COMET CENTRAL

Hi comet fans
I need some help. I got 62 comet. Ive had a short time now and discovered a wet rag inside heater gate on driver side. Also rug rotted out underneath. I ran a snake up inside and it came out at the cowl. It could be seen looking down the cowl. So wster leaks from cowl down drivers side heater gate. Passenger side dry and snake doesnt come out at the cowl. Does anyone know whats up? Thanks in advance!

It is an issue with how Ford designed the Comet/Falcon/Mustang cowl area, they tend to rust from accumulated debris around the cowl vent, there are a couple of ways to repair it.

Remove the windshield, front fenders, and drill out about a thousand spot welds, then cut out the rusty area and replace it with non rusty stuff (from a whole new cowl to just the area around the vents) then reverse the process and reinstall everything.

The second way to remove the front fenders and cut the ends off the cowl under the fenders and repair the damaged spots ant then weld the cutoff part back on and replace the fenders. I know Groover and a few others on the Forum have done it this way.

The method you choose has to do with if you are restoring the car like factory new or repairing it so it doesn't leak anymore causing more damage, most people will not be able to detect either repair.

See Ya,
Mike

Wow sounds pretty in depth the car is nearly rust free and we rare keeping it in driver condition. Its actually my sons first car. We are sorting out some issues. Do you think a magnetic cowl cover would be a decent short term answer?thanks for the help!

If you park the car in your dark garage and then have somebody shine a flashlight into the cowl from the top, you can look up underneath the dash and get a good idea of where/how many leaks there are (one leak vs pin holes, etc).

If it's very minimal, perhaps you can caulk it or something from the inside?

Bluecollar comet wrote:Wow sounds pretty in depth the car is nearly rust free and we rare keeping it in driver condition. Its actually my sons first car. We are sorting out some issues. Do you think a magnetic cowl cover would be a decent short term answer?thanks for the help!

It would help some, probably won't keep it leak free but will keep the debris out of the cowl, the other thing that you need to make sure of is the drain holes are open, I don't know if you can reach up from inside the fender well and try and check/clean them or if you would have to take the fenders off.

And yes it is a pain to repair no matter how you approach it. any way you can cover it will help whether it is a magnetic cowl cover or a complete cover over the whole car when parked or in a garage.

See Ya,
Mike

And if you're lucky only the chimney rotted. There is a Mustang repair part that you screw in from the bottom. Here's what you do. Look up into the vent box, (I prefer the term crotch cooler) and loosen the two 3/8 nuts on the J hooks that hold the box in place then remove the box. This will give you a clear view of what you're dealing with.

Stacey

Great advice thanks so much!