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Look under your hood cowl - yikes


Sailor Bob

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I just spent 3 or 4 hours packing around with my AC and in a rather numb moment I removed the cowling to see if there was a back entrance (doesn't exist). It was a revealing sight to see though - I now know why these cars are rust prone - no paint!!! Can you believe it, a very light spray of primer, but no paint anywhere throught this area. It's a drain for ---- sake.:mad:

I recommend that if you haven't opened it up that you should take the time to do so.

I have cleaned it out with a brush - it appears to be just surface rust, but it's pretty well the only rust on the car (other than battery tray) - from southern California.

Tomorrow it gets the rust treatment - disappointing, but at least now I know.

Later

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I can personally attest to the horrid amount of rust that can form under that cowl. It cost me $1300 in body work just to get that area of my Z fixed. When my car was sitting before I owned the drains in the cowl area got clogged with crap, and yeah, the results were not pretty, check out the pics to see what I mean

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I recently sold the cowl panel and the underside was was missing the top coat. It is a 1972 and Lime-Yellow green, surprisingly, a CA buyer needed it.

I bought the Z as it had the fiberglass head light extension for my good Z, burnt orange, in Scottsdale. I just tapped a 280Z at 90 mph, he was going 85 and it cracked on the driver's side.

My Z is still rust free, had it rustproofed with Ziebart when it returned to NY. They shot the cowl and firewall and strut towers. I bitched at them in 1975.

Seems they were right, although ugly.

Frame rails and rockers are pristine, and I drove through 2 feet of snow for a few years, as a friend was a skier above Hunter Moutain.

Had an R-190 LSD, 4.44, as long as I did not stop, plowed through anything.

Today I'm afraid of rain in any good car or truck that I drive.

Good metal, and any top coat, say Sikkens or Spies on both sides of the panel will stop rust. I spray Imron on the frames and inside panels, as i get it dirt cheap, $25.00 a gallon. Really 3 qts, additive is the 4th qt, and no reducers.

Very tough. Outer panels are dicey, unless a spotless spray booth.

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Those are horrid pics of you car. You must have been a little irate when you saw that amount of rust monster.

This is one of the first things any new owner should do. Just having a look for piece of mind. Good idea to renew the white foam sections that stops the cowl from vibrating when doing high speeds. It sucks up water and won't dry. I removed mine to find rust munching away.

I found that the 90 degree hose that connects the cowl drain to the outside was split underneath. That explains why I had water inside the car when I first washed it. It was also responcible for the rust in the firewall, floors and lower rocker section. A poor design that part of the zed. The water dripped onto the firewall insulation and got trapped, happily housing the rust monster.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I always wondered why somebody would design a drain to empty into a closed area like that? It's likethey are depending on bad fitment (or rust holes?) to allow the water to leak through! It should be as easy fix, like Enrique did, but you first gotta get those two bolts from underneath loose!:eek:

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So I went ahead and popped my cowl off... and thankfully I was happy to see that there wasn't anything evil awaiting me. a few pine needles and a small amount of very minor surface rust. But like mentioned in the opening post, no paint. I did have some over spray from a paint job the PO had done on the car sometime back though, so I guess that's better than nothing. This just means that I can rest easy and work on the other areas of the car that need help without having to worry about the rust demons here.

Nate

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