I'm getting ready to put my 66 GT-350 into the body shop. Over the years I've noticed after washing the car a few drops of water on the floor mats. Not a lot of water, but enough to be annoying, and a bit worried about further issues down the road. Obviously while getting stripped down for paint, and the glass removed, I need to decide on repair options. I've seen the full top and bottom replacement panels for heavily rusted items, which I see are now being reproduced for 65-66 cars. I don't think mine are that bad, nothing visible from the top, but who knows until at least the fenders are off. My top cowl vent panel looks fine, and I want to save as much original sheet metal as possible. And I've seen the small patch panels for just the inlet area. Another option is to remove the "ends" of the top panel and take a closer look and perhaps have enough access to repair as needed. Or leave them as is, and be careful where I put the dang water while washing. I've drilled spot welds before on Mustangs, such as on the tail light panels, trunk panels, etc. But the cowl replacement seems like a huge daunting task. Plus there's the export brace reinforcement piece, and regooping the body filler afterwards over that. I'm almost tempted to leave it as is. What have others done? Is my car the only one that leaks? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks, Ken
Hi to a concerned Shelby owner, it is best to determine where the water leak is from....prior to removal of any parts.This could simply be leak around the windshield from a split gasket or dried out butyl sealer.If this is a southern car the cowl should still be good,and may not be leaking....test and retest,it is the only way to get to the root cause of the leak(s) With the glove box liner and heater plenum out there is quite a bit of room,and visibility to watch for a leak. Good luck! P.D.
If the steel floor of the cowl is intact, definitely want to know ahead of time. Partial replacement of the cowl floor, if needed is the way to go. The repro cowl is pretty nice, but the top of the shell is correct only for 64-65 (early). Look closely at the wiper transmission holes:
Good news! I took the heater box and driver side vent off to take a closer look. It looks like the right side has a stress fracture or crack, and can be easily repaired from below, or after the fender is removed. The left looks fine and that side never did leak anyway. I reached above both inlets and it felt like just light surface rust on the lower cowl. It has been in California all its life. Attached are pictures of the left and right. What a relief! Now, any ideas on how to get up there and protect whats there with POR-15 or an Eastwood product? Thanks!
Painting the 'seen' surfaces is easy. What I did for the cowl floor is to take a plastic handle 1" paint brush, heat the handle and carefully bend it to almost 180 degrees. I was then able to reach up through the hat and paint the outside of the hat and the surrounding cowl floor (checked with a mirror). I slopped paint everywhere I could reach. Messy but worth it.
I didn't have any rust, but used the eastwood rust encapsulator as a preventative measure. I could actually get my hand and wrist up the hats and clutching a small brush was able to paint the outside area of the hats completely. The down side is my hand is now bent in a U shape permanently. Looks good for Kung Fu fighting, but little else. Z. Ray
On a separate note, if you feel under where the back of the export brace mounts, are the unevenly spaced holes that were not filled in the cowl since the car received an export brace present on your car and every other '65-'66? These holes can clearly be seen on the picture of the reproduction cowl in the photo.
Yep, you're right. Two unused holes between each of the outside pairs of bolts that can only be seen or felt from beneath.
