Cowl vent question.

Putting things back together on my cowl and I noticed a missing panel. Or atleast I think its missing. There aren't any plastic nut inserts in the openings, but I don't remember it being wide open.

Mostly I'm worried about it collecting leaves etc. I cleaned up the other vent panels and added some aluminum screen to help keep garbage out. But it's bothering me that I don't have a cover for the extra opening nor do I remember taking anything out of it.

Anyone remember what goes there? Is it a snap in plastic cover?

i think that's suppose to be open like that. I think mine is. You can take the passenger side vent and put another in that hole as it it fits it.

Mazda left one open for some reason. Not a big problem, but some choose to get another one and cover the hole.

One of the unexplained mysteries of "our" trucks, they all had them missing, even though it is exactly the same part as the other vent cover.

I picked one up at the parts yard for mine, maybe it jumped into my tool box. But not like I need to worry about leaves getting into mine, in my part of Arizona...

Another unexplained mystery is who at Mazda, apparently a $100 million re-design for the 1986 year for the USA market, decided that an 85 hp engine would be plenty. Just think if these had been available since 1986 with real, fuel-injected 120hp engines, likely would've doubled or tripled their sales. And we - decades later - would have easier time finding decent trucks to buy !!!

Gotcha, well looks like a trip to the auto parts store for some HELP plastic screw tabs

Luckily I have a spare vent cover. More scraping, painting, wrapping and painting. Maybe this truck will be finished before I move... *facepalm*.

Yours looks really nice. What did you paint it with? Flat black? Undercoating? Rustproofing paint? I've always thought that everything under the cowl panel should have been black...so it's truly a black hole when you look down through the cowl vent. I'm planning to clean up some rust soon and then paint the whole area with something heavy duty like POR 15 or some other type of rust-proofing coating.

Also, others have used a bead of adhesive caulk or RTV and outlined the perimeter of those covers and then pressed some nylon screen down into it. After it dries, you can trim away the excess screen and that will keep the leaves and other debris from falling through those vents.

I like that look too!!! Black hole is a great description.

I used rattle can rustoleum bed liner. Check my welcome thread. Removed everything forward of the windshield. Gutted all the body seam sealer, scuffed and cleaned all surfaces. Rustoleum self etch primer then sprayed the bed liner.

I just used 1/4x1/4 rubber gasket from home depot to seal it. Painted them after cleaning them up in flat black. Wrapped aluminum screen around them and pinched over all the edges, then flat blacked them too. All new stainless hardware. That way I can remove them in the future.

Ahhhh... nice work. I can see that now when I zoom in. Looks even better than I first thought since you have modified them and I couldn't even tell (at least at that picture size.) Glad you pointed that out as that's the way I'll be doing mine now!

Looks great