Well my solid cowl with just a few pinholes in the hats wasn't as good as I thought.
Here's all I thought I had....




There were some small holes in the top section at the front lip. Seen here:
As I was cleaning and investigating how to fix those I notice something on the inside, just underneath the largest hole in that pic. Turns out there was a hole underneath that one in the bottom section. Actually, it runs to almost the center of the cowl as far as I can tell so far.




Looks like I'm going to have to split it after all. Guess I should have follow my first instinct and bought the patches.



I did manage to finish this part up today though.



That second one is where there were 6 holes drilled to mount the mirror. Wasn't the outside mirror optional on the 64 1/2? Those holes were next to the side glass, not the vent window like my 66 was.

 

Looks like you get to practice drilling and welding a bit more. The journey is the fun part, and you've got alot of fun yet to be had.

The sideview mirrors were installed at the dealer in 1964. And they didn't all end up in the same spot. Mine was installed on the fender a foot in front of the windshield.

 

For every flake of rust you see, there's five more hiding! :shock:

 

Guess it's time to stock up on drill bits and cutting oil.

I was extremely disgusted to find that. Just when I thought my welding was almost done and I could finish the filler work. I had even looked at that area numerous times but never saw the hole until yesterday. Then when I took the rusty part of the lip out there was even more that I couldn't see. :bang:

 

One word

Cobalt

Don't waste your time and money on anything else.

 

drill bit brand?

 

Not a brand but a type. http://www.lowes.com/lkn?action=productLis...opic=goShopping

Supposedly lasts longer than high speed steel or titanium.

 

*UPDATE*

Following Mber's advice I bought a 5/16" Cobalt drill bit from Lowe's. It was well worth its $7.50 price tag as I made it through 120 spot welds with one bit (although the last few were difficult). About halfway through the process and after drilling completely through in a couple of places, I decided to take an old high speed steel 5/16" bit that I already had and grind the point down so that it was flat.


This really helped a lot. I used the Cobalt to get started to the point where the hole was just big enough for the flat bit to fit without "walking". I then used the flat bit to cut the weld through the top layer. Worked like a charm.



This wasn't the end of the work though as I still had to go around with a chisel and seperate the top panel in some places. The top corners ended up pretty mangled due to having several spot welds there which led to very thin metal once they were drilled out.

Once the top was off I found this ugly sight.









Yes, that is a washer and 2 nails in there along with another pound of rust particles to go along with the other 2 pounds that I blew out previously. The white stuff you see around the hats is POR putty that I had originally planned to use to fill the pinholes in them.


After cutting out the old rusty panel.....




I did a trial fit on the new panel.



I made my cut marks on the old metal. Apparently though I was in heat induced stupor and also marked the bottom side of the new panel which led me to making the cut on it instead of the old stuff. *DOH* Luckily I made my cut so that it will be easy to weld back in but that's just more work for me. BE CAREFUL WHERE YOU'RE CUTTING!


I ground all the edges down and straightened them out before applying Bloxide weld-thru primer.






Welding to ensue next weekend.

 

Hey, looks like fun!

 

Looks can be deceiving. :bang:


Gotta remember to drill out for the wiper arm. The new pieces don't come predrilled.

 

This would be a great time to get that brake pedal support chromed!

 

You're making it look easy. That cordless drill battery held up for all the welds?

 

Easy it is not. Total of about 6 hours drilling out all the spot welds. 4 hours last Sunday got 95 of them. 1.5 hours yesterday on the final 25. I was using 2 drills, one corded with the cobalt bit and the cordless with the flat bit. It's pretty new so it holds up well. Didn't notice any drop in power with either session.

 

Nope, but a really good time to rollerize it :shock:

 

No need. Mine is a slush-o-matic.

 

LOL

 

Wow!

Great (and thorough) Write-up there Josh. Thanks for all the details and pics.

 

This project should be referenced in the Buyer's Guide FAQ.

Josh, this is your baby.

 

You are correct. All these people that say they've found an original car and "there's not a speck of rust on it" kill me. I knew this one had some very minor problems but until I cut that front section of cowl to replace it, I didn't realize this one had the bigger holes. You couldn't see them from underneath the dash or through the hole I cut in the sides.

 

Josh, you have done yeoman's work there Fine writeup and pics! Should be a tremendous help for others who follow your path....
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