1965 Underdash Leak

Aekisu

New Member
Jun 5, 2004
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I'm doing some restoration work on a 1965 Mustang. The owner advised there is a leak under the dash. The leak is apparently unrelated to the window or heater.

He believes it is coming from the vent area.

Apparently the car was leaking on both sides and he was successful in his fix on passenger side but not successful on the driver side. His fix was done from under the dash and involved inserting something up into the vent area.

Can someone point me in the right direction as to what I should be looking for.
 
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Ah! The infamous cowl leak. Sometimes it's just the collars that are rusted out so you can just replace those (probably what the previous owner did). Worse case scenerio, the whole cowl is rusted away and you'll have to replace it which involves tearing apart the whole front end of the car, drilling out tons of spot welds, and welding in a new cowl panel.

Try sticking your head under the dash. You should be able to see the under side of the cowl and check for big rust holes (poking at it with a screwdriver to check for thin spots wouldn't be a bad idea either). I may have a pic of the underside of my cowl (67 but basically the same) so you can get an idea of what to look for. Give me a minute and I'll check.

-Chelle
 
Okay, this is the best I can do.

This is the driver's side cowl as seen from underneath. There should be a black vent attached to this but I had removed it before taking the pic.

cowl.jpg


You can see how my cowl collar is all rusted and the sealant is dry & falling apart. The kit for replacing the collars comes with 2 plastic replacement collars and some sealant. I'm about 1/2 way through that project and as soon as I'm done patching my floor pans, I'll finish it and do a write up.

-Chelle