Plan of attack for rust repair

[RRusty72]

If anyone has any pointers on a good plan of attack on the repair of my cowel/firewall and firewall to hinge panel, it would be greatly appreciated.

1972 road runner

 

[Timmayy]

First of all, strip it down to bare metal. We've used the small handheld sandblaster. It works in little areas and doesn't make that big of a mess. This way you can see exactly what you're in for.

 

[WileE]

Cut out the corroded area & section in a solid piece.

 

[RRusty72]

I have head that from the front floor pans forward, minus the windshield pillar, that they are the same or very close to an Ebody. Think i can repair this by massaging the Ebody firewall cowel and hinge to firewall to work?

 

[Dodge33]

I have a right side door hinge pillar area, removed from a rust free 72 Charger. I don't have a left side. No firewall or the lower cowl
either.
Sorry.

 

[icetech]

I had to do the same to my passenger side.. it just takes time and some patience... Main thing i learned is.. if you think you cut out enough to get the rust out, cut out another inch.. i tried to save as much original metal as i could and it just made the job way harder (welding new metal to rust isn't fun)

Get some 18ga steel and a hammer and have fun... also.. using .023 wire in your welder instead of .030 makes it a little nicer to work with but you don't have to..

P.S. my car isn't a show car, i just wanted it to be solid and not have holes

 

[icetech]

Last thing... Never run the death wheel without eye protection! That wheel doesn't care if you lose an eye.... And thinking about the problem is worse than fixing it, once you start cutting and get the old crap out it will seem a lot easier

 

[RRusty72]

I am not looking for a show car either, same as you, no holes and structurally sound.

Definitely at least safety glasses, a face shield here wont get in my way. And .023 wire is what i have in my welder now

 

[RRusty72]

Also, there is a guy locally that does dustless blasting, i am considering having the whole car done.

 

[icetech]

Also, there is a guy locally that does dustless blasting, i am considering having the whole car done.

Not sure how bad the car is.. but don't forget you will have to work fast to stop flash rust if you do that.... Main thing that helped me is, don't be in a rush.. treat it as a learning experience and take your time...

Also.. watching fitzee show how to cut and butt small patches... my god that's such a time saver and makes **** soo much easier.. i used to try to jigsaw pieces together and it took 20x longer

 

[BigFlo]

Also, there is a guy locally that does dustless blasting, i am considering having the whole car done.

Dustless blasting sounds good and has its place for certain jobs. I’m not convinced it the right thing for cars. It’s a liquid slurry that is going to get into every crack and crevice - some that you can see and some you can’t. You will never get it out of inner panels, pinch seams, frame rails, etc. Now you have mud packed into places that will encourage rust. Not something I would do.

 

[#41]

My experience is that once you cut the top off you'll find a lot more work needed on the bottom panel of the cowl and around the plenum. Be prepared to make a large patch panel because you will need room for access. While this area is a total pain in a$$ to repair, but at least nobody can see it if not perfect.

 

[bandit67]

Yu Tube vids help me a lot. When I can see where the original spot welds were helps me in cutting if Im shooting to replace a complete repop part. That, and have the replacement panel in hand BEFORE cutting. As someone here has said, where there's rust, there's more.

 

[SureGrip]

I have head that from the front floor pans forward, minus the windshield pillar, that they are the same or very close to an Ebody. Think i can repair this by massaging the Ebody firewall cowel and hinge to firewall to work?

Yes and no. The inner fenders, lower cowl, and front floor pans are the same, but the upper cowl panel is slightly different at the top, behind the hinges...I honestly could not tell you why, but cause it looks really insignificant, but it is different. That's why AMD listed them different. As you said, you could probably 'make' it work though.

 

[Fm3 Dart]

The B body top cowl is taller than an E body. The vertical portion is similar, but shorter on E bodies, so you can use a repro E body panel and cut it down as a repair panel.
To fix this, you need to remove the dash, heater, pedals, firewall insulation and all that stuff. These cars rust in this spot because the upper cowl and the firewall are designed in such a way that they are supposed to drain water, but unfortunately they were bare metal in that area, and had a foam sealer between the panels, which causes the welded joint to rust all along it. This means the firewall rusts through and water leaks into the car, making the floors wet too. There is a little wall around the vents that rusts away too, so usually those need to be rebuilt or replaced. Mice love to build nests in there. It all adds up to lots of hidden rust

 

[1968rt]

Just tackled the same problem. Did a little patch at a time.

 

[1968rt]

and the hinge area....

 

[icetech]

and the hinge area....

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love that color

 

[1968rt]

Citron Yella