This after noon I braced the awful cold weather we’re having here in Central Pennsylvania and went to put in the new spark plugs I bought from WCCC and to check on my car in general, long story short I want to get a one piece cowl brace so I was checking all the usual problem areas in and around the shock towers and discoverd this mess. Is this somthing that should be dealt with asap or treat it like the other rust I’ve found and keep an eye on it until we’re ready to deal with it. Its located below the pasanger side upper control arm
That would not be an easy fix. I assume that’s in the bottom of the shock tower where it meets the frame where all the crap sits. If so, did you poke at it to see just how much steel is left to work with especially in the shock tower itself? If you could clean and blast the area, and have enough steel left when done you could treat as much of the area as you can get to inside the rail, cut and fit a patch that fits the whole area down there and skip weld in, and being you would have to remove the suspension to do it anyway, add the stiffeners they make for stiffening the shock towers, and for sure do an export brace.
From the photos though it looks like the shock tower could be a little thin.
Good luck
Same for me as well, we bought it this past October so it’s a whole new experience. But as I’m learning a very exspensive and frustrating one… I’ll defiantly be getting an export brace ASAP as well as looking into weather anyone local would fix the rot.
WCCC has a good export brace if you buy the premium one. I think Don even did a video on it which is good. And there are a lot of videos on the web about installing them in cars that potentially have shifted shock towers. Mike is right, get it in there sooner than later, and for sure before you start the work.
I know on my car I had to do some repairs to the torque box (have drivers side only) and the floor support rail because they were so bent up from someone doing something. Don’t know if it was just from jack stands being placed wrong, or they ran over a boulder. Anyway, I totally cut out the drivers side frame rail even though it wasn’t rusty. Pushed floor pan back down where it belonged, repaired some tweaks to the torque box, and put a new rail in all with just the standard stock braces bolted in place. There is too much slop in the firewall holes of those things to hold anything true. When I went to put export brace on later I had to have “some words” getting the drivers side on to the shock tower. I wish I had put a export brace on first, or after I got the damaged rail out, then did my repairs. Lot of torque to that engine bay steel. Even from new. That’s why the Europeans wanted the Export brace to have the cars come there. They knew they needed it.
If you lived closer I’d help ya
I think I’m going to get there set with the export brace and the four little stiffning plates in the next day or two, it will at least be a start. My next problem is finding someone who can do the rust repair there’s really no good shops around me I’m aware of so I’ll have to start asking around to see what I can come up with.
There’s quite a bit of info on here that shows how to do it, and I think Don did a whole video on stiffening up a Cougar. Not sure how handy you are at taking front end components apart, and welding, but that’s the just of it. Like I said if I were closer I would give you a hand, or maybe you can find someone to reach out to in your area that has a Cougar, or Mustang would be the same that would be willing to give you a hand. Did a quick search and found First Pennsylvania Mustang club. Looks like they meet in Quakertown. http://www.ccnjpa.com is a Cougar club in Jersey/Pennsylvania.
I am/was a novice. I was able to do export brace using a portapower. Pull front suspension, tool loaned from O’Reilly’s for the springs.
The I used a wire brush to scrape the rust and see the damage. Got a cutting wheel in anc cut out the bad metal.
All of that took me a full weekend as I learned. My 17 year old son helped.
I had a friend with a MIG welder who came in and did/showed/taught me how to do the welding. With paint & reassembly that was another 8-10 hours, some 2 man labor.
Thats not a bad idea! Getting dirty working on it dosent bother me one but. Im actually a PA certified inspection mechanic but im working for my familys buisness at the moment but I have close to 5 years of automotive tech training so im ok with doing any disassembly, welding ive never done though.
