Re: Come a flood

[Steve Bradley <scscomp@atl.mindspring.com>]

Stan Schaefer wrote:
> 
> If you take the front fender off, I'll bet you find you have a hole
> rusted in the body right at the front where the heater tube curves up
> in the door post to the dash.  DIrt kind of packs in there and
> promotes rust.  Another place is at the top rear of the fender.  Get
> the fenders off, and clean and patch in there.  Might not be it, but
> virtually every wreck I've seen has had some rust or holes in those
> locations.  My '71 sure did, plus about 50 lbs. of dirt packed in the
> upper rear of the front fenders.
> After patching, my standard practice is to hose out the fenders every
> time we have a snow.  They put down gravel here instead of salt, but
> it still packs in at the rear of the fenders.  There's also a fender
> support strut in there, my original fenders had both of these eaten
> about in two.
> 
> The heater tubes have no connection to the fresh air stuff, it all
> originates in the back, so you have some rust holes somewhere.
> The fresh air drain tubes still needed to be rodded out, so that
> wasn't wasted time.
> 
> On Mon, 03 Nov 1997 23:51:15 -0800, you wrote:
> 
> >When it rains I get a steady stream of water coming in at the heater
> >outlet on the floor of the driver side. If it rains long enough, it will
> >totally flood the inside of the car.
> >
> >A while back, I removed and replaced the rubber tube that allows the
> >fresh air collector to drain so I know this isn't a problem.
> >
> >I can't find any diagrams in any of my manuals of how the heater outlet
> >could open anywhere to the outside that would cause this problem. Does
> >anybody have any suggestions?
> >
> >Steve B.
> >

I probablly do have rust where you described but, mine leaks badly when
the car is sitting still and only minimally when driving. I neglected to
include that in my original post.

I'll check the behind the front fenders. I do have a hole that has
rusted from "inside-out" and has been exposed on the body skin right
between the antenna and the door on the drivers side. Think this could
be the same problem you described?

Steve B.