Cowl Repairs...


All Mustangs rusted in the corners of the cowls.  Ford made provisions for a drain for each outer corner to drain water that collected through the grill just ahead of the windshield when it rained but these drains became clogged with leaves and debris and therfore held the water instead of allowing it to drain overboard.  Repairs in this area will be the topic of this section.

This is what we start with.
 

This is the passenger side.  Water was supposed to drain out the hole at the bottom of the picture.

This is the drivers side.  You can see the heavy rust damage along the front edge.
 As I've said before the rust is always worse that it looks.
 

The first order of business is to remove the windshield.

Next, START DRILLING!  There's a hell of a lot of spot welds holding the cowl on.

After a lot of drilling off comes the cowl....

... and this is what you get.
 

Rolling the cowl over shows the surface rust underneath.  Ford leaves this area bare metal when it leaves the factory.  First time anybody has seen this since 1966.


This is the driver's side.  With the cowl removed you can see holes in the round hat that was supposed to act as a dam and keep water off your feet.  Note the sand sitting in this area from previous sandblasting of the floor area.  Sand goes everywhere when you're blasting.


This is the passenger side which is in better shape but still rusty.
 

After sandblasting it already looks better.  I didn't sandblast into the outer corners since they are getting replaced anyway.
 

A closeup of the drivers side.

A closeup of the passenger side.  The cowl vent dam is removed in this photo.
 

A coat of epoxy primer.  Next, repairs to the cowl vents.

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