What's next after Cowl repair?

[dallenx]

I've been reading and reading and I have a question.

After the cowl is removed, debris taken out, rust fixed, metal primed and painted and the cowl replaced......then what.

I haven't found the end of the story. Is the original drain enlarged? That won't matter because the leaves and needles will still collect.
It seems like the whole problem will start all over again, maybe it will take 40yrs for the rust to start instead of 20yrs.

Has anyone put a screen under the cowl vents?

 

[Platonic Solid]

I attached a screen on top of the cowl chimney to prevent mice from nesting in my heater core.

 

[tos]

The original problem was Ford did not treat the cowl area properly for prevention of corrosion. Of course leaves and twigs gathered there and helped it along while nobody knew this was going on. We now know that this area should be flushed out when washing your car to keep those drains open. When I did mine I seam sealed everything and primed and painted with good durable paint. Then of course I replaced both floor boards because thats a usual result of the cowl leaking unless your lucky.

 

[1320stang]

a lot of the cowls I've seen that were rusted out also had their drains dam'd up with seam sealer blobs.

I had thought of taking, I believe it was, a '87-'92 F-150 cowl vent and welding it in. It's the cowl that's comprised of a bunch of punched holes that are about 3/16"-1/4" dia. I would keep out about everything short of dirt unless a pine needle fell straight down into it.

 

[tos]

a lot of the cowls I've seen that were rusted out also had their drains dam'd up with seam sealer blobs.

I've seen that too but thats usually when someone doesnt take the time to take it apart and do it right and instead they pore tar or something else in there without cleaning or properly treating the area hoping it will seal around the vent. If done right you wont need very much seam sealer and it wont come loose.