’64 – ’66 Cowl Replacement

We recently found a few more pictures of work that we done a short time before this blog was thought born that we thought we had lost. We decided to share the pictures we have with you even though we don’t have the full before and after set. But you do get to see the idea of what we achieved anyway.

It’s a problem for the very early cars that have a rusty cowl, ’64 – ’66 had theirs welded in place. The later years you could remove a bit easier. With the earlier years there are two things you could do; Hope it stays OK or do what we do here at Mustang Maniac. We have now perfected a good technique to get the old cowl out, replace it with the treated and repaired original, or fit a new one as the case may be. The original bodywork is refitted without damage.

The process in steps

1) We take everything of at the front of the car to fully expose the top grill and cowl that is welded on.

2) We then remove the welding and take of the grill without damaging it

Cowling removed from the car with the grill back on top for reference.

3) Two options here now is to either replace with a new unit or repair and treat the old cowl ready to be put back in.
4) The underside of the cowl was sprayed while off the car to match the bodywork paint.

5) We put the cowl back on the car and re-weld it back in place. The remaining area is masked off and the primer is applied.

6) We allow to dry fully and then apply the top coats as required to match the original bodywork colour.

7) Once dry and cured, we then put the wipers back in and all the under dash equipment.
8) Last step is the top grill is put back on, welded and covered as the original was. This is followed by the fenders and the hood etc. which are all re-aligned back into their correct positions.
This cost-effective repair that we achieve without the re-painting the outside is worth the effort and costs involved. It’s not the easiest of jobs, but it’s worth doing if you have cowl leaking issues etc.