lol Ax comes in and blows us all away with his power operated cowl vent

I've never gotten under there to pinpoint exactly where my leak is, for all I know it could be in the windshield sealer.. Just figured it was the vent.. I'm probably going to take it apart, sand her up and paint her, get a new gasket, then it should work properly.

 

AX, I'm about to join your club. My project tonight is to get the rod attached to the vent from the electric motor and mine should be ready to go. Where did you attach the lift rod to? Or do you have a different set up? Mine has an electric motor with a square shaft, about a 2 inch arm attaches to that shaft, and to the other end of that arm is the rod to connect to the cowl vent. I'm thinking I'm going to attach it to the back verticle part of the vent; I checked into attaching to the linkage like the handle used to be attached, but the motor wants to pull in a straight line as opposed to the "c" shaped slot the handle used to slide in.

 

Ok, I'm going to be the dark-sider here as I filled mine in. I Didn't like the look either outside or inside. Bruce

 

I can't recall right now, the PO goobered it up so the arm on the motor was rubbing on the back of the dash, so I redid it. I believe it connects directly to the arm on the vent cover, none of the original mechanical linkage was used. When the AC was installed the cowl side louvers were blocked off so I needed a source of fresh air in the cab. I don't like listening to the 70 MPH wind noise for hours on end with the windows down.

 

When I bought my 56, the PO told me that the cowl vent was sealed shut (with silicone sealant). He said it was because the rain on a trip ran inside. He had to stop along the road and seal it. I broke it loose, cleaned it and replaced the seal. I haven't driven in any appreciable rain to test whether it seals well, but have heard many stories of it leaking.

It isn't much help for ventilation in the SoCal summers. It does do an excellent job of emptying the ashtray. It blows the ashes all over the cab.

I plan on filling it in as part of my cab mods.

 

I found a better way to fix that problem! I filled in the ashtray instead.

 

Love it AX! First thing I do is scrub and paint the stinky old ashtray in an old vehicle.. (non smoker, can you tell...)

 

You mean the spare change holder?

 

Filled the vent and ash tray on this one. Installed air cond along with a sliding rear window. Had a power vent and ash tray on first 56 a long time ago and Randy is right it did a excellent job cleaning the ash tray and bringing in alot of road dust.

Chuck

 

The yays have it.

Keep the vent.

Once filled in, that's it. No more vent.

As for my radio hole in the dash; I'm trying to locate a clock that will fit, or maybe a vent outlet for the cowl vent.

 

How about a radio instead?

 

I don't want A.M. only.

I like my CDs.

If they made a AM/FM solid state replacement radio, I would consider it.

 

There's a guy down here in Bend that said he can get the conversion kit that changes it to an AM/FM, with CD changer output.

 

If I had a radio hole in my truck (from the stock radio) I would either

1. Look for a clock to fill the hole, like was mentioned. I think the clocks from the ford cars would work.

2. Find a stock radio and use it to fill the hole to look stock but wire a cd player
in the dash. (Alpines have awesome headunits w/ remote controls)

Ehh just some thoughts, I dig my tunes and can't wait to wire up the stereo but I want it to look as stock as possible. I actually wish I had a radio hole in mine, but there isn't so I ain't gunna chop it. =)

 

You peaked my interest in this radio conversion thing.

I don't suppose you have a link to him or this outfit?