Its not a slant six question, but the car has one so,. I have a '74 Dart and in a hard rain, while parked, it gets wet on the drivers side floor. I made a cover for the air grill but it still comes in, any suggestions were to look for leaks? This morning i found water in the air vent by the feet so I wont rule out the air grill at the base of the windshield. Is there a drain that could be clogged for this area?

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Grandpa's 1974 Dart Custom 4 door 225 auto, Aluminum Radiator, 1920 Holley.

Clogged cowl drain, see this post. Wiper pivot seals in need of replacement; purchase the wiper seal kit from Schumacher (scroll down the categories at the left side of the page).

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Also, inspect along the roof rails for cracks in the caulking. (seam sealer)
I have had water enter the car thru these types of cracks.
DD

One other place to look is the bottom of the windshield gasket. The gasket recedes and uncovers an inch long slot that is not quite in line with each wiper pivot. No one has ever been able to tell me what the slots are for, but they will leak water like crazy.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

The wiper post seals look old also were do I find the drain on the '74, there is no visible way to clean anything out from the engine compartment.

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Grandpa's 1974 Dart Custom 4 door 225 auto, Aluminum Radiator, 1920 Holley.

They deleted the firewall plugs after '66 in North American production; if you want some, you'll have to cut your own. Otherwise go in via the vent boxes as described in previously-linked post.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

What is a good replacement caulk for the cracked caulk over the windows?
Thanks
Frank

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Scrapple: Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
73 Duster - Race Car
66 Dart Wagon - DD
178" FED
82 D150
All Slant powered

Are you refering to a caulk applied when the W/S was installed or the calk used on the drip rails?

The seam sealer (refered to as caulk) is applied before the paint is applied so any sort of re-application is going to possibly look funny. I like to use 3M's self leveling seam sealer for this area because it will flow into all the nooks and, as the name implies, level itself out. It is fairly clear but has a yellow tint to it. The bad thing is that it requires a 3M Automix application gun because it is a 2 part product.

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Chris'
Autobody
Restoration
Service

Cars
The drip rails. I need to remove the cracked caulk( is this called seam sealer?) and replace when I do the body work. So how much is the gun??
Frank

_________________
Scrapple: Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
73 Duster - Race Car
66 Dart Wagon - DD
178" FED
82 D150
All Slant powered

I've always heard it called seam sealer because that is what is on the container. That doesn't mean that others have different names for it .

Unless you want the area to be discolored (in that valley 99% of people wont see it anyway) you will need to repaint over it.

I would try to borow that gun from the body shop supplier that you buy the sealer from. I think the sealer is about $30.00 a cartrige. The gun probably lists for something outragous like $200.00 but I think I bought it for under $70.00 because I buy all my supplies from them.

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Chris'
Autobody
Restoration
Service

hi sages- surmise this is a job for superman(sl6dan, di, the doctor , among others). been off the forum for a few weeks, but now have time inthe summer to do some long delayed restorations to my 76 feather duster sl6, 4 spd od. recently rewelded the floors, torsion bar mount and frame pieces. about to tackle a large leak from under the dashboard onto the driver side floor. lucky for me to see this discussed on todays forum. am still a little unclear on diagnosis and remediation. choice one- dont think it is the wiper pivots because i put rubber discs from the old sl6 plug wire kits(large sparkplugs) under the wipers pressed down onto the cowl- seems pretty tight. choice two- lower windshield leak- dont thinkthis is the problem because have filled in the entire seam carefully with clear silicon. choice three- the only other option is corrosion holes from accumulated debris that came through the cowl on top of the firewall. looks like one hellacious repair job. figure most of the guts of the dashboard have to be disassembled to get up there, clean and then paste in some kind of goop to seal the holes which are probably next to the stove pipe stacks which connect to the vent box assemblies under the dash. going to prove this by closing off the cowl grill spraying water outside and seeing if it leaks like hell, probably wont. too bad there is no apparent way to easily correct this. is my analysis correct?. a few questions- if i cover the cowl grill wont it cut off air to the underdash door vents on each side ? dont want to do that in fla heat. months ago someone on the forum put up pictures toshow how this works on an a body but had cut off part of the firewall and cowl to illustrate it.it made things very clear. dont want to go that far. exactly what type of goop should i use to seal the holes. uncle moe told me to use liquid nails but think that would get too brittle , crack and leak again but it is very adhesive. lastly i also have the problem of rusting and some perforation where the side roof gutters(rails?) meet the roof. planning to clean it, scrape it fill it with the same goop you recommend for the dash leak problem and then paint over it. am i on the right track here?. thanks for the help sages. bob fisher. ps-i know i know i should have sent the car tothe crusher a long time ago.

Could still be leaking past the pivot mounts. Since you're in the neighbourhood, why not put in the full wiper reseal kit?
Could also be an upper windshield leak. Water has a way of migrating far and wide from its point of entry.
Or just plain overflow from a clogged cowl, if you're lucky.
Yup...sounds like this car has extensive floor and body rust, so it cannot be assumed that any of the undercar metal is any good. I'm afraid you're going to have to bite the bullet, pull the dash, the windshield, and the heater box, and assess the situation to figure out what-all will be necessary to effect a complete fix.
Yup...you'll have no air supply to the heat/defog or the underdash doors.

Repair as you'd repair any other rusty metal (floor etc.)
Sounds like it!

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Hello everybody, i have the same problem as Bob Fisher, but on my F body volare 78, does anybody knows if this car has the mentioned plugs to clean the cowl and if it does have this plugs where are they located?

And also where are the drains so i can clean them? hoping that this will fix my problem every time that starts to rain for long periods of time or very hard and the car is parked outside my house i find the same problem water on the driver side floor (curiously if my car is parked outside my gf's house it doesn't happen i guess it's because my gf's house is on a hill so the car is not on a totally horizontal and maybe the water goes through other parts but who knows) please help i am tired of having to check the car every time that rains

thanks

Your 78 doesnt have the plugs. And there is no easy way to clean out the cowl. A long stiff piece of wire is about the only way I know of, along with an air compressor.
Good luck,
Frank

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Scrapple: Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
73 Duster - Race Car
66 Dart Wagon - DD
178" FED
82 D150
All Slant powered

On my '78 Volare 2-door, I used to have a damp floorboard after every hard rain. I covered the cowl vents (?) just under the wndshield with two pieces of aluminum. They are held in place by what is supposed to be leakproof tape. This has been in place for over a year, and no more leaks when it rains.
Kind of a redneck fix, but oh well...

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"Ja, Ich fahre ein altes auto."
'78 Volare 225
'67 Charger 318