Pulled passenger fender to adjust door hinges. Found rust holes in cowl plenum. Bottom 6 inches of cowl has rust holes. I saw a replacement cowl plenum on Ecklers website.

Anybody installed one of these? Any comments?

I am trying to decide whether to repair or replace it.

Thanks

Roger

 

Not sure where your rust is but have you considered just replacing the Outer Cowl Panel? Rick's Camaro sells them for $99. I did both of mine and it wasn't a big deal. Once you pull the old one off, you can clean all the rust inside the cowl, undercoat the area, and make any patches to the plenum. About halfway thru the first album on my Photobucket page shows my replacement.

Pictures by lynnheenan - Photobucket

 

lwh,

Thanks for the info.

The bottom 4 to 6 inches of the cowl has pin holes in it.

How is the panel attached? Is it welded or just sealed.

I looked at this panel on Ecklers site. Is it just the panel that is parallel with the firewall? Or does it also wrap around and include the outer section that is parallel with the door and fender skin? The outer piece of the cowl on the side of the car, just in front of the lower door hinge also has some pin holes of rust.

Thanks

Roger

 

The Eckler panel is the one that's parallel with the door and fender skin. It's directly across from the oval opening to the interior kick panel vent. It's held on with spot welds. Just put a wire brush on your drill and clean off the seam sealer and paint. Every dimple in the metal needs drilled out with a spot weld cutter. Easy to do, just takes time. Once it's off, you can patch any other section that's rusted. Take a look at these pictures. Hopefully they load up for you. The third picture shows a patch I had to add to the lower front of the cowl plenum. Good luck.

1969 Camaro :: More unexpected rust picture by lynnheenan - Photobucket

1969 Camaro :: More unexpected rust picture by lynnheenan - Photobucket

1969 Camaro :: More unexpected rust picture by lynnheenan - Photobucket

 

Lwh,

Thanks, the pictures are great. I just ordered the cowl from Ecklers should be here Friday.

The pictures look great, i'm gonna replace the cowl and clean out the rust inside the remain sections. I think my rocker panels do not have the drain holes in them. I looked briefly the other night and couldn't find them. They are not originals, the previous owner said he replaced both of them.

How do you seal the new cowl section to the old section? Do you put something between the mating surfaces before you clamp and spot weld them? Or is it sealed after welding?

Thanks for all the info, its just what I was looking for.

Roger

 

Just seam seal after spot weld. I use self drilling sheet metal screws to temporarily clamp the piece. Once welded into place, remove the sheet metal screws and weld in the holes. When it's all done, use plenty of seam seal. BTW the rockers should have openings at either end. If memory serves, the front should have a slit at the very front end and I think the back had one inside the rear quarter panel at the wheel well. Good luck.

 

lwh,

I removed the passenger side cowl. Took about 3 hours, not too bad. It was hard to see some of the weld dimples and know where to drill and/or grind.

Once I got the cowl out the way I see that rust has got the best of other metal just in front of rocker panel. I am not sure how this should look in good shape. I'm going to cut out the bad and make some new pieces.

Do you have any closeup pictures of this area with the cowl removed?

Here are a couple pictures of what mine looks like. The picture makes it look much worse then it is. These pictures are before I wire brushed and cleaned the area:





Rocker panels do not have holes in the front. Do you have any pictures of the hole location so that I can open my up?

Thanks very much!

Roger

 

You dug a lot deeper then I did but it looks like it was the right thing to do based on the pictures. I live in Texas and bought an central Texas car so I didn't have the rust same problem. I don't have a good picture of the end of the rockers but I do see two slits at the end of your outer rocker. They're on the left side of your bottom picture. I think my slits were a little larger. BTW, if the previous owner replaced them, it was done a long time ago. There's some rust and paint buildup on it. Looks original to me.

The photo links in the previous post takes you to the PhotoBucket album. Keep clicking the Next button. There's more pictures of the cowl area. They may help.

 

BTW, I used plenty of the Eastwood Internal Frame Coating inside the rockers and other areas I couldn't get to. It's probably a good investment.

Internal Frame Coating w/Spray Nozzle