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Rust out where water leaked onto floor from cowl

65springtime

New Member
I found under the carpet there is rust throught on both front sides where water leaked from the cowl over the years. Only the front of both sides have it where the metal goes up where it bends up towards the cowl. Where is the best place to buy these short replacement metal and which ones do I need? I see pictures but not sure which ones I will need. The rest of the floor is fine with no rust at all. Only the front on both sides. This is on my 1965 Coupe. Thanks
 
Here's something to note. If you buy the short floor patch which is really all you need, the bends are wrong. There is a lip on the floor pan where it is welded to the rocker, and on the coupes/fastbacks, that lip is bent upwards so that you can weld the pan to the rocker from inside the car. On this short floor patch, that lip is bent down, so when you go to weld in the patch against the rocker, you have to weld it from under the car. If you don't care about originality, you can use this patch. If you do care about how it looks, then you need to either bend the lip the opposite direction or buy a longer pan with the correct lip on it. I bought the mid-length pan that includes the front floor and the area under the seat, it was made by American Designer, and it had the correct lip on it. However, it also had really crappy relief's stamped in it, if I had to do it again I would have used the Dynacorn stuff because I like their stamping better. Somebody recommended the American Designer stuff because it is not made in Taiwan or China but the Dynacorn floor matched the original floor better when I had a chance to compare later on with a different car.
 
"midpack" said:
And some Cowl repair panels... :roll

Cowl repair panels? I know this may sound silly but Where do they go? Do they weld on? Will this stop the water from coming in when washing the car? If I can help it I do not take the car out in the rain. That is just me. By the way, thanks for all the help guys.
 
Cowl repair (depending on how you do it) can be one of the biggest nightmares on the early cars. I took the upper off my 66 Coupe and replaced the rotted lower cowl with a donor that was pristine. they sell patch panels as well, some "fitting" required...

they also sell some plastic insert things that bond on from underneath the dash, IIRC.

I have seen where some guys cut the ends off the uppers (under the front fender) to access the repair as well.

Or... you could get one of those cowl vent covers for car washing or the occasional rainstorm. My wife has one of those for her vert
 
Just a visual for cowl repair. 100+ spotwelds to get the upper part off.
7985220049_medium.jpg

7985220048_medium.jpg
 
I use a strip of magnetic sign material cut slightly larger than the cowl vent. So far, it has kept any water out of a couple cars, easy on and off, stores flat on the side of the trunk inner fender, and was only 5 at a local graphics shop. It has been speed tested up to 70 mph on my cars......never moved but I do not drive with it. I mainly use it in the fall to keep leaves and crap out of the cowl since mine lives outside.
 
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