I am in the process of restoring my 72 to get it ack on the road. In the process I am trying to remove rusty areas ( so far drivers’ side floor pan and battery tray) When I removed the front fender to get to the inside fender area, this is what I saw. I imagine that there should be some type of opening to allow the cowl area to drain. My question is how much metal is actually missing? Best way to repair? Any input is greatly appreciated!
OK, apparently I also need help in posting pictures. I have three photos which show the area, but can’t figure out how to post. Thanks
There’s not a whole lot of metal that is missing but any rust needs to be treated and replaced with fresh metal and that will involve a lot of spot weld drilling on your part. The metal will not rust as quickly if there is primer and paint.
Royce, thank you. My main concern is how much metal was missing, so thanks for addressing that question. Since not much metal is missing, I will probably just treat the rust issue and go on. I would prefer not to replace the piece unless absolutely necessary. I will treat both sides with POR 15 and some paint and hopefully it will hold it another 54 years.
What you’re looking at is likely just the tip of the iceberg. You need to look inside the cowl to see what damage there may be. The cowl will typically rust out around the vent hat and leak water onto the floors. Since you already had to do the driver’s side floor, then you need to check that side was well.
I know that it has been a little over a couple of months since I last posted, but was travelling a bit and had to put the Cougar on the sidelines. I just checked for leaks and @Hemikiller was correct. I do have a leak on the driver’s side. So now the question is how difficult is it to correct the cowl leak?
