I have water coming in on the driver side floor. It looks to be coming through a screw hole in an inside cover. My question is.. Does this screw hole go direct to the outside of the body? So if I just put the screw back I will be ok. Or do you think the water is coming from somewhere higher up and just making its way to the hole in the cover? I forgot to put these screws back in and will put them back in but just want to make sure I do not have a water leak somewhere else.

There is a thick tar-like seal that goes on the back of the kick panel. It's in an oval shape right around that oval on the kick panel. Maybe it will stick back together if you put the screws back in.

It should go through to the inner area, and you may be just getting some water from that hole? I would cut a fine tip for a tube of sealant (waterproof, RTV or silicone etc) and squeeze a little in the hole then put the screw back...

Then the next time you actually take the kick panel out, remember to check it out up close and personal.

Brett!

Have you ever taken your kick panel off? There may be tons of leaves, branches and other crud piled up behind the panel itself.

The panel does have a thick tar seal that keeps moisture from coming into the interior, but the crud piled up behind the panel may be allowing the moisture to pool. If you have never cleared that area out, there could be 38-years worth of stuff behind the panel, and it will most likely be damp.

Nash is right, I bet theres stuff piled in there. Id take the kick panel off to check it out. While disassembling mine, I found the lower cowl behind those panels holding almost a foot of pretty densely-packed leaves...Im assuming no air had flowed through there in some time.

Being an AC car, would I still have the same problem with leaves accumulating? This is one part of the car Ive never had completely apart. So Im not sure exactly of the construction. Anybody got pics? Will the kickpanel come out pretty easy with the four visible screws removed, or is there other things required for removal?

The drivers side panel will most definitely NOT come out easy. It was probably the most frustrating thing I have ever done on the bird, and I've done it ALL!! The right side (PAX side) pops right out. Go figure.

AC does not affect these particular panels, nor does it make the job any easier. Yes, the leaves and other debris would pile up just as non-AC cars do. Good news is, once you clear it out it'll be good for many years.

Bad news is you might find LIVING things amongst the leaves, twigs and advertisement flyers (stuck to the windshield back in the 70's and blown or rained down into the vent). I mean there could be very large spiders, mutant spore growths, 64-legged worms that thought they had been long forgotten, tick-like carnivores that haven't seen the light of day since 1968....etc.

Ain't this project exciting!!??

I second that and would like to add that you need to remove your emergency/parking brake assembly to get the panel off. The panel isn't just a flat piece. It has an oval neck that sticks out a few inches that you have to contend with.

And be very careful not to crack the extension that covers the seams next to the dash. It's easy to do. I replaced mine, and it was the most frustrating nightmare, I have had with the car.

I think when they were building these cars they put the kick panels in first, then everything elso followed.

Jim! You've done this before--huh? Without removing the ebrake assembly, it might be next to impossible. Maybe not, but there is a good chance you'll break it.

Without the ebrake as an obstical, the kick panel is an easy out and in, if rolling around down in the area to remove the screws is classified as an easy repair.

With the ebrake and sill plate out of the way: Take 2 butterknives, and bend a 90' about 1" to 1.5" back from the tip. (The wider the butterknife, the better.) At the top, insert the first butterknife between the kickpanel and the are where it covers the dogleg. Slide it down and pull out gently.

While holding gentel pressure with the first butterknife, insert the second butterknife in from the top and gently pry the kickpanel off of the dogleg. Keep working down, using the first knife as the first part of the pry and the second kife as the final part of the pry.

After you get the lip pried off, you will have to gentely pry the kickpanel from the bed of dum-dum that seals it to the body. It might take a little more than gentle, but don't get too agressive.

When you reinstall it, you want to freshen up the sealed area with more dum-dum (amatures call it strip caulk). And cover the screw holes. Install the cover in the hole and reverse the process with the butteknives--hooking the kickpanel lip over the dogleg, but you can probabally do it with one knife rather than the 2 to remove it.

