Early-Mustang Cowl Repair

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Category: Restoration Section

Published on Friday, 29 March 2013 13:03

Written by Klaus

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This is the curse of any 65-70 Mustang owner...the dreaded cowl vent leaks. The situation started way back in 1964 1/2 (read that April 1964), when the Mustang was first released. The cowl vent area was an area that wasn't primed OR painted because the cover was already welded to the vents as it came down the assembly line. Hence, the vent areas were just bare metal. And we all know what happens when you mix water + air + bare metal. You get rust. In the case of the cowls, that meant water leaking in onto your feet, and your rug. This also meant water sitting on the floor boards, which meant rotted floorboards, etc etc. Just an all out curse. Many a Mustang has been abandoned because of these darn things (In case you're not sure what the cowl area entails, check out the picture below of my cowl cover after it's removal).

Well, my Mustang wasn't going to be one of them. And, since I had put in a ton of work repairing my floorboards I wasn't about to let leaky cowls ruin them again. So, I came up with a plan of action. I took picture from inside the the cowl area with simply holding my digicam through the Vent holes, to see how much damage is already there.


The first thing I did was, after removing the hood, fenders, winshield wipers, was to open up the side of the cowl like a 'tomato can'. This way of doing things has been suggested in the past in articles by Mustang Monthly. I didn't count the the spotwelds i had to bore out, but must be more than hundred.