Hi, my 69 cutlass seems to have a wet floor underneath the driver side carpet yet underneath the car in the same area seems ok. I don't suppose anyone knows what the problem could be. ThankyouThankyou

 

Was it out in the rain recently? If so this could be the symptom of a water leak somewhere around the windshield? That happened to my 98 a number of years ago, but it was the rear glass. Get that jute dried out as soon as you can or it will start to mold on you and smell really bad. If it's not leaking from the windshield, check the door/window seals on the DS.

 

Yeah it's been in the rain (covered) I live in London it does nothing but rain. Now u mention door seals it could be that cus the windows don't close all the way up there's just a little gap. When I lift the bonnet or hood, near the dash board area, or at the base of the wiper blades there seems to be a couple of what looks like vents missing,I don't suppose u could tell me what there called from my extremely poor description what there called so I could order some.cheers.

 

Check the cowl for rust.

 

Sorry, what's a cowl? That's a well known famous lamb stew where I'm from,

 

Are you trying to describe cowl plugs? Are the holes round and about 3/4" in diameter?

Ok, the cowl is the metal piece that runs full length of the firewall. Looks like this:


Cowl plugs look like this, your car only needs 2 of them:

 

That's the cowl. Rain's supposed to run through there and drain out about the door pillar. When it cakes up with leaves, it rusts out and your floors get wet under the carpets. Then your firewall and floor rust through and you spend the next month fabricating replacement pieces and trying to weld them in without having to pull the dash and engine ... but it doesn't work.

 

No, u see the what looks like black vents that look meshed off just at the base of the bonnet of ur picture. Looks like them but under neath the bonnet. Thanks for the picture. I haven't got the car with me to take a picture sorry

 

Oh rite, could be the reason the floors wet,thankyou

 

I need to look at this area on my car too...

 

That pic is with the hood (bonnet) up so the cowl is visible. When the 'bonnet' is closed you can't see the cowl or the cowl screens. There are 3 areas in the cowl for moisture dispersion as Professur indicated.
This picture shows it better without the screens in place:


The other area that's well known for leaks is from behind the cowl stainless trim and front windscreen trim. If the windscreen hasn't been properly affixed with butyl adhesive water can get in and will find a way to the floor in short order.

 

It is unfortunately very common for these cars to have what is known as pinchweld rust at the base and sides of the windshield. You need to remove the stainless trim around the glass and you'll be able to better inspect. The trim traps leaves and other debris, which in turn retains water and causes rust. The design of the trim clips compounds this problem as they are pretty much guaranteed to scratch the paint on installation. It's also common for owners to slather on silicone sealant in an attempt to fix this, which really only makes it worse. Without removing the rust and welding in new metal, anything applied on top of it is at best a temporary fix and at worst adds to the problem by retaining more moisture. The acetic acid in the silicone also accelerates the rust.