Cowl removal progress thread

[306notchback]

Well me and my buddy 68stang351(seen in pictures) are in the process of doing the body work on my 88 coupe! After my cowl hood flew up and destroyed my cowl I figured repairing the cowl would be the first step. I've never seen the actual removal of the cowl, so we decided to post a progress thread, figured it might be helpful! The first step is removing everything from the face of the cowl and drill the spot welds out.
Tools needed:
Drill, 3/16 drill bit
Air Chisel
Die Grinder
BEER

 

[Mr. Rustypwnz]

dont you just love spot welds!!!

 

[306notchback]

dont you just love spot welds!!!

Yeah I cant believe how many there are, but the beer helps!

 

[Mr. Rustypwnz]

just make sure you have either a die grinder or a spot weld drill bit and youll be fine.. I used to to that all day everyday, so 2-3 weeks after its done youll get all the shavings off of ya and be a happy man lol

 

[SPEEDYLIFSAVR]

Subscribing.......I'm curious about doing this repair also . I quick fixed mine with a dent puller and some bondo . This seems like a better fix though .


off topic - what is that thing inside the fender just below the cowl?

 

[306notchback]

Subscribing.......I'm curious about doing this repair also . I quick fixed mine with a dent puller and some bondo . This seems like a better fix though .


off topic - what is that thing inside the fender just below the cowl?

Thats the cruise control setup, its now gone! Yeah I thinks its the best and easiest way, were not going to acutally remove the whole cowl, what were doing is removing I guess half of it. Were removing all the spot welds from the windshield foward, then were going to cut it from left to right just below the windshield, and then remove it instead of removing the windsheild and dash! Then im replacing it with one from a donor car.
Well keep posting as we go!

 

[68stang351]

one from a donor car.

amnit:

 

[bentley429]

Looks like your in for a little bit of work thats for sure.

 

[306notchback]

Did some more work, here are some pics of cutting the cowl out! Hope to get the donor cowl this Friday!

[

 

[68stang351]

One more thing worth noting is to watch out for that brace that holds the wiper pivot on the drivers side. It's easy to forget that its there if you're cutting the cowl out like we did. We could have accidentally cut through it.

 

[306notchback]

Also the vertical pieces still left from the cowl on both sides are coming out, the donor one wont be cut there, I will be drilling the spot welds out there, and removing the cowl as one piece!

 

[FrankenStang]

This thread is not about beer. C'mon guys....

Stay on topic.

 

[306notchback]

Today we cut the donor cowl out, but we were way more careful cutting it out as one piece! We did just a fast mach up and it turned out pretty good. All is left if welding it in and minor body panel alignment!

 

[68stang351]

Not bad huh? Keep in mind we are not bodywork guys, we've done nothing close to this before. This is our first time at doing a major body project like this, and we are learning as we go. We just thought you would like to see what kind of stuff we got into. We are just average Joe's wanting to make a fox look nice.

I really can't believe how easy this was. We seriously only have like 10 hrs of work AT MOST into this so far.

All we have to do now is to weld it in for good, but it will be lined up like it is in the pics.

Then the rest of the bodywork will began. Notchback wants to paint this car Oxford White, and replacing his F'd up cowl was first on the bodywork list and we thought we would make a thread on the cowl replacement since as far as we could tell no one else has on Stangnet.

 

[68stang351]

WTF? Is there no interest in this?

 

[It's a 5_0 HO]

That is a damn good job for FIRST TIMERS!!!! Major props! Well done guys!

 

[Juggalo95]

Did some more work, here are some pics of cutting the cowl out! Hope to get the donor cowl this Friday!

Just A Quick TIP for anyone doing any grinding near glass or windshield especially...COVER IT with a blanket or towel...grinder sparks will leave lil marks in your windshield...you wont notice untill your driving on a sunny day.

Also as mentioned early Spot Weld Drill bit is better than a regular drill bit.

Im not being a *******..just lending some of my know how.

Good job for being 1st timers

 

[68stang351]

Just A Quick TIP for anyone doing any grinding near glass or windshield especially...COVER IT with a blanket or towel...grinder sparks will leave lil marks in your windshield...you wont notice untill your driving on a sunny day.

Also as mentioned early Spot Weld Drill bit is better than a regular drill bit.

Im not being a *******..just lending some of my know how.

Good job for being 1st timers

Thanks. I kinda wish we knew that before, but thanks for the advice. I guess we should check his windsheild to make sure its okay.

 

[68stang351]

We're about to start bodywork on the rest of the car.

 

[68stang351]

Getting my buddies coupe (306notchback) close to paint, we've been sanding it down to bare metal and almost have it fully primered!