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Replacing a cowl

It is accurate for the two piece unit. Are you using the one piece? Other than that difference, it is accurate.
 
According to the mustang unlimited catalogue , the 65/66 cowl assembly comes as two pieces (upper & lower) so I guess I'll be using 2 pieces.
 
I did it on my 70 about 3 years ago before they came out with the reproduction for 69/70. I had to bend the metal myself and piece it together.Start by buying a spotweld cutter and more than 3 replacement cutters. You'll need them.

cowl.wmv short slideshow video of the work.
 
Yep. I would spend the extra cash on the blair. I saw those in the Harbor Freight store and passed. The arbor looks weak.
 
Depending on how bad the cowl is, it might be worthwhile to only replace part of it. Check out this guy's page. He's pretty skilled (in my eyes). But he was able to save the top and bottom parts of the cowls and only replace patches. That probably saves around $250-300. Just a thought.

http://www.kevinsrodshop.com/
 
Check if the nuts, used to secure the windshieldwiper pivots , are welded in place.See lower part of the cowl.
 
"B67FSTB" said:
Check if the nuts, used to secure the windshieldwiper pivots , are welded in place.See lower part of the cowl.
Click to expand...

are they inside (between the uppper & lower cowl pieces) or up under the dash?
 
I took the pieces out that were already cut by a previous cowl repair. It started with chipping away tons of bondo to see what it was hiding and next thing I know there were seams and I took off the pieces with a BFG and screwdriver.
 
Sure seems like the hard way to do it. I suppose if you fix it with filler, though.... I figured I'd never get it right again doing something like that. If one takes it apart the way it was put together you have a fightin' chance.
 
I didn't cut out the holes. They were already there. Alll I did was take a hammer and hit it a few times and it came loose.

They were covered with about 1/2" of bondo which was also inside the seams. Whoever repaired the cowl vents in the past didn't weld the parts cut out all the way around. They did few spot welds just to hold it in place and smothered bondo over the seams to fill it.

Last picture shows what the cowl looks like from under the dash. NASTY! That's why I'm replacing the entire upper and lower parts.
 
Kate

Do remember that , when welding your new cowl in place , your firewall insulation could catch fire !!!
 
Kat, that article is pretty spot on. One of the differences we did on mine though was weld in the pieces seperately. We welded the lower to the car, then the upper to the lower. We used a sheet metal punch from Harbour Freight to make the holes for welding just like they said in the article and it made the process nice because we weren't trying to fill the holes left by the spot weld cutter. Speaking of which, we used both the one from harbour freight and a nicer one from a paint and body store. Spend the extra money. The harbour freight ones will work, but you go through them quicker. One trick we found when cutting out the welds is to used a punch to make an indention for the auger on the cutter so it doesn't wiggle around while you're starting.

One other thing to think about. Don't know if your radio panel needs to be patched or if you're running and aftermarket that uses a larger hole. I'm going to go back with an original looking radio but the PO had hacked the dash. With the cowl out, it make it much easier to put in the radio patch panel because you could easily get to the back through the cowl hole. The cowl also make it easy to spray some primer, rust stopper behind the dash if you're so inclined. I realize your car isn't as apart as mine is at this time, but there are quite a few quick "while I'm at its" to consider. Good luck!! Let me know if you have any questions since I just finished this exact project less than a month ago. I've attached a couple pics:

1. Old cowl out. Same as yours, heavily bondoed on the sides and had more holes than swiss chees underneath.
2. Noticed how much access it gives behind the dash while out.
3. Fitting the upper and lower to get hole placements for the sheet metal punch.
4. Lots of welds. Thankfully my dad is pretty good at it.
5. Notice the paint peeking through the cowl slots. Glad I followed that step.
 
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