Water leak in interior

[Ole87]

So I am in the process of an interior build. I have all of the interior panels off. I had someone outside the truck using a water hose so I could check for leaks around the windshield as I recently had it replaced.

On the passenger side where the panel covers the heater valve, it looked as if there was a waterfall. Water was basically coming in from somewhere under the cowl I assume and running down inside the wall and inside the panel. Its not coming in the truck and getting on the carpet or anything, but again just pouring down inside the frame. Surely it's not supposed to do that? I have pic of the area that I will post this evening.

Any thoughts on where under the cowl it would be coming from or cause?

[1981Stepside]

If the water is flowing in the void behind the kick panel, that's completely normal. That is the drain area for the cowl section. There should be foam gaskets on the back of the kick panels you removed to prevent water from entering the cab.

[Ole87]

There is a seal or gasket material, some of it is still on there as you see in the pic. That makes sense but it was seriously a lot of water coming down. You can also see the rust inside there. Right above the rust is where the blower motor is. If normal, man that's eating our trucks up from the inside out!

[1981Stepside]

That gasket is toast. Mine did the same thing when I pulled my kick panels. Best advice I can give is to pick up some closed cell foam from your local home improvement store. I used 1" wide self adhesive strip (used for door and window drafts) and made new gaskets. Took a bit more force to compress the foam when putting on the kick panels, but I was sure that the gasket made a seal.

As far as the rust streak, I would also check the seam where the cowl meets the firewall. The cowl often gets filled with leaves and debris which holds moisture and rots out the bottom of the cowl/firewall. While you have the panel out, wouldn't be a bad idea to spray some rust stop or converter up inside the void once it's dry.

Definitely not the best design in the world for drainage.

[Ole87]

Will definitely spray some rust converter in the area. I can only imagine the drivers side is in the same shape of curse no way to tell. In investigating this issue I removed the screws to the cowl and removed all of the trash and debris and from what I can see there is no rust damage there.

Thanks for your response! Certainly doesn't make me feel good about putting everything back together knowing there is a waterfall going on right behind everything though.

[ironroad9c1]

I noticed mine seeps a tiny amount from around the parking brake bolts going through the firewall. Need to seal those up this weekend.

[motornut]

yes be sure to clean out any debris in there keep it from rusting through like my 87

[v30crewcab]

Thats why my truck is parked under the carport, instead of out in the rain. my daily driver civic is out in the rain!

[Rogier]

I would love to improve this 'design'. Isn't there a way to connect some hose or something that keeps things dry?

[Oldriginal86]

Mine leaks on my left foot when I make a right turn. Drips from under the dash somewhere. Don't mean to hijack your thread, just interested in what people thought while on the subject of leaks.

[Ole87]

Haven't been on in a while and haven't done much to the truck since. I got the windshield sealed so no leaks there. I still have one leak on the driver side coming from the firewall. I have used a seam sealer product on all the areas that I can see under the hood on the firewall. Until I can find the leak I can't put in carpet. I just can't tell where it's coming from. It's obviously small because the water puddles are much smaller than they were. S my interior rebuild is pretty much on hold until I can stop it. Everything is ready to go back in, dash , headliner, kick panels, seat, etc. I'm almost ready to take it to a body shop or something to find and plug the leak.