I was reading an article from Hot Rod Magazine called the 'Crate Motor Shootout' and noticed that the 69 Chevelle mule they were using had the air vents below the windshield sealed off. Did some of the models not have the outside air feature, or did they seal it off themselves. Water goes into this intake area on my chevelle and falls down behind my cowl panel and sits there working away at the metal... Any suggestions on how to seal this off to prevent the rusting? Much appreciated!
http://www.gmperformanceparts.com/_res/pdf/MagazineArticles/49917_eprint.pdf

Looks like somebody patched the cowl holes with aluminum or something. Looks cool for drag racing. If you did this, you would get water draining down the firewall instead of going down the cowl to the rockers where the drain holes are located. They shouldn't rust unless you have leaves or mouse nests, look inside the kick panel vent grilles, use a vacuum to clean out.

John is right. Water running in the cowl area won't cause rust itself. The accumlated debree such as dirt and leaves are the problem. Water will wash in and out and dry up. However if there is dirt, the dirt becomes wet and doesn't dry before it rains again or you wash the car again. That constantly wet dirt is why they rust in this area. Vacuum or hose out the area on a regular basis after the rust is fixed.
Paul

Pull those front kick panels, it's a bit of a pain, but you won't believe the crap that that area can hold!!
Chevrolet called them 'flush and dry' but they didn't put any type of useful screen to keep leaves, seeds, needles, etc out of there and the result is 'clog and rust'
Clean 'em out, you'll be glad you did. Then run lots of water thru the area and the put a hair dryer pointed down there for a few hours.

Dan