Dodged a bullet on cowl rust (so far)

Hi Rick:
Sounds like you've dodged a bullet there .. Just curious, how do you plan to reach into the area through that little hole ? You might want to find a small swab , or make one of your own design to help distribute the POR 15 uniformly . Let me know how this turns out , I'd like to pass on the info to others. I wish you success... Cometized

 

what are these drain holes you speak of? I had my fenders off for months and didn't see any way in the cowl except through the vent.... previous owner might have clogged them (he did some stupid stuff to my car)

 

Been using a good deal of POR-15 in my Pinto, it REALLY did a great job on my heading-towards-swiss-cheese passenger floor pan, as well as subverting a number of issues in and around the cowl and cowl/firewall interfaces. If I may, a few tips:

1) Like Dave said, follow the directions fully. Use all of the items included - it's a good idea to buy a "kit" with the cleaner, etcher and thinner. The stuff dries, REALLY hard, and works exceptionally well.

2) If you do NOT pre-clean and/or etch properly, rust you leave intact WILL grow beneath the POR-15. Trust me, I did not treat my drivers pan properly and had this happen. I had to wire wheel a good portion of it and retreat. It's a wonderful coating and preventative, but NOT a "cure-all".

3) For your particular application, I highly suggest a careful wire wheeling, cleaning, and etching BEFORE you apply. You won't be sorry, and it will be very durable. Another danger in improper cleaning/etching is poor adhesion; this stuff dries hard and WILL peel if the surface is bad.

4) Wherever possible, use the BLACK POR-15. I have used them all - it is the best flowing, best looking, and most reliable. Silver is OK but will discolor (although it flows well), and nothing is really "silver"; "Metal Mask" is really, really thick, flows poorly, takes a long time to dry. I did my gas tank in metal mask, and while the results are adequate, it has a LOT of brush streaks in it. Black NEVER streaks, and even outflows paint brush application. It's awesome.

Best wishes. Any questions, please ask, I have used a lot of the product and have seen most of the problems, including everyone's favorite - a LONG time to wear off if you get it on the skin.

Chris

 

you guys ever use that naval jelly stuff in addition to the wire wheel for rust removal? worked well on my fender undersides... idk how accessible the cowl is for rinsing after tho.

 

Sorry for the cr@ppy pic, look for the red circle...

 

I just plan on using the POR15 on the underside of the cowl where there is a fair amount of surface rust. What there is on the outside under the grilles I will just leave it as is. It won't progress far enough in my life time due to our climate for me to drill out all the spot welds and go through all that work.

 

Rust Bullit link worked ok for me. It looks like it's pretty good stuff. I think I'm gonna try it on my Mav when I get apart. I'm in the process of drilling my spot welds on the cowl this week. Mine does not look quite as bad from underneath as in the pictures BUT we'll see what it looks like when I get it apart.

 

I have done what you have just described ... it is called "latex caulk" ... (yes, a little bit of sarcasm there ). When my car was a daily driver, and my only wheels, I could not lay the car up for an extended repair, and the cowl just had a handful of small problem areas. I plugged the areas from underneath with Liquid Metal putty and then I started mixing up caulk and water (80/20 mix), and pouring it in through the vents, letting it drain through the leaking areas and out the drains. This involved way too many sessions of all this, and strategic jacking of the car, because the cowl pan slopes down. You want to have the caulk layer settle level to retain that slope. Also, the heat/AC unit should be out of the car when doing this, or this glop will will through there. It was a lot of effort, but it did work, and this car sat outside through two very stormy Florida summers after that ... several tropical storms, and the interior stayed dry.

This all worked for about 10 years, and needed some attention again. I repeated this along with better access to some of the trouble areas. (fender off ... can get in drain) Rust was treated with Rust Bullet. Flowable silicone caulk was added where I could get it to reach, and then I used the caulk mix again ... several more times. It has tested out very good, but all that being said, I will be using a magnetic cowl cover, too. The car will lead an easy life, (garaged) and this repair will last until I am ready to go through the car again in 20 years or so ...

Labor-saver? ... hardly ... it would be about as much work as I put in to cut it open, weld the cowls and stitch it back up. But, the original repair was still in place, and it did save me from popping it all open. This car is still solid enough, I wanted to avoid that.

 

Hmmmm- pouring something thicker than water - wondering if something like POR-15 gas tank liner would work? It's GREAT stuff!!!

Chris

 

Thanks for the info.