Treating Surface Rust in Cowl

[mulletmobile]

With all of the heavy rains a couple of weeks ago, I sprung a small leak from the passenger side cowl which lead to cleaning out the fresh air vents on both sides. I dug out about 3" on the passenger side and only about an inch on the driver side. There was only surface rust under all of that gunk thankfully. But with all of the surface rust up inside the kick panel/cowl area, I want to try and slow the crud from creeping. I understand these will probably not stop it, but with it being only surface rust at this point I would like to at least treat it somehow. My thought is to hit it with the Eastwood Rust Converter and Encapsulator and use their internal frame coating with the tube to reach up into the areas I can not reach. The areas I can reach will also be topcoated with a brush on application of Rustoleum to help further protect it. I can contort enough with a foam brush to get into the lower areas and plan on wire brushing it by hand prior.

Take a look at the pics and if you have any experience in treating this area let me know as most of the info I found on it involved replacing metal and I am no where near needing to do that.

This is the passenger side right after I pulled out the gunk from inside and underneath it (I cleaned it up much better and rinsed it out so it does look better than this).


Driver side kick panel, first pic is the rear side toward the door with drain hole. The second and third are up toward the top of the cowl from inside the kick panel. The final is the pile of crud from inside the driver side (the pile from the passenger side was 3-4 times the amount).




You can also see the crud trapped at the top of the cowl before dropping down into the kick panel area of the vent. It was there AFTER flushing the upper cowl with a hose and had to be dislodged with a coat hanger. So remember if you do this to use the camera phone to take a look around the inside of the area as you will be surprised how much of that stuff is hung up after the years. I also plan on pulling the plugs at the front of the cowl and the front of the kick panel areas to help spray/treat the areas.

[sargentrs]

Nasty stuff in those hidden areas. Your original plan sounds like a good one. The Eastwood products are really good.

[67mann]

don't get to caught up on the top coat but, make sure you get a good coating of the encapsulater

[cep62]

And when you get done doing what you decide to do , fog some ATF in there it'll creep into every void and help keep moisture out.

[Ohiotinkerer]

And when you get done doing what you decide to do , fog some ATF in there it'll creep into every void and help keep moisture out.

Or my favorite rustproofing....... Used motor oil..........

[mulletmobile]

This page laid out pretty good info on the products and I have definitely heard more good than bad on the subject.
https://sites.google.com/site/edanneber ... capsulator

I will be ordering up a bottle of both and possibly a can of the internal frame coating. They do offer a product similar to Waxoyl I may order up. It also gets some really good reviews.
http://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-heavy- ... black.html

I plan on getting up in the area with at least a scuff pad and then going to town with this stuff, as soon as the rain gives me enough break to do so. Til then it is a little drafty with the fresh air vents out, but I appreciate all of the rain in California this year. For some reason though I have a feeling I will not get the 4-5 days without the rain so it dries out enough to cure and do what it needs to do.

Keep the info coming in though and I will update as I progress through this.

[PetesPonies]

I would suggest buying some Master Series silver. I have been using it for, don't remember now, how many years. It is a great product and it is a primer. Therefore, it can be easily topcoated if you desire.

[Zorm]

So mulletmobile, how goes this project? I am redoing my brake lines while I have the front suspension off and thought, it would be way easier to get the fresh air vents/ cowl area cleaned out, sprayed before the front suspension goes back on.
So yesterday after work, I get the air hose out and start blowing out the open areas in the hood. Wow, must of had a family of squirrels in there. Found a ton of chewed acorns and peanut shells.
Earlier this year I vacced out, blew out the cowl area and last night removed the rubber ovals and blew out the fresh air vent areas. I will try and remove the manual vents inside the cab today to get better access. I have a bore scope type camera I picked up for my phone and looked inside the air vents, looks like I have some scaling along with a ton of stuff like your pictures show.

So I was going to just use the Eastwood Inside frame coating stuff to cover all this area, and the but then saw your thread and start wondering if I should go the route you mention, guess it just depends how far we can reach into that area. I will be using the frame coating stuff inside the hood voids.

I still would like to put some kind of screen under the air vents up in the cowl area. Did this on my old Cherokee but that cowl vent area can be removed, good idea on AMC's part.

Would love to see some progress pics, I'll try and post some up too.

[PetesPonies]

Zorm, buy yourself a quart of Master Series Silver and coat everything with it. You will have no more problems.

http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... =7&t=85682

[Zorm]

Not trying to steal the thread, just showing how I did my cowl.
I got most of the cowl / vent area cleaned and painted best I could while its all together. I didn't take any before pics but they looked just like mulletmobile's. Used Master Series Silver down in fresh air vents and Eastwood's Internal Frame coating for the upper cowl and upper fresh air vents

Drivers side fresh air vent as seen from wheel well. Took the pic after I blew the loose stuff out of the upper cowl, so you see some flakes of rust.


Passengers side looking from the air vent, same rust flakes from the cowl


Passengers side fresh air vent looking from the wheel well


The only rust thru I have seen (felt) looking through the radio antenna hole.


a little better pic


Looking at the fresh air vent through the access holes in the wheel well, right


left



For the cowl, I taped off the vents and removed the rubber access piece. Unlike those fools on Youtube who complain about the Eastwood's internal frame coating little tube being too flimsy, I taped it to a wire coat hanger, duh. Better control... some people.

Only drawback to the frame coating paint, its black. I need to try and figure out how ti get some lighter paint in there so I can keep an eye on the cowl area

its all curing right now. Kinda want to see how the frame coating will hold up.

[PetesPonies]

You used the right material, it will be fine. Congrats!