Paint the Cowl?

[john108]

I know that after I hear the suggestions, I will know that my question was a dumb question.

The Cowl ('68 Dodge Charger) contains  slits with a cavity below.  How do you paint this area and deal with the paint that shoots/drops into the cavity below.  (I guess that black cars may not have an issue??)
There is also some particles that have accumulated below.

[comet_666]

To me this is not a dumb question. I noticed this just last week on my car, has some "stuff" down there.

[Silver R/T]

cowl on our cars is welded on, so you'd have to remove it to paint underneath it

[six-tee-nine]

Well either you're in for a seroius job or you leave it the way it is.

I removed my OEM cowl panel because my car was a rodent home for several years and had crap and bee nests all over the place including under the cowl.
To remove the cowl you need patience. That is if you want to reuse the OEM part. It took me something of around 3 hrs to drill the spot welds, heat out the lead out of the seam by the A pillar and pry off the panel due to the bonding adhesive the factory used.

I cleaned out the cowl area wich was already well woth the effort in my case. I will be painting the upper part of the firewall (or whatever that part is called) so you can see a nicely painted area trough the vents. I will prevent the overspray issue that will occur when painting the rest of the car later on by masking the underside of the vents before installing the cowl panel. I will do this with a piece of thin cardboard to wich I will attach a rope. The rope goes trough one of the vent stacks so I can pull off the masking material after the car is painted.

Maybe this sounds really silly but the result will be awesome (If I dont snap the rope )

Its way over restored since the facory never painted the area and the only body color it got was the paint mist swirling down trough the vents...

If you dont do a color change I "might" even advise you to let go of the idea. If you go from red to black and want a superb paint resuld then dont doubt it, otherwise you will be dissapointed when you look trough the vents later on.

[Silver R/T]

^^^great idea

[bill440rt]

I can suggest a little trick if you just want to clean it up, if you don't want to or can't remove the cowl.
Mask each vent, & use a spray can with a nozzle from a WD-40 can (or similar) with the little red tube to shoot paint down there. On black cars this is easy, for other colors you may need to have a can made up.
Might not make it look 100% show quality but at least more presentable.

The string trick sounds intriguing!   

[six-tee-nine]

I know, kinda like in the movies

- "what if it doesnt work?"

- "it HAS to work!"

[tan top]

after spending  hours cleaning in there & using degreaser soaked cloth on a stick  then red scotch bright on a stick    &  getting  hands stuck in the air vent holes  ,  hours of blowing debris  out with compressed air    , used a  suction fed touch up gun on jet , & let it have it    course car was a empty body shell when I done mine , but was still awkward alternating painting through the cowl out side vent slots &  inside , wiper pivot holes &  out side vent holes ,  wearing an  air fed mask ,  

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

I can suggest a little trick if you just want to clean it up, if you don't want to or can't remove the cowl.
Mask each vent, & use a spray can with a nozzle from a WD-40 can (or similar) with the little red tube to shoot paint down there. On black cars this is easy, for other colors you may need to have a can made up.
Might not make it look 100% show quality but at least more presentable.

The string trick sounds intriguing!   

Yup... I have done that when the cowl was orange with a can made up of my color....also just did it with satin black before the V21....

[Lord Warlock]

simple solution, add a v21 hood treatment, you can paint the whole cowl black and ignore the inside.

[green69rt]

I just looked down in mine.  The car is in grey primer and when I painted the outside of the cowl some grey primer overspray got down in the inside.  I had painted inside of the cowl with black POR15 (the top cowl was off) and the overspray really muted it down.  I expect that final paint of a couple of coats will produce enough overspray to make the inside of the cowl match the outside enough that it won't be an issue.  I wonder what Mopar did on the original assembly/paint??

[john108]

I once saw pictures, on this site, where it looked like someone managed to take pictures in that area, below the cowl.  I have no idea how he got in there to get those pictures.
It looked like there was some access from below the dash??
I also read various posts here where various components from below the dash were rebuilt/restored (but not how to remove them).  With all the time I spent, on my back, looking under the dash, I couldn't see a clear path to remove those components.  Between ducting, brackets, vacuum diaphragms, actuators, I can't see what to remove first, or second, etc.  It is a real maze.  I was hoping to get access to that box below the cowl, as well as updating some parts.  The glove box, heater box, radio, etc. are all blocked.
I guess that if you know how to do it, it is all easy.

[six-tee-nine]

You cant acces the cowl from anywhere else but the vent stacks.
These arelocated outer left and right (2 round holes under the dash) right side is fresh air intake for the blower motor and left is the manual vent opening.

The hard thing is that in the cowl these round openings are stacks so you cant get there in with your hands very easy.
Both outer ends of my cowl were totally gooped up with junk, leafs, seat foam (you know....rodents)

My hat off to the guys who did it without removing the top panel.

[Rosco]

While I haven't got it worked out 100% yet, my plan is to clean it all out as best I can by reaching up through the vent towers. Scotch pads, sand paper on a stick, etc,
I then plan to use a brush on rust converter to sort out any remaining rust, and then once that's dry, paint on a coat or two of black paint as best I can, and then mask up the vent slits from the inside somehow when the rest of the car is painted.

I know I on't get an amazing finish like that, but who's going to be looking closely at the paint finish inside the cowl anyway.?

Like I said, I haven't got it figured perfectly yet, but something like that.

[b5blue]

Eastwood sells cans of spray paint with 24" extension tubes. They work very well.
http://www.amazon.com/Eastwood-Black-Encapsulator-Extension-Nozzle/dp/B0050PMFMG

[john108]

How much do you have to remove from under the dash to get to the vent towers?  I haven't seen them yet.
I am presently apprehensive to randomly disconnect items under the dash.  It is an AC car and the area under there is totally packed.

[Rosco]

I'm not sure if you can get the AC ducting off and out of the way with the rest of the dash still in place, but it'll be easier with the whole dash removed for sure

[john108]

I was afraid of that!  I don't know where to start?

[six-tee-nine]

Also depends if you have ac or not.

Without ac the heater box sits directly onto the vent opening. So the complete heater needs to come out.

[bill440rt]

Even if you remove the heater/AC & vent boxes by design you can't get your arms up into the cowl the the vent holes. 

[green69rt]

I once saw pictures, on this site, where it looked like someone managed to take pictures in that area, below the cowl.  I have no idea how he got in there to get those pictures.
It looked like there was some access from below the dash??
I also read various posts here where various components from below the dash were rebuilt/restored (but not how to remove them).  With all the time I spent, on my back, looking under the dash, I couldn't see a clear path to remove those components.  Between ducting, brackets, vacuum diaphragms, actuators, I can't see what to remove first, or second, etc.  It is a real maze.  I was hoping to get access to that box below the cowl, as well as updating some parts.  The glove box, heater box, radio, etc. are all blocked.
I guess that if you know how to do it, it is all easy.

Here's the inside of mine.
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=54582.0;attach=150839;image