Gun Jam

Hello

Rain and general water is leaking into the car from the fender to front window seam.

On the 66 mustangs at the lower corners of the front window the fenders have a radius folded into them so they match up with the radius of the front window. This turn is often covered at least partly by the window trim.

In my case when water gets into that gap between the fender and the window it quickly runs into the car. I think the only way to properly fix it is to remove the fender and weld the rust holes shut.

What is all involved in removing those fenders so I can get access to the problem child? It looks pretty simple there are some bolts under the hood and on the bumper...where are the others?

Any thing to watch out for like shims/spacers?

thanks

Gun

jlp66stang

I think you will have to remove the the bolts at the front valance. The boltsbehind the headlight buckets, probably the splash guard, if you have one to get to those bolts, rock guard screws, bolt bottom of fender at rocker panel, bolt inside door above top hinge and it might have a bolt behind your kick panel , depending on who put the fender on. Basically, you will have to cut the front of the car loose. If you have the chrome along the rocker panel, that will have to come off. Pretty good job. It may be the plug is missing where the fender meets the cowl. I fiberglassed mine in on the FB. I didn't know to do it on the coupe, so I know where you are at.

Gun Jam

Okay I got the fender off which really wasnt a big deal I bet I could do the second side in about 45 minutes now.

See Photo Below:

A) Location of leak
B) Some heaver rust and cowl Vent drain



My questions is: after i clean up the rust at location B I plan to paint the whole deal with a rust inhibitor like rust mort once that is done what should I paint the bare metal with to prevent further rusting and protect it from water?

AND what should I seal that seam with so water cannot leak into it?

Thanks

Gun

john721

As much as you hate to.. climb under your dash and look behind the vent, up where it meets the cowl. Use a flashlight, and hope it's not leaking from there.

waldo786

I had to fix some of the same areas on my 66. You'll want to take a wire brush on a drill and get off as much rust as possible. I then used a self etching primer, coated by an epoxy primer that hardens, and then undercoated. You'll want to use seam sealer to caulk the tubes, I think I used 3M. I primed with the epoxy, sealed, and then undercoated. Before all that though if there are small holes you can't weld shut, you can fiberglass them, as fiberglass is waterproof. Hope that helps, and as noted above make sure the cowl isn't leaking elsewhere.

jlp66stang

I got a deal from stang-aholics about a rust killer and sealer that is supposed to be good called KBS Coatings. It looks good, I don't know. If your cowl vent is rotted out, you can get a replacement for that. After replacing mine, I poured fiberglass resin through the cowl vents to keep that from happening again, but it was on the rottissere so I could tilt the car to make it flow. If you do that, watch out for resin leaking inside thecar on your carpet or something.

1965forAC

Isn't that hole supposed to be there to allow drainage? I'm no expert, but i swore I read somewhere about that being a drainhole for the cowl, which does get clogged from time to time causing water issues elsewhere....

Gun Jam

Yes yes
That is suppose to be there I dont plan on blocking it off. The only thing im blocking off is the seam at location A

I just listed it as an identifying mark. I do plan to paint over all the bear metal however.

dodgestang

What diagnostics did you do to determine that you are leaking in this location?

I don't see any indication in the picture that this is a rust hole leaking (the area has very little rust from what I can see) it is more likely that either your gasket for the windshield is leaking or your cowl hats are leaking.

Gun Jam

First I had my dad run about 2 gallons of water accross the entire cowl vent and I watched for leaks.....nothing

Second we ran water accross the bottom window and water started to drip down onto the fuse pannel and kick panel.

3rd Removed window trim (window rubber has just been replaced and 3m bedding compound used between body and rubber)

4th ran water into seam between fender and window leaks like crazy

5th Remove fender and chip off huge cake of bondo to revel that seam in the photo (A)

6th Add add about 3tbs of water directly onto seam 3tbs of water runs diretcly onto carpet and fuse box

all the water that colleted on the window would run into this seam and give the appearance of a window leak

All and all its real simple add water to that seam.... get water on carpet

Logic suggest that sealing that seam would prevent water from getting on the carpet...sounds good to me!

-Gun