cowl/kick panel vent rust - need some ideas

[71c10longbed]

After a 12 month hiatus, I am back working on my rusty cab. All rockers(inner/outer), cab supports, and some of the floor has been replaced. Cab corners as well.

Now I am into the more difficult stuff. I've patched a couple of places on my "inner cowl" around the heater motor. I cut a hole in the bottom of the passenger side just to check. Massive mouse next and once that was vacuumed out I found my old friend rust. I really don't want to replace the whole cowl panel due to the labor involved and looking at the patch panel I don't think it will solve my current issue. I've post a picture and the rust is on the inner inner cowl panel where the vent door mounts. I can't find any patch panels for this.... thoughts/ideas/prayers?

[ryans69chevy]

They don't make patches for that area. I know Metaldoc made his own patch. You could search for his build and see if there are any detailed pics for it or ask him for pointers.

Or you could try and find a donor cab that has this area rust free - might be pretty tough...

Or what I'm doing is cutting the whole cowl vent out and filling it in. Basically removing the whole vent. I'm doing this since I don't want rust forming there again and I'm adding a/c so I probably wouldn't use them as much.

[ryans69chevy]

If you don't care about fixing it to look how the factory did it since it will be covered up anyway, you could maybe fab in some right angle iron where the "pegs" go for the actual vent flap. That would be pretty easy and you could cut out a lot of the rust and not have to worry about making a new piece.

Maybe Metaldoc will make you some! Lol

[HO455]

Do a search in the search box above and click the 67-72 button. You will find lots to threads on how to tackle this problem. Here is just one.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=648369

[71c10longbed]

I did some searching and saw what Metaldoc did - that is beyond my fabb'ing ability for sure.

However I cut some more of the cowl away and it is not as bad as I thought. I only need to replace about 3-4 inches on the bottom of where the vent door mounts. There is good metal to weld to on the rest of the oval. I also cut out the drivers side to see how it was, and no rust!! This is the first time I went looking for rust on this truck and didn't find any

[HO455]

Cheers to you and your unsuccessful hunt!

[Econman]

Here's what I did: