Another B Body cowl rust story.

[Redpolara]

Well here's the extent of the damage guys, there's one other section just forward of the right side wiper pivot, but no big deal.
I've been doing this type of stuff for years, including oxy/hammer welding roof chops, one of fabrications in the way of dashes, garnish moulds and hand forming solid brass extrusion for body and interior trim (then chromed).
Anyway, this'll be time consuming but very straight forward all the same.

 

[khryslerkid]

Nice job with the stripping! At least you have something to work with. A Mopar!

 

[vintagetin]

I wonder why anyone would use fiber glass to begin with. I can understand maybe a small hole or something.. but a huge patch? I've never scene that before.

 

[Redpolara]

I wonder why anyone would use fiber glass to begin with. I can understand maybe a small hole or something.. but a huge patch? I've never scene that before.

Vintagetin,my guess would be a lack of ability, that and a tight @rse previous owned that obviously didn't want to spend money. Keep in mind they didn't remove the engine to do the.......what ever you'd call that mess.

The outer section that I've removed is far worse than the inner (a good thing I suppose) there was about a 1inch lower perimiter band of the removed section that didn't exist.
What's even more pathetic is the leaves, small sticks and dirt (cause of the problem) weren't removed, they were embedded in the glass.....like fossils in tree sap or something.
Using a heat gun the glass peeled of in sheets, even it was crap.....way too dry due to a lack of resin.

I'll post a pic soon of the crap I removed......what's left of it anyway.

 

[Polara Pat]

I have to say that since I just pulled my windshield on my '64 and gutted my dash I was seriously surprised by the amount of light let in from the depths of the under dash area. It's clear how much the windshield gasket is responsible for sealing the outside world out and when it fails all hell breaks loose. I was happy to see that the factory came through for me on this one....sorry redpolara, that **** is mean.

 

[Redpolara]

Yeah Pat, it gets ugly and mine is far from the worst around, have a look at the pics posted in this thread by kryslerkid a few days ago.
The biggest problem is the amount of sandwiched metal (between 1in and 3in at the worst point) and so called drain holes.......they all have a 3/8in lip on them.
This'll be a build from scratch affair (no donor cars around here) so i'll redesign the drainage.....but at a glance it'll look as per factory.

 

[Aussie Coronet]

I feel for ya Mate, sadly, I won't be far behind you as mine was on the hoist recently and the news is, well, bad.

I'll save that sad story for a post of it's very own.

 

[Redpolara]

Thanks Aussie, everything looks worse before it looks better.
What's the diagnosis on the poor old Coronet?......hopefully nothing structual.

 

[Redpolara]

Photo needed

Hey guys, could someone kindly post a pic of the cowl drain/inner fender area.......just a clear,in tact non rusted shot of that corner of the engine bay would be great.......not sure if 64 Dodge and Plymouth look identical.
I need something to use as a reference guide....thanks.

 

[Donny]

Looks like you better get that blasted, wire brushing it down is good for the chunks, but, to get it clean, and opened up the bad areas the wire brush won't.

 

[Redpolara]

Yeah I know what you mean Donny, admittedly if this was a full build i'd be kicking out the screen and removing the upper cowl in it's entirety.
But this started as an engine bay tidy up, i'll start cutting in the next couple of days and try a few cleaning/rust removal methods on the remaining metal and see what transpires.
There's no rust scale beyond the photo shots., so that's a bonus of sorts.

Don't get me wrong, by no means will this be a half @rsed effort.......but what ever I do will definately outlast the car and myself. I feel it's a realistic approach to the situation considering the limited use of a car that's always garaged and our predominantly dry climate over here.
Everything will be painted before assembly and rust proofed after assembly.

 

[Redpolara]

Here's some of the carnage removed so far.

 

[Polara Pat]

Hopefully some of these shots help, my camera isn't the best and this is a '64 Dodge but they do look the same.

 

[Redpolara]

Thanks Pat, all those pics are helpfull, you can see in the scrap photo that I posted that there's not much to go by for the cowl drain area reconstruction.
Due to the previous fiberglassing frenzy, I wasn't sure where the lines were supposed to be.

 

[Propwash]

Here's some of the carnage removed so far.

Hell yeah!...Way to send the cancer packing Red!

 

[Redpolara]

Hell yeah!...Way to send the cancer packing Red!

Thanks Prop, As I mentioned earlier the areas beyond the photo shots are really solid......no pitting just surface rust. I guess this sort of thing happens when your cowl gets used as a compost bin.

Oh, If anyone's wondering why the trans is still in the car (someone was bound to ask sooner or later) I have a pinched nerve in my neck at the moment,as a result shocking pains down the right arm and two fingers have gone numb (yippeeee!)
So i'm not wrestling with a trans at the moment, who knows it may have to stay there for the duration......and i'll just work around it.

 

[Redpolara]

Sorry about the lack of intermediate photos at this stage guys, I really need to get myself a new camera. Anyway, Chris dropped in yesterday and took these pics. The grey etch primer border area is where the welds/plug welds will be,hence the lack of paint.

 

[Redpolara]

Here's the reconstructed/modified cowl drain area, i've included a pic of the factory version (thanks Polara Pat). The biggest problem with these cowls is fact that the water has to reach the high tide mark before some (only some) of it can escape.
My modified version has a 5 degree run off ramp which extends beyond the drop off at the vent box area, the short section of the inner fender also had to be modified slightly before refitting.
I should also mention, at the bottom of the vent box area, the water is also met by another 3/8in lip, this has also been partially removed.

 

[Polara Pat]

That looks great Red, too bad you have to bolt anything to that smooth firewall, that's a killer look. You know, you would have been a real asset in the Chrysler engineering dept. circa '62-'65. I like the idea of improving on our beloved 40+ year old designs.

Keep up the good work.

 

[Redpolara]

Thanks for the kind words Pat, and yeah i'm really going to be biting the bullet when it comes to drilling holes for the electrics in that new upper section.