cover air vent grills on hood?

[rememberjeff]

I believe I have leaks coming from rust under the two air grills between the hood and windshield. Will I be doing any harm by covering the grills with small magnetic shields to prevent water getting in there when it rains.
My cabin floors get pretty wet.The car is far from airtight so Im not concerned about Co2.
thanks

[carcentric]

1) My memory is that those grills are aluminum, so the magnetic material wouldn't stick (maybe you could put them UNDER the grills, on the cowl itself).

2) I left my magnetic door numbers for autocrossing on over the winter one year. They were wet after driving home from the last event, and the result was rust stains on the doors when the magnetic material was removed in the spring.

[rememberjeff]

after reading this, I took it to the shop to fix the rusted out spots!

[GermanMarque]

Would not hurt to first check that the rubber drain tubes that exit either side of your gearbox are not blocked with rubbish/leaf litter. Run a hose in the vents and see if it drains out the tubes. If they are blocked and you don't check, the plennum chamber will eventually rust out. If it is in fact rust you would be wise to have it repaired before it compromises the structural integrity of the vehicle. A quick fix is to fibreglass the rusted out area, it's a gerry rig fix but at least you'll stop the water soaking your mats and rusting out the floor pan! There is also a latex based aerosol spray plumbers use to fix leaks, forms a thick ugly skin, you could line the chamber with plastic and then spray till your hearts content. You could then rely on the old saying of what you can't see can't hurt you. Depends how far you want to go, personally if it were mine, I'd know the problem was there and unless fixed properly would annoy the hell out of me. Good luck.