Upper Cowl Repair Advice

[sanders7981]

Having just returned from a 10 month tour in Afghanistan about 3 weeks ago and spent the last few days working on the upper cowl of my 69 charger and looking for some advice from you guys that have done this before.  I thought about buying a new repro one from AMD, but I wanted to try and save some money and keep as much original metal on the car as possible.  the biggest problem area I had was teh windsheild channel had numerous holes and rusted out areas.  Instead of just filling in teh holes with metal filler or fiberglass, i cut out the old areas and began replacing them with metal from the rear deck panel that I cut off last year before deploying.  I am about complete with the repairs, but also noted some pitting in the vent grooves and wondered how much rust was under the actual groove channels.  I decided to cut the section out with the vents and then coated the underside with Rust Encapsulator from Eastwood after a little wire brushing.  I probably could have left it alone as there was not as ,much as I expected, but I was concerned that it would eventually rust through the paint.  I am not an expert welder, but I got the section welded back into place and dang near close to the original position.  The panel did not warp from what I can tell, but there is a minor grove where I grinded the weld flat, or as flat as I could get it without taking out too much metal.  I would say that there will probably be less than an 1/8th of an inch of filler over this area once I finish. There were also some areas where the gap was a little wide where I cut the sheet metal.  While welding, I blew out some of the metal with my MIG and had to build up the weld puddle to get all the holes sealed along the firewall seam where I initially cut it.  Will this be ok?  I know its not the preferred technique, but I figured I can put a little metal filler over it as well.   I got some Evercoat Metal to Metal filler to put over the welds to smooth out the imperfections.  I guess my question is am I taking the right steps and will this last?  I attached pics for refference.  This is my first resto project and I am tyring to take the right steps as I am doing ALL the work from engine to paint!  Thanks in advance!   

[Dino]

You're fine, just take your time and slowly weld it all shut and build it up, move around a lot and take your time!  Once it warps you will have a whole world of problems to tackle.  Metal filler will likely hold but I wouldn't go there if you can weld it.  Remember to use a fairly low setting on the mig but not too low or the weld will not penetrate deep enough to hold.  Keep your wire speed as fast as you can handle it to get a good, short burn.  I cannot stress this enough, take your time.  Focus on one tiy area and weld it, when it does not go like you planned, don't keep welding it, just step back, let it cool and try again.  Do you have a small grinder?  You will want to grind only the weld, not the surrounding material because it will slightly weaken as you weld and you don't want to make it any thinner.

Plan ahead what you are going to weld and then go for it, when you fail you try again, don't rush.

If you have any questions let me know and I'll talk you through it.

D