phoenix

Here's the background...

I bought the 73 with insurance money from my totalled 76. The guy that I bought it off of was clueless, but at least he didn't do anything particularly stupid to the car over the 11 years that he had it. The body was in great shape, the interior was OK and the frame was OK.

Since then tons of work done, but one thing remained, the smell of gas/oil/exhaust in the car.

Fast forward to now....

Here is where the interesting part is...

After pulling everything in the dash and taking everything off the firewall for the TPI and Vintage air swap, I decided to clean up the kick panel areas which of course are full of rust. I vacuumed everything out (tons of rust) and then coated everything with POR15. Then since I will not be using the recirc or fresh air door, I am going to cover it and seal it up. The hole under the inlet in the kick panel needed to be addressed with regard to sealing it up and insulating it.

So I used expanding foam to fill the area and I was going to put a new drain in.

Lo and behold, a tube of expanding foam came out into the engine compartment. It's about a 2 inch diameter tube of foam that seems to originate at the seam of the firewall and the body/frame that is virtually impossible to see from anywhere in the car, under the car or in the engine compartment.

Looks like I've tracked down one more rotten spot that I'll have to epoxy. :)

Anyone else that has the elusive gas/oil/exhaust smell may also have this problem.

Just a thought.

I'll post a couple of pics of this tonight. I was too pissed off to take any last night. :mad

NHvette

Hmmm - interested to see where it is. It's likely that it is a hole
that 'should' be there. On my 70 - someone had re-worked the cowl area
to block off the fresh air intakes. Here is a pic - below. Notice the square
hole at the bottom of the cowl area: could this be the source of your
foam leak ?

ps - when I put my firewall back on - I'm blocking the lower (big) intakes and
turning them into enclosed speaker boxes.

Mystery Machine

I have a strong exhaust smell...I guess I should check it out. :confused:

vettfixr

I've posted this a few times already but it bears repeating. I found a significant source of heat and odor on my 74. The blower motor plenum that sits on the passenger side of the engine compartment and goes down behind the fender is only glued on at the factory with the same filler that is used on the bonding seams. Over time this filler dries out and cracks and falls out of the seam. This allows the blower motor to draw air from the engine compartment right about where your headers are. You can get to this area and check it out by removing the door sill plate and the plastic kickpanel. Once you have removed these two items remove the inside/outside air door that sits in the kickpanel. This will allow you to look inside with a mirror. Put the car in a dark garage and put a drop light under the car just behind the front wheel in the area where your exhaust pipe goes down. Look inside the kick panel area with a mirror and if you see light coming in you can bet you are going to get heat and odor through there too. I had a lot of light coming through mine. To seal this area I bought a roll of windshield mounting caulk for about $5 from Pep Boys. This stuff is extremely sticky and a bit of a PITA to work with. Pull off a piece about 6 to 8 inches long and reach in to the plenum area and press it into the seam where the plenum and body meet like caulk. It's easier if you leave the paper backing on the caulk until you have it pressed in place so your fingers don't stick to it too much. Repeat this all the way around the seam and all the way up to the blower motor. At this point you should see no light coming in to the plenum when you do the mirror inspection. Replace the Inside/outside door valve on the kickpanel wall and then reinstall the kickpanel trim and the door sill and your done. The job take a few hours but when it's done you will notice a significant reduction in heat coming out of your vents and your AC will work better because it's not trying to cool down heat coming off of the headers.

phoenix

Yup.... sounds like vettfixr has it exactly. :)

Except that mine wasn't so much a hole as a GAPING HOLE :D

I'll show you pics tonight. It's definitely not something that "should" be there. :)

NHvette

Ahh - yup I know what you mean. When I pulled my fenders off the cowl, that seal broke free WAY too easily. I also noticed - coincidentally - last night
while reading my AIM - that the rear firewall to fender bond is done with the polyester panel adhesive. They show the forward cowl to fender bond to use a different compound - labelled only as "sealer". It is hard stuff, so I wonder
why they didn't use the panel adhesive here, too. Maybe setting time had to do with it.

$5 for the butyl rubber caulk at Pep Boys ? Sheesh - just paid $15 for this 3M kit: