pastfast125

I keep reading about leaking cowls. What exactly is the area that's prone to leaks, and how can I check yo see if the car I'm looking at is going to have that problem?

Timelockmind

Good question. I was wondering the same thing. By the way, I was told there is no way to fix cowl rust unles you tear apart the car - which could runseveral thousand dollars! Is this true?

andrewmp6

take the garden hose and put it in the cowl vent its the vented spot by the windsheld wipers if any water comes out in the floor inside the car its rusted out. and hes right its fun to fix 100 some spot welds to remove and even remove the windsheild

pastfast125

I can't really do the garden hose thing though, cuz it's not my car, it's a local guy sellin it, but I wanna really make sure I know what I'm gettin before I get it.

paddy187

A bottle of water will do other than that try to looking under the front carpets checking for water damage, either rust, damp and mold. This will give a good indication of cowl damage.

Timelockmind

If the driver's side floor has rust does that most likely mean sater came in through the cowl area?I can't figure how else floor pans rust. What's the best way for a visual inspection for cowl rust - short of tearing the car open?

Soaring

Take a screw driver with you, and crawl under the car. Poke at the floor, and if the screwdriver goes through, then you have a rusted out floor pan because the cowl has leaked.

428coupe

The best way to check for a leaky cowl is to pour a bottle of water into the cowl in front of the windshield. Don't be scared to tell the seller that this needs to be done. It is the easiest, most foolproof way to check it. The last stang I bought (was buying for parts), I asked the guy if the cowl was rusted, he said "no", so I said "then you won't mind if I pour some water in there to check it out". Of course, it leaked which nocked the selling price in half.

Anyways, I have included a picture of my car after I welded the repair cowl hats in place. The picture shows the area that rusts which you cant see unless you drill out the 200 plus spot welds and remove the upper cowl.

[IMG]local://upfiles/40458/9EE89E55A04548648DE9A4744C657840.jpg[/IMG]

Timelockmind

Soaring - let me get this straight...

Your saying rust in floor pans means rust in cowl? Is there no other way floor pans become rusted? If not, I suppose this means almost allvinatge mustangs have this problem!

But what happens if you just repair the floor pans without the huge undertaking of fixing the cowl?

Is a rusted cowl a major structual issue that will effect the driving ability of the car?



And finally how many have spent the dozen of hours and thousands of dollars to fix this specific problem?

grruminator78

Well if it is indeed a leaky cowl and it is a 67/68 they now have an entire cowl repo that you can put in. However the only way to be sure it's the cowl is the tried and true water test. If it's not leaking the owner will have no problem with the test, and if he/she says no then obiously it's leaky. The only other way without checking the bottom of the floors is asking if you can pull up the carpet and look under it. This will not damage the car as you can just unscrew a few things and look.