Strange. I chipped out a bunch of bondo and aluminum from the bottom of the front fender and found a good portion of the lower fender gone, along with the brace behind it. So I removed the fender to determine if I wanted to buy a new fender or the lower fender patch and the patch for the brace. Anyway, I doubt the fender has been off the car since 1965 but look at the orange and green spray paint under it, and on the cowl side. What the Hell is that all about?

Now the really strange part. The cowl on this car does not leak if the car is level or pointed nose up. Pointed nose down and given a big dose of water I get a leak from under the kick panel on the driver's side. So I pull the plug out of the side of the cowl (did not even know that was supposed to be there), shine a trouble light down through the vent and take a look around through the plug hole. The cowl has no rust! Zero! The hats are fine (those little mirrors on the swivel handles can show a lot). So I look a little further and down low on the cowl side panel is a small hole rusted from the outside. When the car is pointed nosedown the water draining from the cowl seeps into the hole and out from under the kick panel.

I heard Ford put out some sort of "fix" in 65 for the cowl. Did it involve removing the fender, making a drain hole in the side of the cowl and shooting some kind of stuff in there? Is that drain plug normal?

Anyway, I am fairly pleased about the cowl. I can fix that little hole easily enough.

I am going to get the lower fender patch and brace from NPD and keep the original fender.

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I think you are making a good choice on repair instead of replace if that is your only bad spot.

 

Thanks for the encouragement. That is the only bad place. A couple of little surface rust spots easily cleaned but other than that the fender is solid. Nothing fits like original. On attaching the patch I now have a couple of options since the fender is off the car. I can use panel bond and I should be able to get a nice clean solid bond because is it pretty flat and accessible. Or, I could get a spot welder from Harbor Freight. I think I'll actually attach the brace patch with screws and panel bond (and leave the screws in) since it is internal. The patch is 11 inches high and full length from the wheel well to the back of the fender. The hole is 8 inches high and only about 5 inches wide. I still have 12 inches of solidfender from the wheel opening to the beginning of the hole. I know the other side has the same problem since it has bondo in it so I am ordering both sides.