Cowl and Hood question

[sanders7981]

I was out doing some sanding prep work on my 69 Charger today to get it ready to apply body filler and found a few areas that I am second guessing on and thinking about replacing.  I was looking at the cowl and began on thinking about replacing it with a new one since there are some minor holes, 1/4 inch size or less, along the windshield channel and some pitting in the vent grates.  The chanel can be repaired with metal filler/short-strand fiberglass, but if it is easy to remove and replace...then I may go that route.  What is done inorder to remove it from the vehicle? 

  Second question is for the hood and possibly trunk.  Is there a way to remove the rust from under the hood inside the brace areas?  The top of the hood is in good conditon, but the underside needs some serious attention.  I figured there may be an cheaper alternative instead of buying a new hood.  The under side of the trunk looks fine, but the seams along the side are where the rust is showing through so I will assume that it is in the same or similar condition than the hood.

   

[sanders7981]

Wow... no one knows this answer...

[UFO]

As for the hood there are two ways...
One -seperate the upper and lower halfs-clean then weld back together.(I wouldn't do it)
two - try this method-http://antique-engines.com/electrol.asp

[motorcitydak]

No one makes a new cowl for our cars, you can only hope to find a good one off a donor car. The only good news there is that most similar era B body cars will work. You are better off just welding up the problem areas if they are not too bad. Unless you have another cowl handy and like drilling out 100's of spot welds that is

I just put a cowl on my car because someone before me decided to hack a huge hole in mine. The only good thing about it is that you can then clean everything up under the cowl and paint the underside of it (they are left in bare metal and rust). You have to drill out every single spot weld off your car and the donor car. There are about 100 or so on each. Then you have to cut the corners by the A pillar because those are welded and lead-ed to the body. Make sure you cut more off the donor car so you can have more material to remove and fit to your car. Then comes the fun part of straightening out all the flanges and grinding them to bare steel and welding those 100's of little circles back in and matching the corners back together...Like I said, I think you are better off fixing your cowl

[sanders7981]

No one makes a new cowl for our cars, you can only hope to find a good one off a donor car. The only good news there is that most similar era B body cars will work. You are better off just welding up the problem areas if they are not too bad. Unless you have another cowl handy and like drilling out 100's of spot welds that is

I just put a cowl on my car because someone before me decided to hack a huge hole in mine. The only good thing about it is that you can then clean everything up under the cowl and paint the underside of it (they are left in bare metal and rust). You have to drill out every single spot weld off your car and the donor car. There are about 100 or so on each. Then you have to cut the corners by the A pillar because those are welded and lead-ed to the body. Make sure you cut more off the donor car so you can have more material to remove and fit to your car. Then comes the fun part of straightening out all the flanges and grinding them to bare steel and welding those 100's of little circles back in and matching the corners back together...Like I said, I think you are better off fixing your cowl

Actually... AMD is about to release cowls for 68 - 69 chargers.  I spoke to a rep a month ago and he said that they have already done all the test fitting and the piece was NICE!  He said that they should be released around Feb.  I think I am just going to repair mine though.  I figured I can spot weld up the holes and just grind 'em flat. 

[motorcitydak]

Wow, seriously WTF! They are just a few months too slow for me then. O well, its done. Its still a huge PITA tho

[six-tee-nine]

About the cowl it's your own decision i guess. If you're that kind of hard core restoring guy that would remove the cowl to have it painted underneath, then go ahead......

About the hood and trunk I can give you an answer tough...... I would have it acid dipped. On the otherhand, you could have your car acid dipped and e coated too if you want to get the unpainted areas covered without removing the panels.....

[sanders7981]

About the cowl it's your own decision i guess. If you're that kind of hard core restoring guy that would remove the cowl to have it painted underneath, then go ahead......

About the hood and trunk I can give you an answer tough...... I would have it acid dipped. On the otherhand, you could have your car acid dipped and e coated too if you want to get the unpainted areas covered without removing the panels.....

I would get the hood acid dipped... if I knew where I could get it done and how much it would run...