removing leaves and dribris from foot well of cowl area
 

Saw that my 68k20's cowl area was filled with leaves and pine needles. removed the cowl and vacuumed out that debris. Added a fine mesh screen to avoid future problems.

Noticed that the whole side cowl / vent area by the foot well is also filled up with it. Any advice on how it is most easily removed.

looks like the driver side you just pull that whole vent assembly out and vacuum it out . what id it preserved with to prevent rusting further?

passenger side will be a PITA because I have the aftermarket under dash A/C set up from ARA.

Thanks

Re: removing leaves and dribris from foot well of cowl area
 

Not having a hose nearby I poked an industrial leaf blower down in the cowl and through the vent, 48 years of debris went everywhere.

Re: removing leaves and dribris from foot well of cowl area
 

I always jam a garden hose down there and let it run full blast 'till the water runs clear.
Yes, it gets stuff wet, but it cleans it out
You probably want to remove your carpet first, if your truck has any.
I also stick the hose in the cab corners, behind the seat, in the rockers, fender corners, and every place else that mud or dust can accumulate.
I have actually pressure washed the dash, to clean the crevasse between the dash and windshield. I just took the stereo out first.
Works great, takes a day or two for the truck to dry out.
This is the first thing I do to every old truck I get.

Re: removing leaves and dribris from foot well of cowl area
 

Jam as small a vacuum nozzle down from the cowl area, then blow what's left, then water pressure.

Re: removing leaves and dribris from foot well of cowl area
 

Isn't the exit for the cowl vent inside the cab? (vent doors in the kick panels?)

Surely there's small drain holes for water but these would be clogged by debris.

Re: removing leaves and dribris from foot well of cowl area
 

Yes there are drain holes they are right against the kick panel at the lowest part of the vent passage. They are small, about 3/8" size. If you don't have a cowl screen they will get full of leaves twigs and dirt.

About 11 years ago I glued black window screen to the underside of the cowl vent and it has worked awesome for keeping all those areas clean. I used high temp hot glue from a craft store and it has held up well.

Re: removing leaves and dribris from foot well of cowl area
 

I have a couple adapters for my shop vac so I can use small household vac hose and heater hose. Cleaned my 69 out pretty good.

Re: removing leaves and dribris from foot well of cowl area
 

Just today I (for the first time) removed the cowl from my 67 GMC 3500. I had to drill out three rusted screw heads, and under that cowl was so much DIRT that it was more like a planter full of potting soil and leaves than a truck. I removed most of the dirt by scooping it put with my hands, and vacuumed the remainder with my shop vac. Then I used the garden hose to clean out the last dregs, until the water ran out clear. What a MESS that was!

Re: removing leaves and dribris from foot well of cowl area
 

I had mice living in my cowl area, scared them into the kick panel area when I took off the cowl panel. Had to scare them back up into the cowl and out of the truck. It explained why I saw a mouse run across my dash when I was driving at night.

Gloves, vacuum, and air compressor.

Enough rust holes in the firewall that they can get back in if they want so I just keep the areas cleaned at this point.

Re: removing leaves and dribris from foot well of cowl area
 

take you shop vac, stick a heater hose, or some sort of 5/8" or 3/4" hose in the end of your vac, duck tape a seal around the hose, you now have a flexible hose that will reach into the tight spots. i use this after getting all my cars/trucks sand blasted

Re: removing leaves and dribris from foot well of cowl area
 

My wife’s truck is a ‘71 F250 that is super clean. Luckily no rust as the fresh air vent/kick panel portion of the cowl was packed in 46 years of dirt, leaves and pine needles to the point rain water was coming out of the vent into the cab. I had to dig all of the crap out by hand and then flush with a hose to get it all out.

It had a lot of surface rust so I bought a couple of cans of Eastwood’s Internal Frame Coating. It comes with a long clear plastic hose that has a small brass nozzle with three holes in it. I taped some baling wire to the hose so I could direct the coating better to where I needed it. The coating has a converter in it to help slow/stop rust spread and is really thin so it flows more like water than paint. The old Fords don’t have a removable panel on top of the cowl like the Chevy’s, but with the Eastwood product and hose I just ran it down the slots and then sprayed the entire cowl air box.

Side note, the coating runs/flows really well so put something underneath the drain holes at the bottom as it will make a mess. You can also then take the tube off the nozzle when you’re done and flush it with aerosol brake cleaner and then blow it out with your compressor so you can reuse it later. Almost three years later and it shows no sign of rust coming back.

Re: removing leaves and dribris from foot well of cowl area
 

The foot well vents of my 67 C10 was jammed with leaves as well. I tried the shop vac trick but could not get the hose in there far enough. I tried compressed air and a leaf blower but still some remained and a leaf or two would blow out every time I drove it. I ended up using some 1.25" pvc pipe, a 90 degree elbow and an adapter/reducer to make my own attachment to the shop vac hose and that worked the best to get in there with the vent door still on.