Cowl Rustproofing

jackson0215 said:

Hello,
I see allot of posts on fixing a rusted out cowl area but my questions is about one that is not rusted out. I would like to figure out a way to retreat the area inside the cowl without cutting anything apart. I do not plan to leave the car outside but getting all of the rust out of the thing has been very time consuming and I want to make sure I do everything I can to avoid cutting out bad metal down the road.

An advice is appreciated.

Click to expand...

First, I'll state, "you want your cake and eat it too!"
Looking at the design of that area, and I know it all too well, having cut out 100, or so, spot welds to get to it. At the very least, you need to remove both front fenders to expose the water drains at each ends of the cowl. Then, with compressed air, brushes, probes, and picks, you might get the big stuff loose and removed. After which, you can flood it with some type of anti corrosion material, but, this will only prolong the inevitable.
I was lucky, in that, my May (1964) built 64.5 did not have any penetration, but, it had a lot of debris, surface rust, paint scaling etc. But, I felt compelled to remove the cowl if only to satisfy my curiosity.
Good Luck with your decision.

I "tin canned" the ends of the cowl to gain access to the inside. It is the only way short of drilling the spot welds out and separating it to get inside and inspect and treat the metal. I used Eastwood rust encapsulator to treat the metal and seam seal on all of the joints and around the the top hats.
The welds on the end caps are under the fenders so they are not seen.
Lots of pictures and information on my website: Cowl Repair

P.O.R. has some bobs that are on the end of a wire that work with the POR product that will seal up and prevent any corrosion from happening. You will still have to remove the front fenders and go in through the large drain holes. Then you have to get a flexible nozzle to go in through the cowl vent to get the other side. Good Luck!