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Among the most common rust damage found on '65-'68 Mustangs is in the cowl area. More directly, the cowl hat and air vent found at the ends of the cowl tank. The rust damage is caused by the accumulation of leaves, dirt, sand, and moisture in the cowl area from years of being in the elements. Parking under trees is the worst culprit. The leaves help trap the moisture against the sheet metal in the cowl area and produces the rust we find.
The design of the cowl does not allow for proper draining of large debris items such as maple leaves. This debris "dams up" the drains and causes further damage. The only proper way to fix this concern is to remove the top of the cowl (often times rusted and damaged itself) and remove the damaged areas and replace the these areas with new panels.
Take a look at the following brief photos to see the typical damage we find and you'll understand the cost involved more clearly.
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The cowl top is removed by drilling out over 200 spot
welds and carefully separating the two halves.
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Here the top half of the cowl is completely separated and removed to access the cowl hats.
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Typical of the problems we find, the cowl hat is completely
rusted away and the rust has eaten into the
cowl side and fire wall.
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The passenger side is just as bad on this '66 fastback. Here the rusted metal has been cut away and
prepped for the new panels.
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The new cowl side and fire wall patch panels
are carefully lined up and MIG welded into place.
These panels aren't always required.
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The cowl patch that contains the cowl hat is
trimmed for installation and installed next.
Shown is the driver's side.
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A protective coating is applied to the fresh welds
(after they've been ground down)
to prevent future rust problems.
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Moving back to the passenger side the cowl hat is trimmed and welded into place on
this side now as well.
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The complete cowl tank area is cleaned,
stripped, and painted before welding
the top of the tank back on.
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The cowl top is set into place, aligned with the factory alignment holes and clamped into place to prevent moving during the welding process.
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The leading edge of the upper cowl is often damaged with rust too. Since no reproduction patch panels are available, any repairs in this area are made from scratch.
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The completely repaired cowl assembly is shown here. The new panels have been painted and given a protective coating. Compare this image to the
one at the top before the repair!
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