UPS Driver
Member
My cowl panels are rusted at the bottom and was wondering if they just been to in like they look like? Anyone here replaced theirs ? Figured I’d remove clean and pain underneath and put in new ones if not too much trouble
1929 Tudor cowl panels
- Thread starter UPS Driver
- Start date
BRENT in 10-uh-C
Well-known member
They say experience is something you get after you need it. Installing replacement cowl panels is not difficult if you have experience and the correct tools to do so.
As for 'trouble', get the panel installed out of square or incorrectly and the gas tank and hood will not fit properly now will it fit tightly against the hinge pillar post. Do you have welding capabilities? If so, maybe it would be better just to graft pieces into the rust damaged areas instead of drilling spot welds and replacing everything. If you can post pictures of what you are dealing with, maybe we can advise on the preferred method???
Joe K
Well-known member
This would be something I would approach with the "body off" Separating the body from the cowl would make this easiest (and the way the car was assembled by Ford)
As Brent says - there are rivets to be drilled - and while you're at it you'll probably have to work on the "feet" underneath the cowl. These are particularly fond of corrosion from muddy boots AND infiltration from rain.
It is a project for sure. Bondo might work on the exterior if you don't mind re-doing it again four years hence. (Bondo is notorious for corrosion underneath loosening up the patch.)
My mind goes back to a 1970 Bel Air which got the quarter panels re-done in bondo yearly. Nice car with a 350 and the taxi-cab package. Hard to "really fix" the quarter panels.
Joe K
As Brent says - there are rivets to be drilled - and while you're at it you'll probably have to work on the "feet" underneath the cowl. These are particularly fond of corrosion from muddy boots AND infiltration from rain.
It is a project for sure. Bondo might work on the exterior if you don't mind re-doing it again four years hence. (Bondo is notorious for corrosion underneath loosening up the patch.)
My mind goes back to a 1970 Bel Air which got the quarter panels re-done in bondo yearly. Nice car with a 350 and the taxi-cab package. Hard to "really fix" the quarter panels.
Joe K
UPS Driver
Member
I’ll get pictures when I get home tonight. It’s not really bad underneath (interior is out) only rusted towards the bottom the rivets that I believe you’re talking about appear to have already been drilled out and replaced with small screws with nuts the sub rails definitely need cleaned and painted with rust inhibitors considering using a homemade patch and pop rivets along with ever glass waterproof fiberglass with fiber