Re: Come a flood; Windshield heater vents!?

[Steven Ayres <comwest@well.com>]

SteveB=> I found the bottom the the cowl where the fresh air comes in 
=> from the outside had rusted in many places and is leaking. Also, the 
=> rubber seal that goes between the fresh air box and the body was 
=> leaking and allowing water to come in there as well.
=> Any suggestions?

Sounds like you need new fresh-air boxes, so you might as well start 
there -- if you find a pair, they may have usable seals. 

LukeH=> anyone know an easy way to get inside the defroster for the
     => front winshield (the vents on the outside)?
 
I gather you're also talking about the fresh-air boxes. Be warned that 
to get them out you have to remove just about everything from your dash 
area, including the dash pad. It's not particularly difficult, but 
it's time-consuming and you'll be very glad you thought to take the 
front seats out first and give yourself room. Be very careful of the 
paper defrost hoses, those are surprisingly fragile as well as 
unavailable. 

Making new seals is probably the simplest problem to solve in this 
assembly. You have a lot of options since the box just mashes up against 
the body, never moves and doesn't show. Before you bolt up, though, 
cover each box with a chunk of black fiberglass window screen so that 
you have about an inch of overlap all around, and use a good 
weatherstrip adhesive to glue up the new seal and the screen to the box.

The main reason these boxes clog up and rust out so often, imho, is 
because the plastic leaf screens have all long since been pulverized by 
sun. If you're lucky enough to have good boxes, pull 'em anyway, replace 
the screens, and you won't have to worry about clogging.  I've just done 
this myself, and it was a lot easier than it looked. Of course I already 
had the whole car disassembled, but .... ;)

Steven Ayres, Prescott AZ
'66 & '64 T3 Ghias
'79 Campmobile