How to clean leaves from the cowl vent

[Broncobilly66]

I was about to weld up the antenna holes in my cowl today and notices it had a lot of leaves in there. I need to get them out. It looks bad and i dont want a fire.....Any ideas on how to do this?

[jimmy828]

I remember when i dissembled my 69 there were leaves and other objects down inside the cowl below the door hinges. I took it that they came in from cowl vent and just work thereselves down to bottom of cowl. Sounds tome like you can take a air hose and blow from top of vent and what does not come out from vent will fall down the side of cowl below door hinges and then snake a shop vac hose threw the hinge opening and suck the rest out. I think i would also take the grommet out that is in center of cowl under hood hoping that some will come out there. Sounds like it will work to me.

[Broncobilly66]

I remember when i dissembled my 69 there were leaves and other objects down inside the cowl below the door hinges. I took it that they came in from cowl vent and just work thereselves down to bottom of cowl. Sounds tome like you can take a air hose and blow from top of vent and what does not come out from vent will fall down the side of cowl below door hinges and then snake a shop vac hose threw the hinge opening and suck the rest out. I think i would also take the grommet out that is in center of cowl under hood hoping that some will come out there. Sounds like it will work to me.

I didn't think about that plug. I'll look at that. Thanks

[72BahamaBlue]

If you're up to it, really the best way to clean the cowl is to remove the left vent by the parking brake, and the right vent/ heater box.
The heater fan tends to suck up a lot of crud into the box and heater core, and the cowl on the passenger side. With the L&R vents out, there is room to reach up in there a bit. There's a large flat area that will accumulate a lot of stuff, and if the crud is too coarse the drain holes get plugged up. A telescoping blow gun from Harbor Freight is a great tool for cleaning the cowl.

http://www.harborfreight.com/telescopin ... 68261.html

[Broncobilly66]

If you're up to it, really the best way to clean the cowl is to remove the left vent by the parking brake, and the right vent/ heater box.
The heater fan tends to suck up a lot of crud into the box and heater core, and the cowl on the passenger side. With the L&R vents out, there is room to reach up in there a bit. There's a large flat area that will accumulate a lot of stuff, and if the crud is too coarse the drain holes get plugged up. A telescoping blow gun from Harbor Freight is a great tool for cleaning the cowl.

http://www.harborfreight.com/telescopin ... 68261.html

Sounds good. That's what I'll do. My plan was to gut the interior anyway for what I'm doing. Thanks !

[basketcase0302]

Believe me speaking from expierence...
You'll want a water hose handy, (for flushing) due the leaf debris becoming the equivalent of worm dirt! and an air hose to blow prior to that to break up the stuff so the vacuum will pick it up. Then find yourself an old magnetic sign and cut it up to cover the cowl, (only opening the small side for ventilation purposes-then the whole cowl in the summertime.

[Broncobilly66]

Believe me speaking from expierence...
You'll want a water hose handy, (for flushing) due the leaf debris becoming the equivalent of worm dirt! and an air hose to blow prior to that to break up the stuff so the vacuum will pick it up. Then find yourself an old magnetic sign and cut it up to cover the cowl, (only opening the small side for ventilation purposes-then the whole cowl in the summertime.

Keep the ideas coming

[basketcase0302]

I also had, (and used) the shop vac with the air and water.

[HIO Silver]

Pull the center cowl plug and then one plug on each side air vent bowl. You'll have to pull/loosen the splash shield to access the latter. Turn the steering (and wheels) to the opposite direction that yer working on for clearance.

I used a small 1-gallon shop vac and simply fed the hose as far as I could into each side through the center access hole and then rinsed it out. For the side vents, I fashioned a small hook out of a piece of coat hanger and fished out the mulch while feeding a steady stream of water through the access hole... took about half an hour total.

Oh, wrap a rag around your wrist or elbow or else cold water will run down into your armpit. Brrrr....

[68 Ford Stepside]

When I bought my truck, it had been sitting under a pecan tree for three years. The cowl was packed completely full of leaves & leaf stems. Notice in the attached photo the oblong factory plug & one two inch plug on both sides of the upper cowl. I had to remove the lower cowl plugs & wash out & drag out with a coat hanger until every thing was clean. At the bottom of the cowl the one inch drain hole has a cross bar that made it even more aggravating. After a lot of water flushing & a little bit of cussing the entire cowl was cleared of years of trash build up.

[jimmy828]

When I bought my truck, it had been sitting under a pecan tree for three years. The cowl was packed completely full of leaves & leaf stems. Notice in the attached photo the oblong factory plug & one two inch plug on both sides of the upper cowl. I had to remove the lower cowl plugs & wash out & drag out with a coat hanger until every thing was clean. At the bottom of the cowl the one inch drain hole has a cross bar that made it even more aggravating. After a lot of water flushing & a little bit of cussing the entire cowl was cleared of years of trash build up.

[ Image ]

Is that you in the pic cleaning your cowl?

[HIO Silver]

When I bought my truck, it had been sitting under a pecan tree for three years. ......

[ Image ]

Dang YOUR OLD!!.... like a bristlecone pine.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristlecone_pine

[68 Ford Stepside]

When I bought my truck, it had been sitting under a pecan tree for three years. The cowl was packed completely full of leaves & leaf stems. Notice in the attached photo the oblong factory plug & one two inch plug on both sides of the upper cowl. I had to remove the lower cowl plugs & wash out & drag out with a coat hanger until every thing was clean. At the bottom of the cowl the one inch drain hole has a cross bar that made it even more aggravating. After a lot of water flushing & a little bit of cussing the entire cowl was cleared of years of trash build up.

[ Image ]

Is that you in the pic cleaning your cowl?

That's my old buddy Joe. He helps me out around the place.

[pincheweddo]

Just washed 20 years of west texas dust out of mine. I took out the center and 2 side plugs and got after it with a water hose. There is a drain hole down at the bottom on both sides. I could see them well cause I had the front end off. The crap you see in your cowl will plug it up so you will need to stick your finger up there and give it a prostrate exam every time the stop flowing. Found some cat id tags in mine. Still makes me laugh thinking about a cat freaking out trying to get away.

[Broncobilly66]

I still need to wash mine out. Theres only the cab sitting on the frame right now.. Need to roll it out of the shop and do that this weekend... Seems like such a bad design