Where does the Cowl Drain ?

Spanish Dave · Nov 1, 2007

Hi all
It's been a couple of years since I was last here I guess .. still have my 65 f/b here in Spain but have been busy building a Cobra replica in the mean time (nearly finished now ) What I need to know is what the drain arrangement is for the cowl .. the cowl itself seems OK but I can just about get my hand into the passenger side hole and there is a bit of debris in there .. not too much though. The thing is when I pour water down the cowl vent it comes out from under the back of the front fender which I suppose it is meant to, but then it starts to weep out inside the car where the kick panel joins the inner rocker panel. I can't get at this area without removing the splash shield which I can *almost* remove .... can these be removed without removing the fender? And does the cowl drain down a rubber /steel tube or something like that which could have got blocked? The shop book I have doesn't show any of this.
This is all because the car has spent some time outside this las 12mths and we have had some really bad storms recently. I know it probably wants fenders off, screen out, cowl vent removed etc. ... but here in Spain if the screen broke it would be a major problem ... also the paintwork on the car is real good so i don't want to go down this avenue as yet.
Thanks .... Dave in Sunny Spain

D.Hearne · Nov 1, 2007

The cowl drains into the inner fender. If you've got water going inside the car, it's likely those rotted leaves rotted the cowl too-------into the passenger compartment. Or the flapper valve leading into the heater box is letting it in. Pull the heater box out and look up under the dash.

Spanish Dave · Nov 1, 2007

D.Hearne said:
The cowl drains into the inner fender. If you've got water going inside the car, it's likely those rotted leaves rotted the cowl too-------into the passenger compartment. Or the flapper valve leading into the heater box is letting it in. Pull the heater box out and look up under the dash.

Hi there thanks for the quick reply ... I already have the heater out and the cowl looks pretty OK ... slight bit of rust round the rim, but the water is not coming in there ... I assume that it is going out of the drain and then coming back into the car along the join between the panel the kick panel fixes to and the inner rocker cover. I have tried to shw this in the photo. It seems to me as if it could be bunged up at the bottom of the fender, behind the splash shield ... would this make sense?

Tim65GT · Nov 1, 2007

There are other sources to consider also. My '65 coupe has a hole above that area for the antenna cable. If the grommet isn't sealing good, it's possible water could be coming in there.

Another source is windshild seal and clip/trim screws that go through into the cowl/firewall area that may be rusted, loose or missing.

Before I had my car painted, I pulled the front fenders and cleaned out all the crap I could from the cowl drains with a coat hanger and flushing it out by dumping water down the cowl vent. (Good time to check for cowl leaks inside) I also scraped all the old loose seam sealer and applied new 3M sealer then painted the body at that inner fender area.

CraigMBA · Nov 1, 2007

Pull the fender off and you'll see that the seam sealer between the kick pannel, the toe board, and the cowl area has probablly disintrigrated. My cowl looks perfect, and had leaks exactly the way you described. I couldn't tell where the source was until I completely disassembled my car to paint it.

If your cowl is in good shape, you can slow it way down by using a cowl cover, but it won't fix it 100%.

mfp4073 · Nov 2, 2007

dont use the magnetic ones. They stick to the paint and will pull apart...dont ask how I know.

something my dad did when we were working on the 67 back in 90 was to use an old pump style garden sprayer. You know the kind that you use to spray weeds and bugs. took tar in the gallon can, roofing type, from home depot or whereever. used mineral spirits to thin it down until it would actually flow though the wand of the sprayer. With the fenders off you could stick the sprayer up in there and really coat everything good. Coated the whole thing nice and thick. That was 17 years ago now and the cowl is still intact......and thats almost 17 years outside in florida.

geostang351 · Nov 2, 2007

Spanish Dave said:
Hi all
It's been a couple of years since I was last here I guess .. still have my 65 f/b here in Spain but have been busy building a Cobra replica in the mean time (nearly finished now ) What I need to know is what the drain arrangement is for the cowl .. the cowl itself seems OK but I can just about get my hand into the passenger side hole and there is a bit of debris in there .. not too much though. The thing is when I pour water down the cowl vent it comes out from under the back of the front fender which I suppose it is meant to, but then it starts to weep out inside the car where the kick panel joins the inner rocker panel. I can't get at this area without removing the splash shield which I can *almost* remove .... can these be removed without removing the fender? And does the cowl drain down a rubber /steel tube or something like that which could have got blocked? The shop book I have doesn't show any of this.
This is all because the car has spent some time outside this las 12mths and we have had some really bad storms recently. I know it probably wants fenders off, screen out, cowl vent removed etc. ... but here in Spain if the screen broke it would be a major problem ... also the paintwork on the car is real good so i don't want to go down this avenue as yet.
Thanks .... Dave in Sunny Spain

This is how it would drain from the cowl area. It would drain down the side of the inner fender and find its way in as you described at the rocker/inner fender joint.

Where does the Cowl Drain ?

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Where does the Cowl Drain ?

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