It's the cab itself, not the little panel that the wipers poke through. The cowl is top corner of the firewall.

If you have squeeks behind your dash, I'd lay money that your cowl is cracked. They pretty much all are by now.

 

here it is
http://dodgeram.info/tsb/1994/23-63-94.htm

 

That's doohickey. I'll weld mine properly if and when the time comes.

 

so those patches are no longer available?

 

My buddy is a dealership parts guy. He looked last week and neither side is available anymore. He could not get me either one.

 

Does anyone on here have any original panels? Been thinking about trying to reproduce these panels since Dodge has dropped the ball.

 

I have the cracks too. I haven't pulled anything apart to look but I can hear the creaking when the truck is coming off of unlevel ground. I can also see the crack by opening the door and looking through the gap between the door and the fender. I'm more concerned about my rotted rain gutter above my windshield. Still hoping to find a good body with a bad engine.

 

I got under there today and looked up, and sure enough, I can see light in places where there shouldn't be any. When I poked around in between the fender and the door, I found an ancient and rotted shop rag that was no doubt someone's previous attempt at repair...

those guys at dodge just weren't plannning on needing the trucks to last this long i guess. So many flimsy lame things like this concerning the body.. Like my lower door hinge...

 

Wood Rat

The slant six valiant is a great car!!!!

One of the best mopar engines.

trd

 

yeah, I was always really fond of Valiants and used to have a 60 that was a great car. This one practically fell in my lap a few years ago, but I haven't been driving it, because it needs window seals all around. It gets wet in there.

I should probably find it a new home since I am pretty maxed out on fleet maintenance and haven't really done this one justice. but I like it and so far haven't wanted to let it go...

It is one of the best engines ever made, IMHO.

 

I agree with that. I had a 68 dodge dart sports special with the 225 slant six B model known as the super six. Awesome engine... I should have never gotten rid of that car. the super six was rated at 145 HP and the 318 V-8 that year was only rated at 150 HP

 

I bought one of the last cowl crack patch panels available thru Chryslers part finder network last spring. It was one of several mis-labled panels that a dealship on the east coast found in their inventory. Anyway, I bought it thinking the same thing, I would reproduce them if Chrysler was going to be a PITA again. It is beyond the backyard or basement re-engineering operation. It is stamped from heavy gauge steel and has a compound twisting bend in it. The best DIY fix I have seen on this was from TDR member AKimmel. He used two pieces welded together and welded the whole thing up. Like I said, I talked directly to a retired engineer from Chrysler about this and he advised me to stop making it too difficult and just weld them up.

 

I found a small crack the other day on the drivers side. Don't know if there's a bigger one until I pull the fender tho. I agree with Woodrat when he says about his lower door hinge! Someone mentioned to me that "it's amazing how wide your door opens"..... nah, turns out its just cracked around the hinge on the door side and opening further than it should!! Sigh, more welding! At least I'll have no excuse not to change the hinge pins anymore! Gotta love these old Square Cabs!!

 

http://wiki.dieseltruckresource.com/wiki/Cowl_Fix

From the looks of it I don't see why you could not use air craft aluminum just like they patch up planes, it's strong as hell and is light. P/N - 08456 3M Panel Adhesive Compound 30 should be available. They are using rivets not welding so if you don't have one available...????

As to seeing it, open your doors and look through the space, if its there you'll see it.

Arrrrrrr....old thread.

 

take a look in the sticky at the cowl patches that dnr customs made up. i formed mine based off of his idea. i wanted to use a medium gauge metal like 18g but the body shop only had 20g so i used that and a little mig 135 with 75/25 gas. worked good! no one is going to see your patches so who cares if its not perfect...good luck with it!