Is it difficult to fix from the top, does cutting that area out give you enough clearance to get in there and clean it out. I personally would not be able to sleep at night knowing rust was in there. Thanks, looks like something else I'll be doing to the stang.

 

if you want to do it the easy way weld the cowl vent up and get a vintage air or other aftermarket heat/ac that dont use the cowl vent.they do sell a plastic cover thats a temp fix leaving it rusted out will let water in the car rusting out your floor pan over time.good luck hope you get it fixed.

 

Hi,

As I recall, when you remove the fenders, you expose the corners of the closed cowl area. At the ends of each side there are small openings that act as drain holes. They are rectangular and about 1-2"s X 1/2 or 3/4". These, usually, clog with years of debris, resulting in water backing or draining very slow and initiating the rust. The article suggests that you cut and create a flap of the sheet metal covering this area. The cut is only on three sides, thus the reference to "flap", which, enables you to fold open, exposing theareaaround the "hat" or air intake vent.This is usually wherethe damage starts.Ifyou are getting water in the foot wells, then there is perforation in this area. The clean up and sealing is another topic, of which , there are many different ideas to fix. Now having gone this far, you need only to remove the windshield, buy a good quality spotweld cutting tool.from memory, there are a lot of spotwelds, perhaps, a hundred or so.You do need either a mig or tig welder to re-attach the cowl.This is easliy done by re-welding the area around each spot weld, creating what looks like a "spot weld".
I have many pics of this operation.If you PM me I'll send you a few. Another thought, to create the"flap", a plasma cutter is best used, as this areabenefits from a "surgerical" type cut, and the aforementionedwelding operation anyway. If you are a "hands on" guy, it is not atough job. It jkust requires theright tools.
good luck!

 

I think I counted about 170+ spot welds. In my opinion, the only true fix is to remove the cowl cover and graft in new patch panels, with or without holes. The problem is the area under the cowl cover was never painted during the assembly process (at Ford)allowing the vents to rust. And the collection of debris in the drainholes, made this worse. First the cowl would rust thru, then the pans. I would have about 3-5 spot weld cutters on hand as you will break a couple. Its not that a big problem, it just takes time.Also the brass that holds the corners (Apost) I would cut with a wiz wheel (cut right beside the brass spots).Its easy to weld back up. The main thing is, PAINT the area after the repair is made, and before you install the cover.

 

This could be the site you were asking about.

http://spectrum-photo.com/mine/cowl.htm

 

umm.....ok welding it over will only promote rust, if its not sanding down and fixed then it will only hurt you, i didnt bother doing mine, b/c of the time constraint i had. i would just fix it, its a day long job, but well worth it. there should be about 200 spot welds to drill out.

 

Thanks for all the great comments guys.

I finally found the link I was looking for... http://personal.ecu.edu/boydd/tech/cowl/cowl.html

Now, I'm not sure which way to go. I'm leaning toward drilling out all of the spot welds, removing the top, repairing and replacing. I hate removing the windshield !!! The fenders are already off. Will the top more or less pop off when the spot welds are all drilled?/

Thanks agian,
Jeff