How to scuff and paint metal inside cowl?

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adam83

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So on my 71 duster I have the heater box off, and am taking the vent box off the driver's side to clean up and add new seals/foam etc.

My cowl is in really good shape, just some degradation of the paint on the inside trough, and the beginnings of some very light surface rust. I'd like to get in there, do some simple scuffing/light sanding, cleaning and paint to make sure the metal stays nice.

I didn't realize it before, that the only access for hands to the inside of the cowl is through those 2 cowl vent openings.. how is someone supposed to get on the inside to do this kind of work???
 
The cowl is a welded steel box with no entrance. Only when people have major rust issues is the cowl cut open for repairs.
 
Makes sense, but there's got to be some members here who have figured some reasonable way of doing what I want to do without cutting open anything
 
I can appreciate you wanting to be thorough and cleaning up that area, but if it's not rusted through, why bother?
The car has made it 52 years without rusting through, and I take it you don't drive it in the winter anyway.
And to top it all off, Tacoma isn't in the rust belt anyway...
Personally, I would leave it alone or if you still want to spray paint in there, I would use a spray bomb can of Rust Oleum and reach through the holes and spray some paint in there with a misting motion the best you can.
Buy a can that is reasonably close to the color of the car and tape over the cowl vents before you spray any paint in there.
Do NOT use primer!
It will only attract rust if you do...
 
There are a few ways.
I personally on my 66’ with everything out of the way including the dash board and the air box / heater core removed got in there with a piece of sand paper and scuffed it up and then brushed in a single staged paint the best I could and the sprayed inside first before painting the car.
Then let the over spray do its thing. It’s not perfect but it worked well. Honestly if you even attempt to do that - Peeling down the road from lack of prep work is very possible. So if you start it, you have to finish it to prevent.
Some people I’ve talked to have used the truck bed liner and poured it in and some how swished it around or sprayed under coating in there. I’m not sure as I’ve never done that.

Last way as I see it is to open up the spot welds and go thru all of that to brush in paint after primer and sanding.
Hope this helps you some.
Syleng1
 
Eastwood sells a protectant for this purpose. It has a long tube that you put inside the cavity. Push it as far as you can from one side, spray and pull. Repeat for the other side. Might be what you want.

 
Scuffing isn't gonna happen without cutting... Clean it out the best you can, vacuum, compressed air, what ever method you feel works best...

Sealing the metal is the key... I use SEM 39683 Self Etching Primer from a spray can, I replace the regular spray nozzle with one from a can of brake clean which allows me to use a straw that fits between the cowl grid... I'm not worried about runs, I bomb the paint on forcing it toward all the edges as best I can... I like to see paint seep through the seams on the firewall, I do tape below the seam on the firewall so I don't have to clean up the runs...

After the etching primer I let the paint dry for a few hours then I come back with SEM Trim Black & do the same thing...

Cavity wax is great, accept it never dries so it continues to seep out a year or five later making a mess..
 
How to scoff at paint? Uncle Tony does pretty well in his latest videos on the Cougar and Coronet...:)
 
I think- my humble opinion is if you use a cavity was or something that could be sticky especially on a hot day any leaves and dirt will stick and sink in. Again my opinion. I’m going by the old Z Bart undercoating that was just spray in liquid wax. I worked at a dealership and had to up sell that garbage back in the early 80’s.
Messy. I will check out the Eastwood stuff as that sounds promising.
 
The Eastwood stuff sounds interesting. Has anybody here used it?
What I've always done in the past is get in there with whatever I can- steel wool, small wire brushes, etc. and get it as clean as I can.
Then I hit it with a can of rust convertor, and like @1WildRT said; replace the nozzle with one that lets you stick a straw into the tip. And then soak the living snot out of every surface and crevice you can reach, through the vent holes and through the cowl slits. Then after it dries, hit it the same way with a coat of paint, as best you can.
 
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