Top cowl vent drain and firewall cleanup I've been welding the holes up in my firewall an welded up the vent drain hole for my cowl vent. I plan on using my cowl vent in the summer, but won't use it when it's raining. So should I drill the hole back out and put the drain hose in? Thanks
Run a hose down inside the firewall and out the floor. The drain is a neccessary evil. I don't like the way that it drips right on the vented valve cover on a stock truck, or on the distributor on a V8, but, O well.
Thanks, I just bought some 16G metal from the scrap pile at my local metal place then use cardboard and trace out a template of each hole. Put those templates on the metal, used a sharpie, then I cut them out with a plasma cutter (you can also use a cutting wheel on your grinder which I did for some) then with my grinding wheel grind each one to clean them up. To weld them I had a magnet on the other side of the wall to hold in place and flush with the outside then tac weld, take the magnet out then stitch weld the rest. Then grind it all down until it's smooth so I can bondo over. With small holes I would fill in with the mig welder. You have take your time so you don't warp the metal. Took me about 2 weeks because I would come out the next day and find another hole I needed to do or missed.. Rico
drain search franks crazy adventure he has pics on how he ran drain hose under dash nice fire wall by the way
Cowl Vent Drain Hose If it's properly installed , it cannot possibly leak on to the engine or dizzy ~ that's why it's supposed to be installed so the open end of the hose points to the driver's side....... Your works there look *very* nice .
Can't seemed to find franks crazy adventure? Little help please.. I would like to change where it is since it's welded up. Thanks Rico
I think Frank has a thread on this site, but I had this thread on the HAMB bookmarked. Here is the link. And the whole thread is definitely worth the time to read. Lots of pictures of his great work too. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=568254&page=30
Thanks for the link. That truck is bad ass. I can only hope mine is close to that nice when it's done. Lots of money Rico
Very nice work. We smooth out a lot of firewalls but usually use cut to slightly oversize patches and panel bond. Strong and cuts a week job down to an hour one. The orange one has a drain hole plug even though the cowl vent is calked shut so it could be re-opened if desired. The round bolt heads on the mint green one are flathead carriage bolts which mount the a/c unit. The modern airplanes and the supersonic fighters are panel bonded so it's pretty tough.
Both those firewalls look awesome. I want mine to look that way. I notice you didn't weld up the 4 holes in the middle for the 2 braces for the fenders. I was told I didn't need them, I hope they were right? I just started the bondo on mine and I can see I have lots of hand sanding to do.
Also what about the hole for the steering column? Do you leave it that big or should it be welded up to be smaller?
Rico, Everything I've seen indicates that those two support rods are really necessary. They set the height of the fenders and affect how the hood rests and aligns. Others feel free to chime in on either side of this. Bill
Nice job! I'm in the middle of doing the same thing on my 51. This thread answered some of my questions. Keep posting some pics.
Thanks man, I think that's great when I need help and someone doing the same thing can find out info what to do. I will definitely will give pictures when I can and ask questions when I need help. I ended up drilling out the hole re-threading the holes. I even had a little piece of metal chip off, so I just did some quick spot welding grind down with 80 grind on my grinding wheel. Then went over with my DA 80 grit added a touch of bondo an ready for the fender braces.
