removing 65 Valiant Cowl

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Valiant63

Early A-body Valiants
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eastern, PA and central Florida
I have never done this before, but I want to try it myself to keep cost down. My cole vent area is totally rusted out. How do I remove the metal above it, where the windshield wipers go thru, to reach the "hat" area to replace the metal on the cowl floor. Pictures would be a great help. Thanks.
 
well its spot welded from the factory and you would probly have to take the windshield and the fenders out to get to all of them.after that its just a matter of finding all the spotwelds and drilling em out.
 
probably easier to pull the front glass, pull dash, pull wipers out and fix from underneath...
 
here is the setup for the cowl removal. it's time intensive and there is a heck of a lot of lead and spotwelds to remove

the bottom cowl goes on first of course but instead of the top cowl piece going on the A pillars go on then the top cowl. if your going to remove the cowl you just have to remove the a pillar lead and a ton of spotwelds.

View attachment DSCF2006.JPG
here's the cowl bottom piece on and the a pillars too!
View attachment DSCF2033.JPG
out with the old and in with the new.
View attachment DSCF2011.JPG
clamped on and sealed . ready for welding
View attachment DSCF2067.JPG
done.
View attachment DSCF2114.JPG

yeah it is a lot of spot welds over 100 just for the cowl. if it's localized in the cowl hat areas you can just use a zip wheel and cut an opening in the cowl are larger than the rust and patch it,seal it. then weld up the top cowl piece. and you can't ever have enough c clamps or vise grips!
 
I hope this came thru pm me for telly # having probs uploading , new cam mera another thing I got to learn lol I have parts for you if you don't have yet or haven't found 66 dvert that is 1 aswome job . way over my head and capabilities with my back I still couldn't come close
 

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66Dvert. Great pics showing all that work. Can I bring my car for you to do? :) I have a good parts car to get the cowl from, but thanks Winston. I just wasn't sure how to cut it all apart. It is tough to do when sitting down.
 
wow, those pictures sure tell the story. lesson: Clean those drain holes! ;-)
 
Ran across this thread when I was looking for info on the cowl drains. I have my heater box out right now and I discovered that if I run water on the vent/grill, the area around the hat fills up with water and overflows into the interior.

Where are the drains and what's the best way to clean them?

TIA!!
 
Ran across this thread when I was looking for info on the cowl drains. I have my heater box out right now and I discovered that if I run water on the vent/grill, the area around the hat fills up with water and overflows into the interior.

Where are the drains and what's the best way to clean them?

TIA!!

The drain area is on the backside of the front fenders and you will need to remove them, to get good access to those drains. It is very possible that they may have some body caulk over them, making it impossible for the water to drain. Also there may be any kind of rodent nest, leaves, sticks or soil residue, filling up this area, and plugging it up. I have taken a coat hanger, and bent a J or U shape on one end, and get in that opening and starting digging around and pulling all the stuff out. It can be time consuming, but just keep working it and pour more water in it, to help flush it out. Hope this helps!
 
The drain area is on the backside of the front fenders and you will need to remove them, to get good access to those drains. It is very possible that they may have some body caulk over them, making it impossible for the water to drain. Also there may be any kind of rodent nest, leaves, sticks or soil residue, filling up this area, and plugging it up. I have taken a coat hanger, and bent a J or U shape on one end, and get in that opening and starting digging around and pulling all the stuff out. It can be time consuming, but just keep working it and pour more water in it, to help flush it out. Hope this helps!


Thanks D33, that does help! Sounds like it's a bit of a job. I have a '65 parts car with the front clip off, I'll study that so I know what I'm getting in for.
 
looks like you did some nice work there now I would just cut mine off and some 1 trailer it out 16 hrs of drilling spot welds there nice job tho.
 
After studying my parts car and determining where the drains were located I was able to clean the ones in my '63 using the bent wire method mentioned by D33 above. They are high enough up and with the access available at the hood hinge hole they are not too hard to get to without removing the fenders.
Water flows freely now and not inside the car! :cheers:

Thanks for the assist! And to aid in others looking into this in the future I took a couple of pictures of the cowl drains on my parts car:

http://s38.photobucket.com/user/ToughOldFord/media/Tech/Mopar/65V100CowlDrainLS_zps9a03fd5a.jpg.html

http://s38.photobucket.com/user/ToughOldFord/media/Tech/Mopar/65V100CowlDrainRS_zpse53af860.jpg.html
 
In that second picture you can clearly see a very large amount of body caulk in the path of that drain as also mentioned as a possibility by D33.
 
anyone know of an aftermarket leave gaurd to put over the fresh air vent grill? I have a '66 dart and would like to keep leaves out of air ducting
 
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