Cowl Repair and Front Suspension Brace

Hi again.
This will be an evolving post as I don't really know how long this particular stage will last.

As you can see from the photo below, my cowl had plenty of rust in the usual places once i'd removed all the guard support flanges (and removed layers of silicon filler!).

My approach for this stage is as follows.....

• Cut away the upper cowl in a way that it can then be "removable" - as per Australian Falcons of the early 1970's (and no cuts/joins will be visible). A trap with Mustangs is that as the upper & lower cowl panels are installed as a welded unit, you can never get adequate access to properly rust-proof them at the welded joins (or at least not without great difficulty!). By making the upper cowl removable (attached with just a few screws), I can apply a very effective rust treatment and always have access to this area when required (like removing leaves from vents & fan blades).
• Fix any rusted areas & "rust proof" the cowl as described above.
• Install a full-length section of box-tube steel across the rear of the engine bay to provide a solid foundation for the lower (and removable upper) cowl, firewall & new front suspension bracing.
• Install the new rear engine-bay aprons.
• Install the new cowl "kick panels" (the side panels that run from the door-hinge frame forward to the firewall).
• Install a new firewall - although this will be only partially completed as I need to test fit the engine (sitting as far back as practical) in order to fabricate the final piece.

Anyway, below is a photo of the original metal after the upper cowl was removed.

Notice the rust holes in and around the vents. This car must have leaked like a sieve when it ran in the wet!

And below you can see the metal I had to remove to get back to a reasonable foundation.

You can also partially see (at the bottom of the photo) the custom box-tube section I had to fabricate that will fit the contour of the lower cowl. It's sitting there after countless trial-and-error "test-fits".

And below you can see that new "cross member" a little better but with the cowl repair well underway. I'm using 1.5mm zinc coated steel sheet for these patches.

And now you can see the cowl vent "stacks" have been fabricated and the new cross-member is also in place. I've also started to trial-fit the rear aprons as they finally have some metal to attach to at their rear ends.

And for those that are interested, that custom cross-member was a very tricky piece to make and to "get right". It needed to curve in 3 dimensions, be symmetrical and fit the cowl such that there were no gaps too wide to be welded.

This video may provide some idea of what is involved in the part of the repair (plus show just how nice a rotisserie is for making this project a little easier!).

One thing i've realised now that i've got this far...... I think i've finally reached a point where I no longer need to repair major rust problems. It's all "finishing off" work from here - hooray!
I'll modify & add to this post as I proceed.....