I’ve been trying to clean things up under the hood of my ‘55 Super 88. The engine side of the firewall was pretty nasty. A good cleaning and new color matched paint is making it look lots better. The fresh air box located on the driver’s side of the firewall had been painted too many times. The surface was, for lack of a better word, chunky. I removed it, sanded it down to bare metal, primed and painted. Looks great now. I noticed an inch and a half metal protuberance sticking out of the bottom of the box. Nothing was attached to it. That pretty much explains why the fresh air vents don’t work.
My question is where does the fresh air end of the tubing that is missing attach. I assume there is an air scoop located somewhere near the front of the car. The maintenance manual does not mention this part but it does clearly indicate a hose connected to the box. Page 15-5, Fig. 15-9.
Any help will be appreciated so I can get some air in this summer heat without using the 4-70 method of cooling the interior.

 

I’ve been reading some more about that outlet on the fresh air box. I’ve discovered it may simply be a condensation drain. But if that’s the case, how does fresh, outside air get into the car? The box seals tightly to the firewall so no air can get in the way. I’m confused. I saw a diagram for a ‘53 that showed big hose going to air scoops on the front of the car but I can’t find one of those for a ‘55.

 

can you post photo of the area from your firewall?
do you have service and parts manual for your car?

Bob

 

Your '55 gets fresh outside air at the base of the windshield where the windshield wiper transmissions are located. Fusick sells the drain tubes for these units. The long one is meant to go on the passenger side to direct water away from the exhaust manifold. The shorter one is meant to go on the driver side.

When you had that thing off to paint it (I don't know the technical term for it - I'll call it a chamber) you should have seen a valve in the firewall that can be opened to allow air into the interior. It would connected to the cable and "vent" **** on the left of the steering column.

 

I do have the service manual but not the parts book. I got my nose out of the service manual and into the booklet that came with the car that tells how to work the heater controls, roll the windows up and down, etc. It says that fresh air enters the cabin through the grill just in front of the windshield. So there are no air scoops as on earlier models. So as long as the grill is not blocked air should flow in.