The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop 1948 Chevy Truck drivers side cowl vent

For a months now I’ve fought to properly locate the exact place where the drivers side cowl vent door support is welded to the drivers side cowl. I think that today I’ve been able to guess the right place for the fitting, however, I’m totally not happy with my results since I can’t get the door to close (pushing it by hand to the closed position.) That said I can’t obtain equal gap around the door. Any ideas?
The first picture, from a YouTube source, shows the fitting’s location which is more or less where mine is.
The second picture show my cowl vent door installed, my fitting is held by two screws (you can’t see it here) because I’ll wait before I go ahead and weld it into place.

I'm not much of a metal worker but my first question would be are you trying to close it with the inside latch/arm attached or not attached? My point being are you sure you are held up on the metal around the door or is something with the latch mechanism inside binding you up?
If you have the mechanism attached I would uninstall and go from there. Also I believe there is a gasket that goes around the door and if that is not already installed the fit will be even tighter and tougher to close later as well.

Lastly are you sure it isn't in the hinges as they could be slightly bound.

When I redid my cowl I regret not purchasing the one with the door in it thinking I could reuse my old door and weld it in, then I realized that it would be way harder than I imagined with my limited welding/metal fab skills so mine are now smooth unfortunately.

Best of luck.

Thanks for your interest. Well it’s a long story and it’s been a thorn in my side. Before we removed the assembly the door operated pretty decently.
We determined some months ago that hinge / door support that is welded on the inside of the door opening the welds had corroded and needed to repaired. The location where that support was by the too thin and welding it back turned into holes. We removed the support and after that we have never been able to secure it in the sweet spot so the door closes properly ensuring an even gap between door edge and the channel the door seal goes.
Now we’ve found that we get the door to close but it sits too close to front edge. But thing have gotten complicated since we misplaced the door spring and the lever that’s used to open/close it.
We know that many people have eliminated the door, but we don’t want to go way if it’s at all possible.
We can locally mfg the missing lever but the springs are not available at vintage parts suppliers or EBay. We’ve considered shimming the support and that would move the support back and maybe give us a better gap between door and cowl channel area.
Hope I’ve addressed your point.

You might reach out to fellow 'Bolter Steve "KCMongo" on the springs and perhaps even the entire door and mechanism. Look for his contact info in his profile. He will more likely than not have what you need. I am actually going to meet up with him tomorrow at an event and can pic his brain to see if he has them.

I probably have the parts as well...let me know..if you can find a pic of the spring just in case so I can reference.

Guys sorry it’s taken me so long to respond but between family health issues and other problems with the truck this has taken a backseat.
I’ve attached a photo hope it helps

Well I’ve been proven by my son that I’m missing a couple of screws. After searching all the boxes my son found the parts I’ve misplaced.
So thanks for your support. I apologize for asking you’ll for help. Thank you so very much.

Hey, we're all missing a few screws or we wouldn't be messing with these jalopies in the first place. No problem!

Texas, Great to here you found what was once lost. Let us know how the reinstall goes.