My drain Holes are plugged on my 1978 Ford Pinto Runabout, and so now water is now leaking in through the dash, (or possibly the heater core) How can I remove my cowl to clean all of the pine needles and such out because I think it's welded on. I really don''t want to remove my fenders to clean the rust out. I put an airhose to the cowl, and cleared things out a little bit so its not leaking as badly, but its still leaking. Mabye something is rusted out from it being plugged so long?????? If I have to get at the heater core to remove it, how do I do that??? PLEASE HELP!!!!!! IT LOOKS LIKE RAIN!
Common, Someone has got to know something about this!!! Have'nt any of you ever removed your cowl before??? Do you have to remove your dash to get at it? I highly doubt that Ford changed the installation process on their cowls from 71 to 78. A little help here, please?
The only way I know to clean, fix refinish the inside of the cowl without cutting is to remove the hood hinges & work through the holes. Otherwise, you will need to do some cutting, fixing & welding to do it right.
This has been my experience at least, is there another way?
If water is leaking you already have a rust hole and it will only get worse until you fix it. In order to do so, you'll have to pull the hood and hinges, fenders, and windsheild. Then you'll have to get a spot-welld cutter and cut the spot welds to pull the cowl off. When you find the rust hole(s) you may be able to grind the rust away and fill the holes with seam sealer. If they're too big to fill your only other alternative is to weld patches in.
This is a big problem with mustangs and mavericks. Sadly, there is no easy fix.
-Harry
Well, if that's what I have to do, that's what I have to do then. I was looking at the hood and hinges and thought that it looked like if you took the hood, and the plate the hinges are connected too and unbolted them,it looked like you could get your hand into a pretty good sized hole, because I saw that there was a gasket there and wondered if that was how you got in there. But I diid'nt wanna go to all the bother and risk of disalining the hood just to be disapointed. Well, I need new weather-stripping anyways, but removing that fender will be no easy job. I think I'm gonna need some help, and a lot more money. :'( Thanks to both who replied.
Hey, does anybody know how to remove the dash pad on my 78'? I need to getinto the heater core, and possibly remove the heater plenum etc. to see how badly it's rusted. Whats the trick?
Pull the gauges the vents the heater controls the glovebox & feel inside the lower lip of the dash for about 10 10mm nuts. Remove all those & lift the pad off. Be ready to at a minimum get some real nice impressions on your arms. The metal is sharp & you've got to reach DEEP inside there. When you go to reinstall it just use as many nuts as you can comfortably reach. I've got about 6 holding my customized dash panel on.
Hey, Thanks Buddy! That helps a lot! ;D
The cowl on mine is pretty full of needles, plant debris, etc. I'm going to try to modify a crevice tool for the vacuum cleaner and see if that can help me avoid pulling the hood from the car just to clean it.....
If it doesn't, I guess I'll have some work cut out for me, won't I. :o
Hey, Thats a pretty good idea, I just hope that it doesn't clog up your vacuum! I still haven't taken off my cowl so I might try that.... By the way, for anyone who cares, I don't think that my heater core is the problem, I think it might be some firewall gasket that might be leaking. I don't see any coolent leaking out so a gasket might be the source of Niagra Falls and my mice troubles..... ;) :)
I cleaned most of the cowl on my 79 SW this weekend.
I say "most", because I'm not sure just how much moss, etc. is left in places I can't see. But here's what I did -- I took a long knife, stuck it through the slots on top of the cowl, and cut through the moss and leaf debris -- it was all dry. So I cut it up as small as I could, and then took the vacuum cleaner and reversed it, blowing air out through a crevice tool, and held the crevice tool against the slots on the top of the cowling.
The air from the vac blew out a lot of the debris out through the slots, and all over the hood.... some of it bounced around inside the cowling, being pulverised....
I could see the bottom of the cowl and there's rust there, but it's not bad yet. When I blew as much of the debris out as I could, I sprayed the bottom of the cowl with WD40 to stop whatever rust is there.
The next time I turned on the defroster it showered the inside of the car with leaf debris.
And the time after that, and then again this afternoon.....
It's not a permanent fix, but I feel a lot better about it now.
I read your question and it made investigate my wet carpet, but it appears to be comming in around the wiper posts in mine.
thanks for the tip also Renton, i still haven't even started my Pinto from winter storage yet. (I know, I know, but it's just been too darn humid and i'm not looking forward to finding dead or ALIVE mice yet... ) i still have to check that gasket i was talking about, if i can find it!.Rare Cars, since your wiper posts come in through the cowl, i'm not sure i understand you. Do you mean that water is leaking in through the wiper posts in the cowl? do the wiper posts connect to something inside the cowl and that is the source of your troubles? Where exactly did you notice the water coming in at?
I knew someone was going to call me on that as it dawned on me this morning " duh".... this is not my old duster. I guess I should stop horsing around & actually stick my head up under there. Now that my mouse problem has been "sanitized" !
Thats Okay! ;D It just kind of confused me as to what you were talking about! Its sound like your Pinto and my Pinto could be twins! They both leak and had/have mice troubles! How did you get rid of them?
