Club 80-90 Forums

To resurrect this thread and probably prompt much finger pointing / hilarity at my naivety...

I have (like everyone else) water coming through the air vents whenever it rains. Over nearly 40 years and some muppet blocking the drain holes its rotting the trays in the engine bay. I've added magnetic strips to the side of the vents and this has stopped some flow from the guttering but still when the rain is torrential its still getting in. I've also treated the trays so its all stable.

If I was to use very fine stainless steel mesh (think tobacco pipe mesh) to cover the back of rear vents can anyone think of a reason this would cause any problems? I can't imaging it affecting airflow too much?

I use magnetic sheet, 1mm thickness so it moulds to the contours. Used them for years, mainly when parked during the winter or on site but they stay in place when I have forgoten to remove them and zipping along at 60 mph, made no difference to my engine temps during the winter. I agree with others that the vents are mainly to allow hot air circulating around the engine to escape when stationary and I dont use them as much in the summer anyway.

The box sections (that fill with water) have also been treated with Dynax S50.




ventcovers by Angelo Evans, on Flickr

That's a really good idea. I never knew about magnetic sheet so that'll be an ebay order shortly.

Regarding the engine I think it'll be ok with the mesh but I know that sometimes you can get weird affects with heat air etc so was wondering if it was a daft idea. I'll give it a whirl and see what happens.

I bought mine from EBAY seller themagnetshop 0.85mm motorway grade (stronger magnetic adehsion) cost about £6.00 to do both sides..

Cheers. On order

I bought the same but they don't stick. Too much paint on my van.

captain Byrne wrote:I bought the same but they don't stick. Too much filler on my van.

Fixed that for you as there was an error in the 2nd sentence.

Oldiebut goodie wrote:

captain Byrne wrote:I bought the same but they don't stick. Too much filler on my van.

Fixed that for you as there was an error in the 2nd sentence.