where to drill a 2 inch hole in cowl

[bighammer]

I am hoping somebody with a parts car will be willing to do me a favor with a hole saw and a camera...

I want to drill into the cowl on the firewall of my Dart so I can remove a pile of pine needles. It's bad.

I just dont know what exactly is behind the firewall, or where exactly to drill...

If somebody will make a couple holes in their parts car and post some pictures, I'll send you $10 via paypal. < I'm cheap :glasses7: I think one on each side would allow decent access to remove debris, and then I should be able to find some rubber body plugs to fill it back in.

Any takers? rayer:

thanks

Mark

 

[cuda65vpt]

Year might be important.

Have you tried removing the heater? That works on the earlier cars.

 

[Russ H]

You can remove the fresh air box on the drivers side and reach up into the cowl area with your hand or a vacuum cleaner hose. no need to be cutting holes in your car. If you can't clean it all out from the drivers side, remove the heater box and do the same on the passenger side.

Russ

 

[pauly]

I'm thinking he should send you both $10 for your thoughts!!!

 

[Russ H]

I'm thinking he should send you both $10 for your thoughts!!!

I'm guessing there's a good reason he calls himself Bighammer!!!

 

[joeboy]

I pulled my heater and drivers vent then used a rubber hose (like a foot or so, 3/4") duct taped to the end of my shopvac and could get it up in there and bend it around to clean out a bunch of gunk...

Goodluck, Joe

 

[Rengo]

If I recall, there are factory holes in for draining already in the body, so I would just get an air chuck and have one person blow in the top of it while you take a screw driver and use it to pull the gung out of the holes, should be able to see the holes when you open the doors.

 

[Rice Nuker]

Someone on here asked this question a few months ago.
Here is what I did:

I hole sawed about 2" where the cowl plenum drain hole already was. I located the hole saw so that it's lower radius encompassed the existing cowl drain hole. I extracted the crap, sand blasted, blew out, soaked with pure alcohol and epoxy inside my cowl area. As you can see above the hood hinge pivot, I hole sawed out into the plenum and saturated Eastwood's inside frame coating in there, all over the friggin place, then shot a bunch of epoxy in there. It's locked in for the long haul.

Do it to it! Best to have all the garbage out of your cowl and air system. I recommend you pull your heater box and any thing else connected to your cowl (vent chambers) so you can clean them out too.

Oh yea, mines a 74 duster so, may be slightly different but the concept is probably very much the same.

 

[68383GTS]

There are already drain holes on each end of the cowl.Use a water hose and air to flush it out.

 

[bighammer]

Thanks everybody for the replies. I guess I should do as suggested and try going up thru the heater vents. Its just that there is a TON of pine needles up in there. The drain holes are completely packed, and there is not good access due to the fender proximity.

I thought it would be rather convenient to have the rubber plugs installed for later use.

Rice Nuker, thanks for posting your photos again. That certainly gives much better access than the factory drain holes. I dont want to remove my fenders, though.

I will still watch this thread, just in case someone can post the pics I need. For clarification, the holes I am thinking of will be on the vertical firewall in the engine compartment, just above the 'pinch weld' where the cowl is joined to the firewall.

I dont think it would have any negative affect (having the holes / plugs) and would look like factory plugs in there, maybe something like the ones in the floorboard(?)

 

[moparmat2000]

I had lots of west texas clay sand packed in my cowl on my 67. I pulled out the heater box, and fresh air box on drivers side, fenders were off the car, you may want to take your fenders off as well because im willing to bet the bottom of them are packed with pine needles and rotting plant matter anyways. Will eat out the lower fenders.

I have an extra long blow gun i got off my local matco truck. Its a metal tube about 2 feet long with a trigger and curved end. Once you get heater box and fresh air box out, and remove fenders for cleaning shove it in there from the vent holes and anywhere you can gain access and blow blow blow, the amount of S#&T thats gonna.shoot outta there will amaze you. I got about 8 pounds of dirt and sand out of mine LOL.

Hope this helps
Matt

 

[Darter6]

Just like MM2000. I used air,shopvac and a coat hanger cleaning out my dart. I removed the drain flaps and loosened the funk with thee coat hanger.Shoved the shopvac hose in one side and air hosed the other.Big mess also had to dump the shopvac 3 times.It took several attempts and a few hours to get it out.I bet your heater box is full too.

 

[moparmat2000]

Just like MM2000. I used air,shopvac and a coat hanger cleaning out my dart. I removed the drain flaps and loosened the funk with thee coat hanger.Shoved the shopvac hose in one side and air hosed the other.Big mess also had to dump the shopvac 3 times.It took several attempts and a few hours to get it out.I bet your heater box is full too.

yep it took me a few hours to get it all blowed out. my garage floor was a friggin mess. i even was able to get my hand up inside the vent holes where the heater box and fresh air vent attach to the cowl from underneath. you have to reach your fingers over the standpipe ledge around the air inlet holes.

after you get it all blown out/cleaned out you may want flush it out by running some water in the vent grille in the center of the cowl to wash out the remaining debris, it will also let you know if you if you have a rot hole in the lower cowl pan by leaking water onto your interior floor. decomposing pine needle gunk is pretty acidic.

id take this time to buy a new heater core. i have one to sell you if your interested, brand new in the box $35 plus the ride. and get a new set of heaterbox gaskets to freshen it all up. bet your heater box is plugged solid with crap. makes it nice when you can run your heat and it smells fresh.

hope this helps
matt