Topic: 71-73 cowl

[jnason1973]

anybody have any ideas on how to repair a rotted cowl? both sides are rotted right through i can open the glove box and see sunlight, i love new england, ive never seen any kind of repair patches or anything for that, i know you can band-aid it yourself, but its only temporary any ideas would be greatly appreciated

[Soaring]

If you want to do it right, you will need to replace the entire cowl with a new one.  Just google "Mustang Cowl Replacement" and you will get several very good articles on the subject.  The Muntang Monthly article is especially good.  Set aside a great deal of time (an entire summer) to get the job done.  It is neither easy nor cheap. 

[rmodel65]

yeah you can google that article it will give you a general idea, only problem is they dont make an entire lower cowl. idk if they even make patch panels for the 71-73 cars right now. but basically you have to drill out the spot welds holdiing the upper panel to the lower separate them. cut out the cancer from the lower then replace with fresh metal and do some preventative painting then spot the weld the top panel back on

[Soaring]

Well, Stephen, according to this, you can get both the upper and lower replacement parts for the 67-68, but unfortunately not for the 73.  I guess you just need to have good welding skills to do this job, and it could take up to a week even if you know what you are doing. 
http://www.mustangmonthly.com/howto/mump_0611_ford_mustang_reproduction_cowl_replacement/index.
More information that may be beneficiary.
http://home.woh.rr.com/filage/mustang/cowlfaq.html

[Mark57]

Start looking for auto junkyards that have 71-73 Mustangs. They can remove the parts and ship them to you. It can get quite pricey though. I go to Phoenix every year to see family so I hit the yards out there for mostly rust free parts. I have a 73 conv. so I know how hard parts are to find.

[Soaring]

As hard as it is to get the dang cowl out with all those spot welds, I doubt a junk yard would take one out even if they did have the 73 Mustang in their yard.  I wouldn't trust the integrity of a 35 year old junk yard cowl in the first place.  You might want to consider taking yours out and use it as a pattern to weld a new one. 

[jnason1973]

Thanks for the tips guys, i have drilled out all the spot welds and removed the top of the cowl, i then cut out the lower and am working on making a new one as close as i can, its amazing how involved a project can get especially when you were only planning on replacing a few panels here and there and painting the car and putting an interior in, its quite the addicting disease but itll be worth it in the end

[Soaring]

Well, if you have that new cowl welded in, then you have hurdled a large fence.  That is undoubtedly the most expensive and time consuming project one can tackle.  Good job bro!  The rest is downhill from here.  keep up posted on the rest of your undertakings. 

[Bossnutt]

Thanks for the tips guys, i have drilled out all the spot welds and removed the top of the cowl, i then cut out the lower and am working on making a new one as close as i can, its amazing how involved a project can get especially when you were only planning on replacing a few panels here and there and painting the car and putting an interior in, its quite the addicting disease but itll be worth it in the end

It would be great and really helpful to others if you started a topic on exactly how you did this.  I know from experience with the fox body it's a pain in the butt to drill out the spot welds alone.  But people that join the site and don't know exactly how to do this and just have an idea would find this very helpful.  For example your topic title could be "How to replace a cowl on a 71-73 mustang"