My Comet GT Build

I bought this Comet over 4 years ago and it has set outside the whole time I've owned it. The floors have always been bone dry even during monsoons so I figured I wouldn't have to do any cowl work. Oh well........

 

Ouch! If anyone can get rid of them, you can.

 

Bummer! Which method are you going to use for the repair?

 

Since I'm building this car as an all weather driver, I will pull the top cowl off and repair it correctly. However, I am going with a complete after market heating and cooling system, so I may just eliminated the vents. I haven't decided for sure yet.

 

ya my rust free garage kept mav. Was attacked by the winged rust termites!
Behind the windshield washer bottle.

 

That sucks!!!!!

 

That sucks for sure,, I ran into more rust than I thought on my 71 project. When I cleaned out the right qtr behind the tire I found rust termites to be not real bad on the qtr itself, but more than I expected in the wheelhouse. Time to form metal and fire up the welder!!
Dan

 

That sucks. Hate when that happens....

 

Well, I drilled out all 123 spot welds to get the cowl off today. It's about what I expected. Since I am going to add a complete after market heat / ac system, I am leaning towards plugging them up. But I do have a couple of complete rust free cowls, at least they were when I last saw them, and I also have a set of Mustang patch panels. The Mustang pieces are usable only if you need the top hat and no more than an inch around them. The top hats are the exact same size as the mustang patch panels. decisions....decisions.

 

ouch!
good luck with it

 

good luck with the project

 

Dennis, that is damn gruesome looking. Mine are only part way as bad as that. I have to fix the rot but I've also been working on a way to bring air to them from vents in the fenders and sealing up the top cowl slots once and for all. Trying to keep water and vent inlet air from ever mixing again.

 

guess i better go pick up that cowl i need and start taking it apart before it gets in that condition too. ma, 123 welds. not looking forward to it.

 

Tin termites? We always called them Metal Mites, but whatever name you use the results are the same. That hat is really gone, and boy does that suck. If you ever need to replace the hat and don't have a factory one to take it's place, here is a way to make your own replacement hat that works quite nicely. The outside diameter of the factory hat is the same size as the inside diameter of a large metal coffee can. All you need to do is cut a strip of sheetmetal the same size as the old hat and clamp the metal together until it will fit snuggly inside the coffee can. Once it will fit into the can, remove it and trim the ends so they meet. Clamp them together and weld them up. After that is done, cut out another peice of sheet metal to form the base of the hat and weld that to the bottom of the hat. That piece you can make any size you need to replace the rust around the base of the original hat. Just remember to cut the center section out of the base inside the hat. We almost forgot to do that once. The whole process takes about an hour to do.

 

Eww...

I always called it tinworm. I am afraid mine looks like that also, maybe worse. But I have a good one in a parts car, should have it cut out today or tomorrow. I plan to attack mine as soon as Crusin the Coast is over with.