I guess I was lucky as they had already moved on after eating part of the bottom of the back seat, but I had to power wash all the nooks & crannies in the interior. They had stashed food & "Dropped the kids off at the pool" everywhere! It was so nasty I used 2 gallon of straight ammonia to clean it, rinsed & then 2 containers of fabreese. I swear I still keep getting a mousey smell once in a while but how could I be? "Paranoia will destroy ya"
STRAIGHT AMMONIA!!! Good god, how did you stand that? That craps smells so nasty if I don't get away from it I'll literally pass out. You keep getting a mouse smell? Thats not good knews for me, seno`r. :o Oh well, mabye it is paranoia, or mabye you sniffed a little to much of that ammonia... ::)
unless the car is completely stripped and dipped in something and all new interior parts installed, the mousy smell is forever. it might disappear a little but on damp days you...will...be...reminded.
re: mouse smell: you might try using that enzymatic cleaner that's meant to clean up dog feces, cat urine, etc. from carpets. It can be found at the pet section of a good supermarket, or at a pet store. The stuff works.
It (the enzymes in the cleaner) eat animal, biological residue. I had a corner of the carpet in the spare bedroom the cats got into and pee'd there. You know how bad that stuff can get.... A few treatments of the enzyme cleaner did the trick. You just keep using it until the smell is gone. And it's pretty safe. You can even mix it with regular carpet shampoo, or spray cleaner.
Ya, It burnt my sinus' but I was hoping not to smell ever again anyways! And guess what ammonia smells like?....cat pee! Hey maybe if I mix some bleach with this ammonia---just kidding!!! Actually I wised up & read " How To Clean Practically Anything" by Consumer Reports & it said to get out urine "Treat with ammonia/water mixture, rinse, followed by a mixture of vinegar and water, rinse, use a digestant(such as pepsin and amylase) if needed." Of course this was for fabrics not the metal surfaces of a pinto but it seems to be working as the smell is really faint now. I may shoot the whole inside with spray in bed liner or my last ditch effort will be fire---now that's a digestant!
Great...urine cleaner... that's something to look forward too.... :P Careful useing that spray in bedliner crap in your car, you might trap moisture in and rust your metal! :o Oh well, I just might try that stuff, what have I got to lose?...Except mabye my stomach... ;) :-X
do a google search on 'pet odor eliminator', you'll find eight to ten brands that probably work as well as the brand I used on my spare bedroom carpet.
Actually, I drove around my car and then let it sit and air out and the smell is not as bad as it was originally! Call me weird, but I might just get use to it!!! ::)
ok, I'll bite.... Youre weird ;)
Renton, I tried four pet cleaners and they didn't even come close to working >:(. Good news is that after following the "consumers report" method and letting the car sit for 3 weeks with the windows cracked, my wagon smells clean as outdoors. Bad news is I still need a new back seat bottom because it is still raunchy smelling ??? maybe more cleaning & time will save it too. From Troy
HaHaDTD :D Yeah, I think it smelt so bad from just sitting so long, with all the urine,crap, and a dead little mousy lying in the consul for so long, it smells freash as a summers breeze now!!!!! :-*
Rarecars, it took six or seven treatments to clear my spare bedroom of the cat urine smell. I used a concentrate, and mixed it a bit heavier than specified on the label. It did work.
I'm glad your method worked, though.
Lately I've been wrestling with a gas smell in my Pinto. I just had the tank fixed / sealed, and the car still smelled. So the mechanic says, 'hey, look at your gas cap!'. New gas cap, maybe has done the trick.
Right On! Nothin' like gas fumes to make a drive more enjoyable! :D Not.
Gas fumes? I can think of some funny things to say to that...
I hope you don't smoke......
I hope you don't get pulled over by a cop who smokes....
Don't sniff too long....... ::)
Don't sniff too long THEN get pulled over by a cop who smokes.... :o
Hey gas fumes, lay off the Taco Bell :D! Anyhow you stinkers, I found the water leak from the posts before all the mouse stuff. It is coming in around the windshield seal, running down behind the dash etc. It puzzled me some because the back floorboards seemed even wetter ??? but it is just the slope I park it on making it puddle there. Now my side windows don't leak either!
All you need is a new windshield seal? <-------------JEALOUS!!!!! >:( ;)
I know it's been a while, but I have a leak issue. I had my pinto restored frame up in 2004. Has had a leak since. Yesterday, finally got a new windshield and gasket installed. Stopped one leak that was dripping on the passenger floorboards, even to where the dash hits the post. Now, it has a smaller leak on both sides that seems to be coming from the firewall. I am thinking it's some sort of seal that was never installed correctly, or was installed but it was already wore out when installed. Due to it leaking right out of the shop I doubt it is rusty cowl issues. Does anyone have any advice on this? If there is a seal under the dash/along the firewall somewhere, that is where I'd like to start. Thanks in advance :)
Also, I purchased my new front windshield gasket (for my '71 Pinto) off ebay from http://myworld.ebay.com/weatherstrip-specialists (http://myworld.ebay.com/weatherstrip-specialists). Excellent quality product if anyone needs one. I paid under $100 for it and the place that installed the windshield even commented at the quality of the gasket. Hope that info helps someone keep their pinto dry.
If its on the firewall it could be coming in around the heater motor or hoses, steering column, wire harness grommet or cables. There's a few potential leaky spots.
I need to take the time to check those areas. I suspect some grommets/gaskets were either never installed or installed in bad shape. Thanks for reading :) It's not a bad leak, but any leak at all sucks big time. 8)
Check the seam sealer around the pinch welds all along the cowl. On my crusing wagon, it had dried and flaked off. I re-seam sealed all along there and under the fenders and my small leaks went away.
wiper posts?
brad :)