Hack Weld Solder Sculpt: March 2017

Yeah, my last post was in December. Why no Mustang progress? So winter happened, no heat, compressor idle, and an electrician who is 5 jobs deep happened. I took some time off. It's been pretty mild in Illinois for the last 2 weeks though, so I put on my longjohns and jumped back in. Still waiting for the electrician though. As appropriate, we'll probably have shop heat by July!

Screwed up some sheet metal

This looks almost ok in this pic. I wasn't happy with it though.

Sorta. I cut the rusty battery apron so I could section in some new sheet metal. As luck would have it, the replacement piece was not very good quality- it fit poorly and was, I dunno, just weird. I went for it and cut it in, but there were some unsettling gaps. I mean I measured 4 times, templated, traced, all that. But after tacking it in place and removing and reworking, then tacking in place again I decided it looked like shit and tore it out. For giggles (and because the welder was burning through inexplicably), I gauged the metal, and found that it was weird because it was 20 gauge sheet, not 18 (crap). So I "saved" $20 on this cheaper panel. And it cost me more since I threw it in the trash after all that cutting and fitting, then ordered a better quality one. That's not even factoring my time spent trying to push a bad position. Dad was right. Just pay for quality and shut up, it's easier and cheaper in the end.

water in, water, detergent, and debris out!

Dead mouse count up to 7

I thought I had found all of the rascals, but when I blew some compressed air into the end of the cowl to do a quick clean-out there was nesting and skeletal mouse bits. I didn't expect the cloud of crap that blew out the other side when I started. Turns out the fresh air intake was filled in places one can't see with more mud wasp and mouse nests. After an hour, I chased the last of the debris out. I finished up by dousing the channels with detergent and flushing with water. I didn't have to open up the cowl, so a huge win there.

Found a new challenging thing (spoiler alert: more rust)

So why was I flushing out the cowl? While waiting for the new battery apron I decided to get back on the horse and start work on the driver side cowl, which rusted through where it mated to the firewall and the floor. I did not get a shit-cheap panel for this replacement (made sure this time) so we're ready to rock. I cut some of the firewall and some of the cowl back. I noticed once this was opened up that I had easy access to the fresh air intake. Since it'd be easier to work with that removed, out it came. Then the fun started. I noticed immediately that the flange for the cold air intake (the part that keeps water that gets in the cowl vent from pouring inside the car) was rusted pretty badly, with a few holes all the way around.

Fresh air intake flange - rusty but savable

This is a common weakness in the '65 Mustang. I just figured that since the cowl looked ok from the inside, it wasn't a thing. Given that replacing the cowl would be a gigantic crazy deal, I resolved to repair the fresh air intake with a sleeve epoxied in place. I ended up removing the cold air flapper, cleaning it up and repainting it with POR15. I removed the wiring harness since it was in the way (and we're replacing it anyway), then hit the panels inside the car with a wire wheel. I finished by arresting all the surface rust on the inside of the firewall and cowl with POR 15.