When I had my cowl off, I remembered that my yota has a screening material behind the cowl openings to prevent leaves, twigs, and bugs inside the truck. They actually thought about something.... go figure.

With the cowl off, I had this crazy idea to create a framework, with screen attached, then weld it to the underside of the cowl. Much more difficult than I imagined. Turns out you can't weld the wire screening I had, so... It turned out to be pretty much a waste of $25 and a couple hours trying to get it together.... Oh, well. Here you can see the wire frame and first section of screening I made up. THe screening just burns to dust trying to weld it, as its way too thin.




In my reinstalling the cowl, I thought, why not just shove that screening up in there and see what happens. It fits, and I guess it does the job for the most part. It's not going to stop things from falling down in there, as it sits way too low, but it will prevent the majority of debris from being sucked into the air intake system....

Better luck next time, I guess.. Anyone here do something similar ???

 

I like the idea. Why not just put the screen in place and weld the frame as you planed? If you tack the frame in place in a few spots around the edges, I don't see how the screen can go anywhere.

 

I think you're on to something. I just wanted to comment that I've replaced several evaporators on Grand Cherokees (ZJ model). With the new evap came an upgraded cowl screen like what you're designing only plastic, to keep debris from entering the air intake and rotting the evaporator. The same evaporator fit the BR (2nd gen) trucks, but the included screen wouldn't fit, so it usually got thrown out. Anyway, if someone could make some sort of screen fit these applications, I'm sure it would do some good. If someone could design a good pollen filter like many modern vehicles now have, it would be even better. Hopefully you can make it work somehow.

 

I thought about that, but if something pushes on the screen from the exterior (once the cowl is back in place on the truck) then the screen will drop down in the sections where the frame doesn't have a cross (front to back) bar.

I thought it would be too easy to push it down.... especially with ice forming on there in the winter.

 

If I found a "thicker gauge screening" it would work. The thin gauge stuff evaporates once the welder touches it.

 

I have given this quite a bit of thought in the past. Just haven't come to spending the time to design anything. I knew I would use some sort of screening material.

Looks good and should work just fine the way you have it set in.

 

plastic wire ties

 

Or hogwire...........

 

or brazing
or soft solder
or epoxy
or screws and washers

 

JB weld, the stick weld is good stuff...

Looks good though.

I was also looking at a cabin air filter while the box was out to replace the heater core, there isnt much room down there is there.

 

.... or this...
http://ramchargercentral.com/article...ew;article=177