<September 18, 1999>
What's this cowl you keep whining about, people ask me. It's the area in front of the windsheild. There is a grill that lets fresh air into it. It also lets in water, leaves, crud, etc. There are drains for the water and crud to drain out hidden behind the front fenders. Sometimes leaves (or in my case, factory-applied seam sealer) blocks the drains and the water just stays in the cowl and rusts through. It rusts through because Ford didn't even bother to paint or prime the metal inside the cowl when they built it. Bad, Bad Ford!
I knew I had a problem shortly after I bought the car, when I realized that without the plastic aftermarket 'cowl cap' on, rainwater poured onto the floors freely during rain. The previous owner lied about having fixed the cowl, and I didn't check it myself. Next time I buy a Mustang I'm pouring water in the cowl to see where it comes out BEFORE I buy it!
So, I need to fix the cowl. Some people only have rusted through holes in the fresh air vents (I call them hats because they look like little top hats), and they're lucky because they can just remove the vents from the inside, replace them with new, plastic hats, and seal it up again. bingo, they're crusin' dry.
But my holes are in the metal around the hats. The only way to fix that correctly is to weld in new metal.
I started my exploration of the cowl problem by removing the front fenders so I could see the ends of the cowl. Since the ends are hidden, you can cut a hole in them and look in the cowl, and no one will be the wiser (the ends of the opening are sharp, so cover them in masking tape so you don't get cut handling it). Unfortunately, I found big holes rusted through the metal. Since I want Bloo to be an all weather cruiser, that had to be fixed once and for all. So the cowl rust, along with floor, door and fender rust, caused me to begin a complete teardown.
Now that Bloo is disassembled, we're going to the media blaster next week or so (whenever he works us in). I want the cowl open so he can blast it clean and get all the rust out, so I know how much has to be cut out and replaced. The only way to do this is to remove the cowl cover by drilling through 125 spot welds (believe me, I counted).
So I bought a 3/8 Spot Weld drill bit from Eastwood,
sanded clean the area where the spot welds are, and started drilling. Notice the ear
protection and goggles, it's very noisy, and the bit throws lots of little metal shards!
After three hours I had drilled through about 40 welds, which freed the top of the cowl
where the windsheild used to be. A friend recommended doing the windsheild side first
because the welds are easier to see. As I went along I used a putty knife to slide between
the metal to determine if I had drilled the whole weld through or not (another great
suggestion from this wise person who's already done this to his own Mustang). Sometimes I
used my dremel tool to grind off a little more metal around my hole to free the two
pieces. When you drill through a spot weld you only want to drill through the top piece of
metal, so the bottom one is still there to weld it back onto later.
So, that's the story so far. I've spent too much time on this webpage today. I've got some spot welds to go drill. Only 85 welds to go (ugh).
Final Update
Well, I never got through all those welds. One evening when I was resting between drilling out welds, I stopped to look at the front framerails, and realized for the first time just how much rust there was there. That explains why the front bumper bolts just sort of tore out, instead of unscrewing.
I'm sure it would be possible to fix all the rust on Bloo, but with my husband's business thriving in the other half of my garage, it's not a good place for major welding, sanding, grinding projects. Plus, I just don't want to do it, it's not what I got into Mustangs to learn how to do. I enjoy doing mechanical things.
So, I've been browsing the auto-trader and keeping an eye in the classifieds, and going to check out Mustangs regularly. I probably looked at fifteen or more before I found one to bring home. The guy selling it has a parts business, and he wanted to work what was left of Bloo (after I took the parts I needed off) in on the trade. So I made the big decision, and sadly gave up on old Bloo. But now there's a new pony, straight and relatively rust-free, waiting to be turned into the head turner I know it can be.
But to all those who are tackling this project themselves, I say go for it, more power to you, and I wish you the best of luck. Many have done it, and I can't imagine anything more satisfying than bringing a Mustang back from the dead and saving it from the parts yard. It just wasn't the task for me.