I'm sure this has been asked befor, but at the moment I have my entire upper and lower cowl out. I'm considering welding the vents in the upper cowl piece shut and reinforcing the lower panel. What problem's will welding the vent's shut cause? The car doesn't have a/c atm and later on when I do put air in it I'm going to go with an aftermarket system rather then an original. Will the defroster still work properly? Has anyone done this befor?

 

as long as you don't close the drain holes under the fender everything will work fine except the vent air from outside. The fan for the defroster and other parts will easily be able to draw air in through said holes. When I do mine I will run tubing from the drain holes to the front of the car so that I will still have vent air.

 

Not sure about other brands or years, but at least the Classic Auto Air brand aftermarket air conditioner for the 69-70 doesn't use the cowl air at all. It draws air full time from inside the car whether on heat or cool. It uses the a/c when the defroster is on to de-humidify the air. I plan to completely close off the cowl openings on my 70, but it will have the a/c before it hits the road again.

 

I welded mine shut and plan to use the after market air.

 

Got any pics of it? Did you cut the vent slots out and weld in a solid section or just fiull in the slots?

I'm ordering the Vintage Air system shortly and thinking about closing up the vents in ours also.

 

The cowl is used for heat and fresh air but if you get a after market heat and air unit like vintage air those reuse the air inside the car so you can weld the cowl shut.While you got it apart paint the inside of the cowl ford never did thats part why they rust out.Vintage air kit gives you a plate to block off the cowl hole on the passenger side.

 

These are bad pics. had to take a pic of pics because I didn't have the digital when I started the car. I cut out panels for the individual holes and left the vent in place.

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any way just to buy that plate?