Early-Mustang Cowl Repair - Cowl Repairs
- Details
- Category: Restoration Section
- Published on Friday, 29 March 2013 13:03
- Written by Klaus
- Hits: 40943
After making the tomato can cut with a cold chisel and a sledge (you can use a cutoff tool if you want). I was able to get a better look inside at what I was dealing with. It was not a pretty picture. Rust had eaten away all around the 'hat' that was supposed to keep rainwater out, as well as chewed holes thru the metal around the hat area. I had hoped to be able to do the Mustang Monthly repair, but the amount of rust looked too great to repair thru that small hole in the side of the cowl. So, the cover had to come off. Of course, to get the cover off, the windshield has to come out first. This is accomplished by removing all the chrome molding, then cutting thru the windshield gasket with a utility knife. I cut away the outside of the gasket, so I could push on the windshield from the inside & so it wouldn't fall thru the opening while I was messing with it. The picture below shows my car with the windshield out.
Once the windshield was out, I could get to work taking the cowl cover off. There's 2 fender apron to cowl area extension pieces of metal that have to come off before you can access the welds under there. These things are a pain to get off without destroying them, so you might want to purchase new ones after they're off. Finally, I was able to get to work removing the cowl cover. There are a whole lot of spot welds that have to come out to get the cover off. The picture below shows a bunch of the hood side spotwelds already drilled out.
How I dealt with the spot welds was like this: I got 2 seperate drill bits: 1 sharp 3/8 drill bit, and a 1/2 drill bit that I ground until it was almost flat, just barely had an arch on it. The idea here is to use the 3/8 to get a good hole started, then use the 1/2 to eat up the top layer of metal so you don't go all the way thru the bottom layer of metal. You could also buy a spot weld cutter, but they're kind of pricey and dull quickly. This way works just as well, maybe taking slightly longer. I went around and did all the 3/8 drilling first, then came back with the other bit. After drilling everything, there were still a couple that I had to seperate a bit with a chisel and/or my Ryobi rotary tool. Below is a good picture of a bunch of the windshield area spotwelds already drilled out and separated.
