Occasionally on the Forums you'll hear someone asking about having rainwater come through the upper portions of the footwells... Different opinions are given, and normally it's asked if the duckbills are cleaned out, if there is any debris in the trough below the windscreen grille, etc...
Here's a view you don't get to see everyday.. It's the windscreen surround cut out, showing the locations of the duck bills from the inside of the trough... Water wouldn't have to get to a high level to come in the defrost vents...
The trough is open from one side of the car to the other. There aren't any baffles or metal to keep the water from entering the area where the defrost vents are.
All of this is single layer metal, so any corrosion in there would also cause a leak... Plus there is one section that is joined together around the level of the positive terminal posts. That is normally welded, caulked and painted. I noticed a lot of rust in that area, too...
This was an extra clean, extra solid 84 with very little rust anywhere...

Cheers
David
shop.EverydayXJ.com

 

The most important thing is to just squeeze the duck bills occasionally to make sure there isn't any water pooled up in the trough.. If you are brave enough to remove the grille under the windscreen you can visually check for leaves (or whatever)..
In an area with a lot of salt water there may be a need for some sort of sealant on that whole metal panel inside to keep it all from rusting.
The seam I have shown is under the hard insulation board so you'd never see if that area was rusting...

 

You Sir are a very brave man.
Removing the lower window frame, knowing that is not available new anymore....

 

Gee, I am braver than I thought!!!! Or merely naïve????


That screen at the foot of the front glass is an extrusion in a bilious yellow
plastic. Chrome plated.


My chrome was peeling. The look was enough to upset a stomach.


So, after having read Dr. Andrachuk's method of removal, I waded in. Not all that bad. Removing the spray nozzle went well. The screen is secured by tow pins, apart of the extrusion, into a mastic in the body.


Oddity, mine only had one. Not broken, merely never there from day one.


I scraped away as much of the peeling chrome as I could. Ugh, that yellow!!! I resprayed it with what I thought was a chrome like paint.
No, more like cast alloy, unpolished. Not bad! A whole lot better than it was.


I created another pin to make the screen have two as intended. Easy. drilled a very small hole. Screwed in a very small screw. Lopped off the head, better than from day one.


It went together just fine. Were I to do it again, not likely, I'd use a flat black to match the wipers. To further reduce reflection in to the interior.


David. Thanks. the necropsies sure help understand the innards. A very complex array of small and large pieces of metal joined to make a very sturdy monoquq chassis.


Carl

 

I was referring to the entire waterbox top being sawed off in the picture.
That particular piece of bodywork has become "unobtaineum".....

 

Uncanny Carl! That's what I did some time ago, exactly as you described it, word for word. Even down to the one missing pin which I thought had been sheared off, but maybe it was never there? I agree the screw was an easy substitute, secured with a tiny spot of 2 pack epoxy. As for the "Chrome" paint, I've never yet come across any that actually looks like chrome! The nice shiny lid on the shaker can isn't painted with the contents, that's for sure!