[ihc] 73 Travelall 1010 cowl cleanout tribulation

[DeepSouthScouts@xxxxxx]

Digesters,
Saturday was THE day for cowl cleanout on my 
73 Travelall. 
I have owned the truck for a month or 2,
and every time I walked by it the twigs, leaves
and assorted detrius in the cowl irritated me.

I gathered info from several sources, and all told me
pulling the front fenders would not grant me access
to the cowl area ala the Scout II.

I then received my service manual, and the exploded
cab view confirmed the fact. There is NO WAY to access
the cowl area to clean it out.

Can you say "design flaw?"

Honestly, (rant mode on), I dont see why this area was
designed in this fashion. The dust will fall/wash through
the drains, but it only takes a couple of leaves to block
the drain, and then it starts filling up. This will need 
cleaning out every year, at least, because there is no way
to place a screen under the cowl grille to prevent it
since there is no way to access that area. (rant off)

I pulled the emer brake assembly, kick panel carpet, and
vent assembly (driver side), and was greeted by a full 
area behind the vent. Vacuumed all the dry out, scraped
out the wet, unplugged the drain, surprisingly, no rust through.
Lots of roaches and spiders under the carpet though. Surface
rust on the floor pan which means the carpet comes out for
a floor pan treatment party later. 

To reach the stuff on the top area under cowl grille, I had
to attach a small 1.5 inch shop vac hose to my big 3 inch 
shop vac hose with duct tape, then push the hose up 
into the cowl area while my wife guided it from above with a 
piece of coat hanger. This worked well for sucking up
all the stuff laying up there, and we got it all cleaned out.

The passenger side was the same, with the exception
of the metal shield in the cowl covering the air intake for the 
heat/ac fan. It blocked some access to the cowl grille
area with the coat hanger and vac hose.

I thought I would post this long passage to help anyone
else looking at this task.

Mike Toney
Mobile, AL.
72 Scout II, 4x4, 304, T18, 3:31
73 1010 Travelall, 2wd, 345, 727, 3:54
http://www.myinternationaltrucks.iwarp.com/