) or to cut a piece out and weld it back into place. You can use a small vacuum hose into the side exit holes (once the fenders are off) or one into between the vent slots.
The only reason to really cut into the cowl is to do repairs on the fresh air vents, which typically rust out allowing water into the car, which rusts out the floor boards.
That little hole won’t really cut it but I suppose i could make the holes bigger to get a small shop vac hose in there. thanks for the information
You can just cut a larger hole around the side drains. Plasma cutter works best (more controll) than weld the piece back.
Depending on what year Cat 67 or 68 you may have an early 67. These early 67’s had a hole in the side of the cowl plugged w/ a rubber plug. Removing the fender is the only way to really clean out the cowl w/ or w/out the plugged hole. I have used a coat hanger. I made a flat spiral that would fit thru the slots. I could then push out the junk thru the drain “ports”. Took a long time, and a garden hose to help. Careful, cause junk can make it into the car & onto the floor. You will most likely find that you have a leaky cowl due to rust & the sealant drying up and cracking.
Other post will inform you how fun that is to repair. I though the spot weld count was well over 100…
when I removed the cowl on my 68, I counted 166 spot welds , and probably missed some.
Two other options:
A pair of long forceps can be used to extract leaves and other bits thru the slots. Time consuming, but much easier than cutting, replacing, and repainting metal. If the drain holes are clear, you could then gently rinse out the finer bits.
Another way is to come up from underneath through the vent / heater air intakes. More time consuming, and requires removal of some big items (specifically the heater core), but it can be done. I did this years ago when I already had the heater plenum out to repair.
I’m getting ready to look at cleaning/repairing my cowl vents. I looked from under the dash and it doesn’t appear that anything is rusted through, however there’s quite a bit of surface rust on top. My plan is to cut a window (3 sided) into the side of the cowl where it’s only visible when the fender is off. I’ll peel it back and clean everything up, followed by a coat of POR-15 and rewelding it back into place. I’m doing whatever I can to avoid complete removal, as it’s a pain.
I use a piece of steel tubing hooked up to my compressor and blow all of the crud out. it is a mess but it seems like the best way to get it really clean so you don’t get trash flying out when you go to paint.
Remove the fresh air vent on the DS to reach up with you hand, compressed air and or a homemade J shaped fitting on your shop vac. The PS is a little harder as you have to remove the heater box.
Removing the heater and the vent is the best way! And it stands to reason if the cowl area is full of garbage, so is your heater and drivers side vent? So clean the entire system at once! And if your heater core is old, now would be the time to change!
There’s another, bigger, access point at the lower left in the picture just above this post.
Thanks for all the great ideas! Am away for work but will look into all these options once I’m able to work on the car again.