LynnBob Mustang

If you got wet and rusted out front floor boards you probably got holes in the lower cowl area, hence there replacement.

Do a search on it and you will see some pics of cowls that look like Swiss cheese or are not even there because of rust damage.

I was originally going to just replace my top as I thought my lower was good, but when I hit the top with the air chisel the lower cowl started to get holes from the vibration all around the edges. So out she came without question.

Lynn

Old Mustanger

Early stangs are almost always rusty in the cowls. They didn't have e-coating then to prevent rust and galv steel was not high quality.

If you do not replace the cowl you will get a real humid, rusty & nasty smell every time you use the heat or A/C. That smell is a dead give away that the builder took short cuts.

Once the cowl is open, you can treat any existing rust in parts that are not replaceable and use a good seam sealer for a pro-job.

hightower2011

The cowls rot inside because of water accumulation. Rust forms around the air vents and eats through the metal, which allows later water to run through the cowl, through the holes, and into the floorboards!

My old cowl:




In the second picture you can see heavy pitting and rust pinholes. Those will only get worse over time. So I decided to replace the entire cowl.

LynnBob Mustang

Dang... Your cowl looked better then ours and I thought our was wasn't tooooo bad, at least until I hit the top with the air chisel and the bottom edges started to get holes in it.




Lynn

hightower2011

Yeah I wire brushed mine to see if I could salvage it, thats why it appears to have no rust. But in the end I took the safe route and scrapped it.

LynnBob Mustang

Cowl is now in after 8 hrs. of welding and grinding. I just got done and brushed on a couple coats of epoxy primer.





I got the SD export brace bracket massaged to fit and fitted. I'll put that in in the next couple of days.

Boooyeah!!! Damn it feels good!!!!!
Lynn

TomKat

looking great love the progress page through page

bobcatrowe

hey lynn,been watching your progress from afar (australia) great thread brave man huge job,im also restoring a 65 coupe but in pretty bloody good shape compared to yours biggest issue i have is the maker of replacement parts -whose fit the best ? i ask mainly because of the logistics of getting the parts to australia and finding out they dont fit,only to have to send back and source parts elsewhere ,any help would be great .

LynnBob Mustang

Thanks!!
Most of my parts came with the car when we got it almost three years ago. Everything came from CJ Pony parts.
The worst fitting part was the full rocker, go with a Dynacorn year specific one if you can instead of the generic 65-70 year one.

Everything else I had no major issues with and all parts do need a little massaging no matter what you get.

Good luck with your resto and post your progress in a new thread.
Lynn

LynnBob Mustang

Thanks!
Lynn