Classic Mustangs List Archive

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Mail From: JAMES (email redacted)

I've got a '67 coupe, and it's leaking water into the floorboards. I'm assuming
it's coming from the cowl airbox, as it only leaks when water goes into the
grill openings.

What's the fix? I've seen the plastic thingys in catalogs, but are they decent
to use? I'm going to replace the dash cover and front carpets, would that be a
good time to tear into the cowl area?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated....

James Myers
(email redacted)

This read-only message was archived from a public mail list.
Mail From: John Dettori (email redacted)

On Thu, 5 Dec 1996 13:20:01, JAMES <(email redacted)> wrote:
>
> I've got a '67 coupe, and it's leaking water into the floorboards. I'm as-
> suming it's coming from the cowl airbox, as it only leaks when water goes
> into the grill openings.
>
> What's the fix? I've seen the plastic thingys in catalogs, but are they decent
> to use? I'm going to replace the dash cover and front carpets, would that be a
> good time to tear into the cowl area?

James,

Get ready to have fun. A rusted cowl is a big repair. The question is, what
are you looking to end up with? A non-leaky driver, a repaired, street/strip
car, or a concours trailer queen?

There are 3 approaches I can recommend: cheap fix, effective cover-up, and
the right way to do it (read: expensive) repair. Don't feel bad; this was
a bad design by Ford, and the repair is difficult. The cowl is spot welded
on (not bolted/screwed on like later Mustangs) so there's no access without
cutting metal.

CHEAP FIX
Cowl cover. No rain comes in, no water on the carpet. $29. The rust will
still progress, however and eat away the inside areas you can't see.

COVER UP
Coat the metal with a rust stabilizer. $20-30. Literally pour it in. Tro-
uble is, after 30 years, so much of the metal is gone, there's big holes.
If the cowl is not too rusted, or there's only one hole it's leaking from,
this may due. Some even suggest pouring resins in to block the drain holes
all together, and arrest the rust. IMHO, it's a bad idea.

An article in MM that appeared in 92 suggested removing front fenders, cutting
a triangle shaped flip-up door in the side of the cowl, cutting out swiss-
cheese-like areas, replacing the hats with plactic ones that won't rust,
spreading rust stabilizer everywhere and flipping down the door, sealing it
closed with fiberglas. $200. Not for me, but cheaper than option 3.

RIGHT WAY
I did this to my 67 conv. Using a spot weld cutter, drill the 470+ spot welds
and remove the cowl top. Now you have full access to the cowl. Cut out all
rusted metal, weld in new including new metal "hats". Follow/unblock the
drain path, making sure there's no rust in the sides. Prime everything and
cover with a paint like Eastwood's Corroless. I'd even recommend painting
over that with the body color (not concours, but protected). Then you place
the top back on the cowl, plug welding all the cut out spot welds insuring
perfect alignment. A guy who restores Mustangs by me charges $1,200 for
the welding, not including the price of the new parts (~$125 for California
Mustang when I bought them). But it's perfect enough for concours competi-
tion. And yes, it keeps the water out of the car. You can do this yourself
for the cost of the parts and paint, if you know how to MIG weld sheet metal.

==============================================================================
John Dettori 86 SVO
VP, Securities Lending Systems 70 Mach I
Bear Stearns & Co., Inc 67 GT Convertible
(email redacted) no parts cars, right?
212 272 6717 <reserved 4 67 GT500>



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This read-only message was archived from a public mail list.
Mail From: (email redacted) (email redacted)


On Thu, 5 Dec 1996 13:20:01 -0400 JAMES <(email redacted)>
writes:
>I've got a '67 coupe, and it's leaking water into the floorboards. I'm
>assuming
>it's coming from the cowl airbox, as it only leaks when water goes
>into the
>grill openings.
>
>What's the fix? I've seen the plastic thingys in catalogs, but are
>they decent
>to use? I'm going to replace the dash cover and front carpets, would
>that be a
>good time to tear into the cowl area?
>
>Any advice would be greatly appreciated....
>
>James Myers
>(email redacted)

Well, you are not going to like the fix. The only "correct" way to fix
it is to cut all the spot welds out and remove the cowl. Then you can
replace the bad sections. This months "Mustang and Fords" has a section
on it, so you may want to pick it up. If you look around you can find
temporary fix kits, but they are exactly that--- temporary. If you have
this problem now, it's best to fix it right the first time, else you will
be doing more work later, i.e. floor pans. BTW, I would expect to pay a
lot at the shop for this, you could save some money by cutting the cowl
off yourself with Eastwood's spot weld cutter. Most places don't charge
TOO much for plug and fill welding, and I probably wouldn't trust myself
aligning the panel anyway... Good Luck!!

Rod

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Mail From: Ed Humes (email redacted)



----------
Prime everything and
cover with a paint like Eastwood's Corroless. I'd even recommend painting
over that with the body color (not concours, but protected).

What color/treatment is concourse? Off the subject a little, but to tie it
in with a recent thread about LeMans stripes: how were the stripes done
when they cover portions of the cowl vent? IOW, how does one avoid getting
overpray into the cowl area?

This read-only message was archived from a public mail list.
Mail From: JAMES (email redacted)

You're all right, I don't like the sounds of what I'm in for... ;^)

If I get the dash and interior parts out of the car, is there any access from
the inside? I'll likely end up re-learning how to weld before this is all said
and done with. (sigh...)

Well, I apparently needed something to keep me busy this winter, better this
than cleaning out septic tanks... %^}

Thanks for the points, I'll chase down the magazines and let ya'll know how it
turns out.

James Myers
(email redacted)