Replacing a rusty cowl panel

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downwardspiral

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Location
LI, NY
My Car
1973 Mach 1
2011 Mustang GT- Vortech v3 kit, custom tune and intake. MT ET Street slicks. Goes good
04 Mountaineer - daily
Hey, I recently replaced a section of my cowl panel and it seems like alot of guys need to do the same. Here is what I did:

look familiar?

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The fenders and windshield need to come out

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There are about 100,000,000 spot welds that need to be drilled. I bought some spot weld cutters, but they didn't really help.

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I used a wire brush on a drill to remove the rust/ seam sealer over the rest of the spot welds.

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Spot welds drilled, notice the orange seam sealer on the perimeter of the lower panel. This prevented the spot weld drills from working as the panels were bound together and did not "pop" when the drill went through the top layer.

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Filled all the holes from drilling the spot welds. I bought some sheet metal, cut it into small squares and stuck the squares behind the holes. I then welded the holes shut and grinded off the excess.

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I cut out the rotted section and brought it to a local HVAC sheet metal shop. They made me up a nice 3 piece assembly that made life much easier.

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The fabricated section needed a little hammering and trimming but worked out beautifully

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This is my first time welding sheet metal, not pretty but functional.

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The panel was then treated to a ton of seam sealer and several coats of por-15

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I patched a couple spots on the top panel

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ready to be welded on

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welded on, seam sealed and sanded. I hit the part where the windshield rests with a belt sander to make sure a new windshield will sit flat against it. It did get a little bent when the panels needed to be pryed apart after drilling spot welds and may have warped a little bit in welding. I had to do a little bit of straigtening to it.

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Support brackets welded on, I added a few extra welds around the perimeter for good measure.

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...and more paint

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Last edited by a moderator:
I've never had the opportunity (necessity) to do any fabrication work, although a friend showed me the basics of welding a few years back. That looks like a heck of project done very well. I'll take with me a lesson in patience and willingness to do it right the first time. Thanks for sharing it.

Doc

 
::goodjob:: My cowl is in good shape, but I need to find the apron extension panels on the left and right that go under the fenders. They suffered a little rot.

 
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