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Dealing with water intrusion and wet rear carpet. I'm going to double check before I complete the repair...
I see all the threads which detail the rear cab vents leaking, and the 3rd brake light and rear body panel seams. I intend to check it all, but carpet is wet.
My current plan is to take a piece of sheet metal, panel bond it across the existing rear cab vent holes. Inside this piece retrofit a 3C3Z-54280B62-BA. This is dished such that if any water makes it inside, it gets forced back outside.
I also intend to drill a couple of holes in ]the channel which the sill plates cover, to force water out. Although I didn't find water here and my carpet was wet.
Panel bond is rust resistant and used as seam sealer in lap flanges, and has crazy tensile strength. I will post back if my idea works.
Another member has already done what you propose, and he posted photos of his process and result.
His username escapes me at the moment. When I think of it again, I'll update this post.
Interesting! I've searched extensively and didn't see that. I did see your post though, and was the one who keyed me into the concerns, thanks for taking the time to make that.
I never had issues but removed my vents and sealed them off with lead sheet.
good luck with your project
Thanks for the thought.
Normally I'd consider the same and put vents elsewhere, but I like having tight weatherstrip seals, and easy shutting doors.
Also want to see if it can be done.
I've also seen in other threads in general on these relief vents that AC flow is hampered, and the last/unknown purpose is such that your ears don't get hammered with pressure with an airbag deployment.
Thanks for sharing that. I noticed in your thread you mentioned using a thicker foam seal on the 3rd brake light. Did you do the same for cablights?
I haven’t touched the cab maker light seals YET.
Not looking forward to pulling down the headliner to get to the mounting nuts.
As far as the cab vents go the design flaw was the 1/8” lip at the bottom leading edge and the lack of a side dam on the uppers like there is on the lowers.
If I had the capability to plastic weld I would have gone that route to build them up.
The way Ford sealed them to the cab left a lot to be desired as well.
I chose a butyl tape over a foam seal or caulking there because I wanted something that was non porous ( foam ) and remain soft and flexible not like a caulking that would cure and would potentially become a service item.
I finally found the member, but his build thread meanders all over the place for pages and pages of content unrelated to cab vents.
Earlier today, I copied the cab vent relevant posts from his thread, and created a new thread, but then somehow lost that thread in cyberspace somewhere.
I'm looking it for it now. I'll try and have it together by end of day today.
I did extensive searching and was unable to find this link https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...g-vents-3.html (same as linked above) big thanks to Y2KW57. Posting this for search results, since my post gets the#1 hit on google.
It appears my idea will not work without modification due to the new vents being taller than the old ones. So hmm back to thinking on it.
I've looked at Chevy, and Dodge vents. Dodge vents are square and large, chevy vents are tall and skinny, with flaps going the wrong way to turn it on its side.
Its been interesting to see the number of people dealing with this lately.
Big thanks to F350 towing for his thread too, on how to modify the factory vents.
I've been looking at this set of 04+ vents (larger style with built in dam at bottom). I've not exposed my factory vents yet to compare on measurements.
So far my idea is to use the same idea to place a piece of sheetmetal over the factory hole with panel bond. As shown in the above picture, the new style is taller so I may need to carbide burr/grind/cut down the factory lower factory flange a bit to even fit the vents through. I know from experience panel bond is kick ***, and totally rust resistant. I'm semi concerned though if I clearance the bottom and stick the vents through, what are the tangs gonna grab onto... It would suck to get the vents fitted then learn that the tang spacing is too skinny to clip onto double thickness sheet metal.
I've been considering ways/locations on the vent in which I can cut down the new vents 1/8" or so in height and then fuse them back together as well.
It makes me curious though, the water comes into the vents either the top, sides, or through the vent itself. Runs across the floor and then down the sill channels (not the case on mine). Some have drilled a hole in the sill channels to kick out the water. It makes me curious if a guy drilled a couple holes below the vents in the floor, if water came in would it not exit right out through the cab, instead of running across the floor? A proper rubber grommet with a hole could likely even be fitted here.
Water would have to be high enough to flow over the perimeter of the grommet to drain out of the hole you drill in the center of the grommet.
In the meantime, water would still be absorbed by the jute padding, which is even under factory vinyl floors in carpet delete trucks.
The misty windows and the musty smell would still be present until the moisture saturation evaporated.
Water won't limit itself to flowing straight down to a drain on a flat plane.
And the plane is not flat. Even the seam sealer slathered along the inside corner between floor and back cab wall presents a surface texture with its own valleys... that can become creeks directing water away from your grommeted hole.
I'm not trying to "rain" on your ideas... in fact, I admire your thinking solutions through before starting.
Yet, you need the benefit of actually seeing what you are working with in order to give your creativity the best physical data to noodle on.
If you don't have a family or crew that needs seat belted positions in the back seat on a daily basis, I recommend that you go ahead and pull the seat and interior C pillar trim, and remove the back trim panel, in order to see and feel what you are working with, which will inspire your imagination with the physical facts needed for an effective solution.
It looks to me like a good opportunity for a new business in making a retrofit vent. Maybe someone with a 3D printer could correct the design flaws of the original and the end user could just swap in their rubber flaps to the new frames?
Sorry if this is a dumb comment as I’ve never dealt with these personally so am only basing this off of y’all’s posts.
Water would have to be high enough to flow over the perimeter of the grommet to drain out of the hole you drill in the center of the grommet.
In the meantime, water would still be absorbed by the jute padding, which is even under factory vinyl floors in carpet delete trucks.
The misty windows and the musty smell would still be present until the moisture saturation evaporated.
Water won't limit itself to flowing straight down to a drain on a flat plane.
And the plane is not flat. Even the seam sealer slathered along the inside corner between floor and back cab wall presents a surface texture with its own valleys... that can become creeks directing water away from your grommeted hole.
I'm not trying to "rain" on your ideas... in fact, I admire your thinking solutions through before starting.
Yet, you need the benefit of actually seeing what you are working with in order to give your creativity the best physical data to noodle on.
If you don't have a family or crew that needs seat belted positions in the back seat on a daily basis, I recommend that you go ahead and pull the seat and interior C pillar trim, and remove the back trim panel, in order to see and feel what you are working with, which will inspire your imagination with the physical facts needed for an effective solution.
None taken, kind of just thinking out loud because we have a lot of creative minds here.
With respect to the drain idea, what about if I made a dam on the floor with strong cauling/butyl rope the width of the vents connecting to the back cab. IE water runs in and down the back cab it then gets stopped in the dam and out the floor hole in the middle of it?
It looks to me like a good opportunity for a new business in making a retrofit vent. Maybe someone with a 3D printer could correct the design flaws of the original and the end user could just swap in their rubber flaps to the new frames?
Sorry if this is a dumb comment as I’ve never dealt with these personally so am only basing this off of y’all’s posts.
That's where I am heading with this idea. Thinking of lidar scanning both vents and the hole to try to figure out how how to produce that very thing.
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