Blackjokr

Got my 68 coupe about 2 weeks ago. No plates yet as NJ DMV is slower than a turtle with two legs, but I washed it up real nice. Much to my chagrin, when I opened the doors I found the floor pans in front of the driver and passenger seat in the corner by the floor rails soaking wet. I assume the water ran off the roof, inside the door well and into the car. Surprisingly, the trunk stayed dry! Anyway, I investigated the rubber molding around the doors and door windows and its pretty dry, probably never replaced or replaced long ago. When I crank down the window, (bear with me as this is hard ot explain), but it appears the molding is pushed onto metal points along the door, almost like looking at a staple in reverse (points out). So, my question is this, what the heck do I do to replace them? I am sure I can order replacements, and I imagine tearing them off is easy, but how do you get them back on? Is there some kind of glue I need to add? Do i have to take the door apart? clean it with any special substance? Sorry for my ignorance. I'm not really knowledgable here, but I am an incredible mechanically inclined individual! THANKS GUYS!! Also, any good mustang restoratin books out there??

Dan66

Door and roofrail weatherstripping is pretty straight-forward to replace. Pull, tear, or chissel off the old stuff and get the surface clean. Use a 3M scrubbing pad or a flatblade screwdriver or whatever it takes to remove all traces of the old stuff. Then attach the new pieces (available from any Mustang parts house) with some weatherstrip adhesive. You may have to hold the new weatherstipping in place with strips of masking tape until the adhesive dries - but that's about it.

No doubt, your 40 year old weatherstripping needs to be replaced - but I'd bet my last dollar it's not the source of your leak... The vents just behind the rear edge of your hood (in front of your windshield) are the "cowl vents." They're notorious for leaking (in Mustangs). Get a pitcher or water and pour it right in them. Look and see if water is dripping from under your dash onto the floor. If it is, you've got rusted-out cowl vents. Hate to be the voice of doom, but what's worse is this is also the leak that leads to rusted-out floors and frame rails. Pull up your carpet (or crawl under your car) and poke around - especially on those frame rails. If they're rusted through, your car is really not road-worthy!

If it's only a few pin holes of rust (in the cowl vent top hats), you can patch it with an inexpensive plastic kit (also available from any Mustang vendor). If it's badly rusted out, you're in for quite an expensive repair. Not anything the novice should try either. Count of spending several thousand dollars to have it repaired right.

Blackjokr

Dan66-

hey man, thanks! You were right. I did your test and some H2O came through. It wasn't a waterfall but enough to get me concerned. I peered in with a flashlight to the vents and saw some rust in there near the ends where it drains off and someone tried ot gunk it up with somethign that looked like small amounts of epoxy or something (out side of the vent towards the side of the car), but there may be more. I'll plan on having it fixed. Question I have is, do they remove the dashboard or do they pull the engine out and remove the firewall (I think thats what it's called?). I gave the floor pans a good hard "KIA!!" style Bruce Lee super test punch and poke and so far so good. the car was restored and the dealer I bought it from promised me no frame rust or floor rust and so far everything he said has been true so I am keeping my fingers crossed. I'll crawl under later to peek (praying for good stuff - NO RUST! NO RUST! NO RUST PLEASE!! ) but the car looked pretty good other than that and so far the only other leak I saw was about dead center top of windshield. I read this is a perpetual classic Ford of this era problem as well. Thanks for the quick response in advance!

Dan66

Sorry to hear that! The water is supposed to be kept out of the passenger compartment by means of a couple "top hat" pieces; then it's supposed to drain off each far end of the cowl area. If the drains aren't clogged with leaves and crud, the water will trickle out to the ground from just behind the front tires.

The repair is really time-consuming. That's why it's so expensive. The hood will obviously have to come off; but beyond that, it's a matter of drilling out several hundred spot welds that hold the top of the cowl section on. Once it's off, the rotted top hat area will be cut out; a new one welded in; then the cowl top is carefully repositioned and re-spot welded in place.

Here's a link to someone's documented repair (lots of pics):
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/gturner51/Cowl_Vent.htm

Please do check your floors and frame rails. You can tap along the frame rails with a screw driver and listen for the sound to change. Y'see, the water leaks inside of the frame rails; therefore, they will rust from the inside out. If your floors are rusted-through, just keep in mind that these are unibody cars. The floors play an important role as far as overall strength and integrity goes. I've seen a couple with rusted floors that snapped righ in-two!

Blackjokr

Hey Dan, thanks! That's right on!! If I could weld I would definitely tackle this myself. So, I'll use the car for the summer, send her into the restoration shop down the road in the winter. I do see plenty of water coming out behind the wheels so it's not all running into the car. I know it has to be done. I am going to definitely test the frame. I am also going to have my Mustang mechanic look at it. The last one he looked at that I almost bought he told me wwas "a roach". I hope this one isn't or it's about 10K down the tubes..*sigh*...PRAY TO THE MUSTANG GODS FOR ME!!! Thanks again!!

Blackjokr

Hey all, found this:

http://www.mustangandfords.com/howto/5206/index.html

I am going to do this myself. Gotta get someone who can weld though!!

ivanr77

Dan was right on nailing the fact that it is your cowl vents, although i do have to disagree on the expensive part of it.

The only way it'll be expensive is if you pay someone to do it for you.

It is time consuming, but it can be done, and it isn't impossible to do. You'll have to remove your fenders, hood and front windshield. the front end of your dash will either have to be removed, cut or peeled off. Then you must drill out the spot welds for your cowl vent and melt the copper using any torch around the factory seals. Once you get the cowl vent area open you can see the damage/rusted areas, in which you can buy repair panels for both sides for a total of about $60 at any vendor.

After getting the repair panels youll have to make your measurements and cut out whatever area you need to replace.

one thing though, you DO NOT need to know how to weld. I watched one of my friends replace his entire cowl vent (he's an inexperienced body man as well) alone and he used weld bond adhesive which works just as fine (i've used it as well and it works great).

To make a long story short, cowl vent replacements can be done by yourself, and they are not that expensive. If you do it yourself you're looking at spending around $200-$400 depending on what tools/materials you'll need to buy if you don't have anything yet. It IS a time consuming project, my friend who's replacing his cowl vent has been working maybe a total of 30 hours on it and he is about 80% done with the entire project. He is also inexperienced at body work, so depending on your own experience/dedication/motivation your time working may vary.

the project is very doable and is defiently worth doing because you save your floors from rusting through.