The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Air Vents

Has anybody ever sealed off the air vents under the dash? I know that in the pre A/C days they served a purpose but are they really useful for anything now? Just curious. I have part of my old 55 (2nd) cab left that had the vent in it and the vent door had all but disintigrated. Do they make replacement vent doors? If I replace the cowl panel I was thinking about sealing the vent. Ideas?

Doug, I think that on a cool morning you will need fresh air through your windshield defogger system to keep the windows clear. My wife had me modify her car to block off the fresh air and recirculate inside air because of her alergy to the neighborhood insecticides and fertilizers. Sometimes it is hard to keep the windshield clear. If your heater/AC can draw in fresh air that will probably do the job.

I got replacement rubber for the vent doors at Classic parts of America many years ago when they were chevy duty, they probably still have them.

I'd 2nd the motion to keep the vents, they're very useful for fresh air flow .... any of the vendors have replacement vent seals, the doors themselves aren't repro'd but could be easily fabricated using the 'hinge' and cable connection bits from an old one, or you could find some from a junked cab

Bill

Thanks. I should have takem a picture of the vent doors in the old pieceof the cab. They were all but gone. I still have to check out my "good" cab. The one I will rebuild. If the vent doors look good I'll keep them. If not I'll figure out how to build new ones.

Should I take off the cown panel to get at the doors? I was thinking about taking off the cowl panels because I need to see what the condition of the cab is behind them. I also need to fix the two mounting points for the fenders on top of the cowl panels.

those doors fit on a spring loaded pin, come out easily thru the vent holes behind the louvers, no need to cut anything .... no point in opening worm cans, the place in there that rots is the bottom end where there's a drain hole for the cowl vent, fixed from outside just like those mount snouts on the top outside

Bill

I guess I'll check that out. Thanks!

I got in and looked at the vents and doors. All of the metal looks good in them. A little rust encapsulator should do the job. I will rebuild the vent doors and paint them so they will last another 50 years. After seeing the ones in the older truck remains that were dinintegrated I was worried. I cleaned all of the sand and twigs and old cloth out of the cowl panel too. Still amazed they are in good shape!

Any tips on fixing the mounts on top of the cowl panel? One is missing the captive nut. I don't know how but it's not in there. The other looks like the threads have rusted off. I may be wrong. It may just be the primer that's on it.

those threaded bubbles on top are commonly buggered from the bolts corroding in, if you can't find some from a parts truck to cut off and use you're left with making a piece up with a nut welded to it and weld that to the plenum - hard to get it in just the right place but maybe yours are still good enough to get some accurate measurements

Bill

I wouldn't get rid of the floor vents. When I had my 55 2nd TF the vents were life savers. Along with the ventilator windows I had good air flow. Even when it was high 90s or 100. Air was hot but it was moving.

I thought that I could have cooked a pizza in the summer. The cab was like a convection oven. LOL

man that cab is cold..brrr...it is like a freezer in there..good for making slushies

Hahahaaaa

I should have left the windows closed

I was goin to drill the spot welds, remove the body lead and just weld new nuts on the bottom of the thing. When I did that I was going to weld them back on.

I cleaned out a lot of sand from the cowls. I know where the ants were hiding when I got the cab home. What's the best way to get rust encapsulator in there? Will I have to drill through the outside to get a good all around coat?

not sure you really need to worry about rustproofing in there, just keep it flushed out ocassionally and make sure the drains at the bottom don't plug up to let sludge collect, that's the usual problem - lasted 50 years so far, oughta last another 50

Bill