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Hey thanks for the suggestions guys!
And yes, I've made covers most years, but only out of stuff I had laying around. Which meant it worked as a temporary thing, but usually was of some material that deteriorated in the sun too quickly. Usually got just one year out of it. But they did usually work.
Being parked so much of the time (uh, like all of the time?) and with me sometimes forgetting to replace the old covers, I'm managed to create a Ginko and Elm tree leaf farm inside my cowl area. So now the covers are just to keep the rain out so it doesn't turn into a real swamp!
And I have actually done what most of you have suggested. A time or two anyway, and have been gratified with decent results and still no rust.
I'm a little worried about the rust thing now though. Haven't been very diligent in the last few years...
I've wondered about making a screen to fit inside, but never quite came up with a solution. I've done it on all my other cars and Broncos, but these trucks don't lend themselves well to my ideas. I like the fact that you succeeded mark_guiver.
You don't happen to have any pics you can show us by any chance?
Paul
I'll get some pics tomorrow and try to post them.
Mark.
You know, that magnetic sheet stuff is a great idea HIO. I'm always on about magnets holding something down over the vents, but never actually thought of something like that.
Not sure I was even aware of it's ready availability.
I'll check that out the next time I get a chance.
Paul
You're welcome Paul. Super easy. Plus you can paint the sheet body color for that stealthy look. Maybe able to paint faux vents on it too. In general, the thicker the material the better it will hold since realtors/contractors sometimes use them on their vehicles... and helpful for those instances where ya **might** forget to take it off.
I see you're in the south bay. I'm in the Martinez/Concord/Walnut Creek area... you and NBC_Steve (San Carlos) with his sweet 79 F350 Lariat 4x4 should get together. In fact, we should all get together sometime... bumpsiders and dentsiders alike.
Definitely! We do it with the Early Bronco crowd fairly often when we think about it. Quite a few of us within burger-distance of the South Bay. We try to meet in different areas to be more drive-friendly to those farther away, but we usually end up somewhere down here instead anyway.
I'd be open to it sometime.
In fact, I'll even chime in for you guys the next time the Broncos get together too. Just in case it works out for you. Maybe not as much interest as there would be for our full-size rigs getting together, but hey, when food and Fords are involved, maybe we're not always as picky.
We usually get between 25 and 40 people at these. With about 10 running vehicles.
Only 10 because at any given time, most of us have one of our trucks down for "long term maintenance" so to speak. Like mine is...
But hey, I just cleaned it today after the rain, so that's a start!
I think I might be the only one with a full-size, but not sure.
Here are the pictures of the cowl vent screen I installed. The one with the tape measure shows the relative size of the screen. The third picture shows the cutout for the windshield washer nozzle. This works really well and should keep the leaves out of the cowl.
Well I'll be dipped! I knew what you were saying, but having thought it next to impossible to accomplish for years, I simply avoided the subject altogether and looked for a cover.
Like I said before, I've done the screen thing like you did to all of my other vehicles. But on those I could actually remove the cowl cover and work on the whole thing on the bench. On those you could simply "glue" the screen down on the backside using silicone sealer.
Man, that looks like you practically did the same thing. No distortion of the screen at all from what I can see. Did you work with short-ish lengths for ease? Or did you do it pretty much a full piece of screen per side of the cowl?
Guess I'm going back to the drawing board and seeing how my dexterity is these days.
I still like the magnetic cover to keep it dry inside, but for general year-round use it's hard to beat the screen.
I forgot to point out that if you look at the inner and outer edges of the cowl slots you can see the edges of the screen. In the first pic just to the right of center you will also see where I had to cut it part way to make it fit the curve. Getting the zip ties fed through was tedious but worth it. Look how clean it is down there in the cutout pic.
PS. I hate those messy Elm trees with their seed pods and little leaves getting in everything. In an old house I owned I got so tired of cleaning that debris out of a 72 Ranchero I had, I cut the Elm in the front yard down.
Mark.
Gotcha. Now I know what I'm going to try next.
Been fixing my perimeter house vents recently as a matter of fact, so I just happen to have a roll of that screening very handy.
Instead of zip-ties, I might just use the same twisted-wire retainers that I'm using on the house. They'll be pretty unobtrusive once they're tightened and then spun around to the bottom.
Many of the aftermarket A/C systems don't make use of the cowl as a source of fresh air. They direct the installer to block off the port on the passenger side that the stock A/C system used. This will raise the question of what to do about this vestigial organ. Repurpose it? Block it off?
I was doing a major rust refurbishing on my truck and noticed that inside the cowl it was starting to bubble at the seams. You could see it behind the dash and on the fire wall. At the time I had the fenders off. I just went and cut big holes in the side of the cowl vent passage , about 6"x6" in the area that the fenders covered, opposite the foot well vents, so that I could get in there and clean it out and actually reach up inside. After pressure washing the cowl area as best I could, I used self leveling concrete crack sealant to seal the body seams inside the cowl. I just started pumping it in at the top center through the vent slats. By gravity, it ran down inside the cowl and filled the body seams. It ran all the way down and came out the access holes that I cut into the sides. When things cured, I painted the inside of the cowl black, and screwed access covers over the holes and taped them with mastic backed foil tape. Fenders back on, nobody can see anything. I got the idea for the access holes from my 91 F-150, which has factory access panels. I guess Ford figured out it was a problem area too.
Here are the pictures of the cowl vent screen I installed. The one with the tape measure shows the relative size of the screen. The third picture shows the cutout for the windshield washer nozzle. This works really well and should keep the leaves out of the cowl.
Hello Mark. I'm trying to figure out how you got the screen under the cowl? I've read and reread a few times. What did I miss? Thanks. Chris
Chris, I fed the strip of mesh in from the outside (fender) into the center. I made a handful of about 12" pieces of wire with a small hook on one end to help fish in through and hold it up when in position. The mesh could slide on the bottom of the cowl until in place then I hooked the mesh with the wire and pulled it up into place. It took a few tries to get the wire down the right slot in the cowl and the right slot in the mesh. It was a bit tedious but, in the 2 years it's been in, it's really kept the debris out well.
Mark.
Here was our solution, we needed to replace some broken bolts holding on the wiper rockers as well. Used a 2-1/2" bimetal hole saw to cut circular holes in front of the assembly points. Amazon.com has tons of rubber grommets / plugs for sale very reasonably priced that will fit the hole diameters. When the hood is down they'll be hidden, and with hood up the plugs should look like they belong there unless you're an expert. This also allowed us to clean out the area and paint it with a rust preventative.
