84 Town Car firewall water leak fix - same as 90 up gen HVAC drain flap?

[Hillbillycat]

Found a writeup for fixing water leaks from the firewall on a 92 Crown Victoria. The HVAC drain flap needs to be resealed with putty thrugh the wheel well with pulled apron.
Does this also work on our boxes?

My passenger side carpet and, more severe, the factory sound proofing underneath is soaking wet. Had to pull the rubber grommets in the pan and wring out the padding to let it drain. Water leaks in from the right hand corner firewall. I had suspected the broken caulk on the large hood hinge bolt, but found the HVAC drain flap writeup and thought that this sounds more like it.

Carpet and padding was bone dry when I bought it in May. Car sits out all the time and we have lots of rain this year. So it clearly accumulated.

[gadget73]

Not usually a problem on boxes, but there is a drain down at the bottom of the air intake that gets plugged up with trash. Might want to verify it is clear.

[Hillbillycat]

Thanks, that was the drain the aero writeup was all about.
I checked last night and it is leaking from there. Cleaned all dirt and mud from out of there. Still leaking.
Iīll seal around with plumbers putty today like the writeup suggests. Lucky me I have small hands and wrists - I can shove my hand down the gap between the blower housing and fender. So I wonīt have to take off the wheel and apron.
For quick drying of the wet stuff I folded back the carpet to the front seats and cut the floor padding apart to lay the soaked parts out in the sun for drying. I didnīt had the effort to remove the whole carpet, so I chose this route. Nobody would know that the padding is more pieces after install then me. And I can live with that. While Iīm in there Iīll add some Dynomat to the floor and tranny hump.

[kishy]

The write-up you found specifically addresses the 90-up firewall design, which is different from the boxes pre-90 (although the box body continued in 90 and 91, the firewall is that of the aero body underneath).

The same type of leaks can exist in any car, so it won't be "the same" (e.g. photographically identical) but that's still an area susceptible to water entry.

[Lutrova]

A little off topic, but what padding did you find under the carpet. Is it just a layer of jute? Or did they put some sort of rubber or vinyl later between like on the cover between the rear seat and trunk?

[Hillbillycat]

Putty around the drain did the trick. Itīs sealed.

There is some 1/2" cloth/jute piece glued onto the carpet back in the footwell area. Then thereīs a layer of rubber backed jute/cloth padding on the floor. Plus a piece of plastic bag packed asbesto fiber mat on each firewall and tranny hump side.