Rotten and Rusty Front Cowl - Suggestions?

[Howard_The_Duck]

Hey guys

I was working on the disassembly of my 1971 BGT yesterday, and as I was attempting to remove the front passenger fender from the car, me and my buddy discovered that the front fender had been welded togather in 3 seperate places, and the fender-to-cowl gap had been sealed with lead. We also found where a frame machine had been hooked up so we are assuming the car had been wrecked somewhat hard.

Well as we were trying to remove the bead of lead sealant with a chisel, my friend tapped slightly off, and the chisel punched right through the front cowl panel. We took a closer look, and it appears that it is absolutely rusted and rotten underneath. It was all basically held together by Bondo.

The question is that Moss does not make that section in front of the windshield anymore for BGTs. Has anyone had luck finding this piece through another vendor or fabricating it? I would be very interested either way.

Thanks alot guys for your help!
Zack

 

[DrEntropy]

If you're yankin' off "big bits" like the front wings, I'd suspect you have access to some modern welding gear? I'd be fabricating the cowl for sure. Panel beating is about the only way you'll get that cowl right. The beading is available thru Vickie-Brit by the foot, so no worries there.

Doin' a roadster here and the cowl on it is nasty, but salvageable. BTW, "All-Metal" can be great stuff compared to "bondo", IMHO. And there's this lovely spot putty from UPOL (English, of course!) called "Dolphin Glaze"... Wonderful stuff. I use an epoxy primer (Valspar VP-50 Series) to seal the metal over first: It'll stick to ANYTHING, including galvanized metal! then block it out and "rinse, repeat" until it's one lovely contour. Just throwin' this out there to see if there's anyone else daft enuff to be doin' this stuff ;-}