Once you get it in place, use a small probe that will go through the holes in the metal. With the probe, fish around through the hole in the kickpanel until you locate the hole in the body, then start the screw. Just start the screw, and continue to fish out the rest of the holes before tigtening them.

Watertest with a big blast of water--a hose on full blast without a nozzel on it--after you finish. It should be able to take whatever water you can dump in there with a hose without leaking. If it leaks under this extreeme setting, you can rest assured it will leak in normal rain. Well, you can rest assured that it will leak if you are charging someone for the repair.

the nightmare was on the right side, on and A/C car.

This is some good repair info. I will do another water test in the next day or so. To see how I did. Thanks everyone.

If you ever pull that panel off, you may find Jimmy Hoffa. Well, maybe not, but wear nitryl gloves and a dust mask because there may be rodent stuff in there and it can be bad for your health. It's doubtful there's enough to cause this to overflow with water but debris will rot out the tulip panel by holding moisture inside. Overflow would be lower down on the panel....

Getting this kick panel loose is an unpleasant job and it's not coming out without dropping the e-brake assembly. No way, I tried for like an hour. And dropping the e-brake is easy if the cable's disconnected but not so quick on an assembled car. I had the dash pad off already too and that made it go faster. I don't recall if that would be needed.

Water drains from the cowl down past the sheet metal panel that he kick panel is bolted to. I've attached a photo where the kick panel attaches. The plastic kick panel has a snorkle that protrudes past this eliptical hole. It is sealed with dum-dum against the sheet metal panel. If the dum-dum fails, you can get water inside. If you have a significant amount of water inside, this is a likely suspect.

If you only have water at that mounting screw, try as someone earlier remarked and replace the screw with some sealant on it. Use an auto sealant not bathtub caulk or silicon RTV. Those products contain acetic acid which accelerates rusting.

If it's coming out of the hole because the dum dum failed, you'll have to take this apart to reseal it. Electrical supplies and some home stores have this sealer. It's used to seal where pipes or wiring enters through walls. Good luck with this jobs. I think the car dealers used to prefer mechanical trouble to leaks. Leaks can be a bear to fix.


Here's the metal panel just the other side of the kick panel



Here's a view of the Snorkle Jim and Amervo described. It accepts fresh air from beyond where water passes by. You can see the dum-dum remaining on the part. They used plenty of it and it dries out. Be careful with the kick panel, especially the snorkel. The rim is larger than the hole it passes through and it's going to be brittle after all these years. If you crack it, it will leak forever. You can see by the length of the snorkle and then look at the clearance from the e-brake to the panel that as Amervo says, dropping the kickpanel with the e-brake in place is unlikely to go smoothly...

I put the screw back in, coating the threads with the 3M Window Weld Urethane sealant I bought to reseal around the front and rear glass which I first suspected.

I had also had a leak on the back glass. Again, at first I thought it was just a poor job by the glass shop on the installation. Turns out that last year while doing body work when I tried to repair some pin holes (with torch and brass rod) in the lower right corner of the channel that I inadvertently melted out the body joint sealant right where the quarter panel and the metal panel behind the rear glass meet. I spent the last two days feeding drops of silver POR through the passage until I was sure it was solidly filled.

Today I performed two water tests and am glad to report I see no water leaks!!

BTW, my own idea on preserving the lower corners of the rear glass channel is to completely fill the corners with the urethane window sealant. If you ever have the window trim off I would recommend thinking about doing this before its too late and your corners are rusted through.

Ken, I would still check behind the kick panels cuz theres evidently some stuff in there and its gonna cause rust. Maybe not even take it out...just see if theres a way to peek inside through the vent with a flashlight or something. Or you could take off the passenger side and check it, thatll give you an idea of whats behind the drivers side. If its never been cleaned out, its probably got stuff in it. May save ya a lotta work down the road.

Plus, you can't really claim to be an FGF restorer until you've dealt with the frustration of getting that drivers side panel off!! Its kind of like a rite of passage event.

PS - Ensure the wife and kids are not within earshot while you remove said panel.