Has any one else encountered a rusted out hole in your firewall below the fan blower in the engine bay?

Ive got a 3-4 inch wide hole there. Has anyone done sheet metal repair work and if so how can I go about fixing this problem. Its letting water in and on my floor board.

I thought of just taking JB weld and putting a piece of sheet metal in and then sealing it with a rust inhibitor.j

Any suggestions?

 

Bill, maybe this will help:


http://www.thebugshop.org/bsfqflor.htm

 

for a temp fix clean the area and use duct tape, been holding out the water in my ride for about 3 months now... hmm that reminds me, fix hole

 

I have the same GD problem. I have searched high and low for a car that doesn't have rot there. Even when I was living in Fl I could not find a car that did not have excessive rust there. I am just going to take everything out of the way and have a new generic piece of metal welded in. I think a restoration company should make a patch panel for these. Kind of annoying considering they ALL have this rot!

 

Well, I'll be damned. There's actually a spot on my car that isn't rusted!! Usually it's the other way around, I'll have rust in spots that everyone else won't.

If you don't have a welder, you could look into http://www.eastwoodcompany.com 's no-weld panel replacement system. But if you don't need a flush repair (the eastwood system's meant for exterior body panels), then you already figured out the solution. One catch though; cut the rusted metal out and away! Otherwise that rust will spread, and it'll suck. (Trust me.) Cut the rust away, prime/paint the bare metal edges. Then drill holes for a rivet gun's rivets, but don't rivet the panel in place yet. Get a tube of Permatex Black Silicone (at any auto parts store for $3) and lay a thick bead around the edge of the hole. Then mash the patch panel into that silicone, line up the holes, and rivet away. If you can get at the hole from the inside, you might want to blob some extra silicone in there.

Oh yeah and your car will stink like silicone for a while, too... but it's better than a moldy water smell!

 

Holy Shlt a 3rd gen that doesn't have this rot That is truely amazing. Probelm with where it is you have to remover everything on the firewall to get to it properly. I will have mine welded!

 

See Tom your car isn't that bad...great now I have to run out and check...

 

It rots out there because when its rain or when you wash your car, the water runs down the windscreen and goes down those vents near your wipers.. and the water sits in that spot where it rots and eventually comes out in the engine bay firewall..

 

actually here is the biggest reason I have found it rots there and everywhere else there is a body seam. The problem is GM painted the cars after they installed the seam filler. With heat and cold this cracks and along with that so does the paint. Once this cracks it holds the water there like a little pool with only primer covering it. Since primer is porous it absorbs the water and it rots away. What a stupid design