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Early-Mustang Cowl Repair
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Category: Restoration Section
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Published on Friday, 29 March 2013 13:03
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Written by Klaus
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Page 7 of 7
After finishing the driver's side, I turned my attention to the passenger's side. Luckily for me, the old metal hadn't been eaten away around the hat; only the hat itself was rusted out. So all I needed to do was create a new hat. How did I do that, you ask?
What I did was this: I measured my old hat, which was still sitting in the cowl area when I pulled the cover, from top to bottom. I cut myself a long strip of sheet metal the same width, adding about 1/2" an inch or so to make up for rotted metal. Then I took the long strip and 'rolled' it into the shape of a hat. I took the rolled, but unwelded strip, and stuck it in the hole in the cowl, so I could make sure that I had the right width. Once I was satisfied with the width, I put a spot weld on the new hat so I could mark it, then pulled it out of the hole and welded down the edge so I created one whole piece of metal, a new hat. Then I popped it back into the hole and welded it into place.
Once that was done, the rest of it was simple. I used a very thin layer of metal filler to smooth off the areas that I had been working, sanded it down, and primed everything. Then I added a epoxy topcoat; for the cowl hat itself I used a gloss black, as it seems to be the slickest for moving water. While the cowl cover is off is a good time to paint the underneath of the cowl so it matches whatever color your car is.
Finally, I put a layer of undercoating overtop of all of my work, and further secured all the edges with seam sealer, especially around the hat area. In addition to give to work the final perfect touch I decided to paint evrything inside with the nice capian blue topcoat. If this would have been done in 64, we would find leaking cowls like that...
The true test was when I sat there pouring a bunch of water down the area, and letting a bunch of water sit in the area overnite. No leaks!
