I have a rain problem, I have a 1970 fastback and I get a rain water inside on both side of the car at the kick panels, I suspect that its coming in at the fresh air ducts under the cowling. If someone has had this problem I would appreciate any information available

smokee

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i have the same problem. yeah i think its from the venting in the cowl. and the only way to fix it is to take the cowl out. which means stripping the car completely and cutting out the cowl [], which im not gonna do. i think there might be a way to fix it from under the dash but i dont know how.

 

Most likely the cowl is rotted around the air intake on both sides. that is an expensive problem to fix!!!! They make cowl covers to prevent rain from entering through the grillwork. That could be a inexpensive solution for now.

 

A couple of days ago, I felt my carpet on the driver and passenger sides after drivimg in the rain, and it was sopping wet. I talked to a couple of people about it and they said that can be common with mustangs. I also asked if there was a way to take the cowl off and fix it but the cowl is connected so no way! I don't feel like stripping the car, but cowl covers does seem like a very good idea. You could also get a bright light, turn off the lights in the garage, shine under the car and see where the leaks are coming from.

 

You need to do some more research and determine how extensive the problems lies. Climb under the dash and feel around and see if you can spot where the water is intruding. Water can come from a leaky winshield seal, rusted metal under the windshield, or as others have stated, a leaky cowl. Test for leaks in different places. Seal the cowl vent off with plastic and tape, then pour water over the windshield so it runs down over the base frame. If that doesn't produce water inside, then pour a bucket of water into the cowl and climb in and look for leaks.

Also, cowl leaks are immediate cause to throw your hands up and sell the car. There are progressively more thorough methods of addressing cowl leaks depending on the extent of the damage. These range from installing the simple 'cowl hats', which seal off the rusty seam areas at the base of the cowl (the very first place to go) all the way up to dissembling the front of the car.

Get under there.... snoop around....then come back and tell us what you find.

 

JamesW, please tell me you actually meant "cowl leaks are NOT immediate cause to throw up your hands and sell the car."

 

I have the exact same problem and I have come to the conclusion that it IS NOT A COWL leak. (in my case)

I took off the plastic kick panels and had my dad run several gallons of water across the cowl while i watched for leaks. I saw nothing not a single drop of water. Then we placed a small amount of water on the window at the bottom. the water ran to the bottom corner of the window and immediately began dripping on to the carpet right next to where the plastic kick panel would have been.

So it would seem that its a leak from the window weather stripping which pisses me off because I have just replaced that weather strip to avoid this problem...I gotta take off the window trim again and try forcing more 3M bedding compound around the body and weatherstrip until it stops leaking or I discover that its not from the window in the first place and from some mystery location. BUT right now it looks like its from the window!

Im glad its not the cowl

-Gun

 

thanks to all for information, it seems that everyone that answered did not have a 70 mustang. I think that the 70 has very limited access to the cowl vent holes. The one about the windshield sounds like it might have promise but all are appreciated. The 70 has a metal panel covering the cowl vents so I might cut that off and hopefully repair the rusted part and then weld the piece back in place if that is what the problem turns out to be. I will post my results in case someone needs to do the same thing. Thanks again

smokee

 

Do NOT. i repeat DO NOT cut them off, the 69/70 years have a removable cowl top which makes easy access too the top of the cowl, look into that before cutting anything

 

Jamesw means a cowl rusted out is fixable yes the 64-68 is a real mother but the 69-73 is still a pain but some what easiler.