Challenger Cowl/Firewall questions

[340SIX]

I need to change the whole top cowl of my car but was hoping to just put in the driver side.I realy want tp patch it with [arts from anothe car so i can retain the factory VIN #'s on the cowl.
On this car the whole front innner fenders ect is 100% rust free frame is 100% Only bad part of the whole front is the cowl Car sat with leaves in the cowl,for a long period before i bought it and rusted out.
Are they any cars other than a Barracudda that have the same shape?
I would like to start looking at U pull it junk yards  for a donner car. If any darts, dusters, B Bodys,C bodys ect are close to the same I could  change out only the parts that need changed by but we,ding them into place.I have had no luck finding a used challenger or cuda one and realy dont want to get the repop unless i realy have to.
So?
 

[elitecustombody]

save yourself the hassle of trying to find a donor,then have to deal with cutting and drilling out the welds, buy brand new repro piece   

[340SIX]

From what i understand the ones from goodmark and AMD are not 100%.
I also did not want to change the whole thing.
From what i see there are only 2 places on a challenger that have the partial VIN stamped and hate to lose one.
I guess i could put a repop one from AMD in and weld the factoy top on it with the VIN# onto the new  cowl.
I just thought it would be easyer to put thet section in that i need on the car.

[71ChallengerSE]

If you do go with a new cowl I could use that top section with the lower windshield channel. Just a thought in case you didnt use it

[ShelbyDogg]

After Changing mine, if you dont have any other holes on top of the firewall, I learned that you should just patch your old one. Changing that out will cause a lot of work. Drilling, cutting, welding, grinding, then sealing the seam between the cowl and firewall, through the vent holes is a main pain in the a$$. Plus you also have to cut off the mounts that hold the struts to the shock towers and the mounts for the inner fenders.  Cut some small patches and start welding them in.

[340SIX]

After Changing mine, if you dont have any other holes on top of the firewall, I learned that you should just patch your old one. Changing that out will cause a lot of work. Drilling, cutting, welding, grinding, then sealing the seam between the cowl and firewall, through the vent holes is a main pain in the a$$. Plus you also have to cut off the mounts that hold the struts to the shock towers and the mounts for the inner fenders.  Cut some small patches and start welding them in.

That was my thinking that i did not want to  cut it loose were the inner fenders,windsheid ect are.
The car was dipped by redistrip and the part shown are the onlY bad part so would like to find a doner car and butt weld just that area in.
Thus me asking if only a challenger/Barracuda was it for getting that section.
Since I have had no luck finding one.

[ShelbyDogg]

I can't answer that question as I only kept my e-bodies and sold away everything else. What about just making the pieces? it all started out as flat metal anyway. There is only one small part with a rolled bead, but that could be made with a piece of wood, router and a hammer.

[farmboy70]

From the looks of it I would section the lower area from a new re pop.
This will keep your numbers intact and still repair the rust effectivly. You will need to remove a lot more than what is showing holes because there will be embedded rust trapped along the seem. Chances of finding a used piece is slim.
Dave

[340SIX]

I had the whole body dipped to rid the car of paint,fillers ect.
The reason that part looks so bas is I had planed on cutting it out,so it just had one light coat of DP40 on it since it was getting cut off and patched.
I had a doner panel but it was lost by the shop that had it when they went belly up. It was get the car out asap and what I could get. some stuff was lost /tossed out or damaged by the shop.It was a friends shop that I worked at but built the dart first. He lost his shop and they tossed lots of parts out that were for cars. At the time I was working a job and there as a second job. So I was not ther every day and some idiots working for him tossed out some of my parts thinking it was trash left over from a job.
The rust you see is light surace rust where it was left bare.
Here is how it looked when it was derusted and striped

[340SIX]

The prime was just so it was not bare the whole car will get gone over with #80 then reprimed after sheet metal is compleate{when ever that is

[GCC]

This is by far the toughest area to deal with on these E-bodies.  The areas that are rusted out on your cowl have a lot of contours; this is not easy to duplicate, and while butt-welding is the best for this, it would take a ton of hours to get it right.  I think Farmboy has a good suggestion: you would have to spend bucks on a repop, but you could section-in the lower half; I would do it right at the 90-degree bend at the top of the cowl.  You will still have a huge seam to weld up, but it might be easier than drilling and cutting several dozen spot welds.  This would keep the cowl VIN numbers intact.  I don't know how good or bad the repop panel is, but it is your best bet in this case.  You could cut out the VIN and weld it back into the new panel and install the entire repop cowl.  My driver's side was the worst, and I already have a ton of hours getting this far.  I definitely did not need an entire new cowl, but yours is a pretty good candidate for one.  Hope that helps... 

[somedaysoon]

 If it were me, and alot will disagree but I would remove the cowl, buy a repop and patch the original together, whether it is patches or split in half is your choice,  then replace it. The reason I would remove it is so I could be sure to cure every bit of the rust. I guarantee there's hidden rust between the cowl and firewall and I'm sure you only want to do it once, unless you enjoy misery. The minute water hits that rust under your fresh paint you'll wish you had. I'm sure the body guys on here will agree. Pete

[Alaskan_TA]

Just a  for the guys that need to repair this area, leave the original number intact.

If the numbers are cut out & welded back in & the car recieves a serious inspection it will be hard to prove it is not a rebody / VIN swap car. No matter how good of a welder you are, there is a way to test for welded in numbers.

Take step by step photos of the whole process as well so that you can prove the numbers never left the car.

Barry

[ShelbyDogg]

My cowl and firewall were rusted so badly that I never wanted to touch this area again, so I went with the new parts.


Rob

[Kapteenikosmos]

I also agree that you should probably get a repop (I don't think that there exists many donor cowls in which the rusted out area would be in great condition) for the sections you need to repair the rusted out areas. Even though the repop wouldn't be 100% the same, it would probably be easier than bending the contours from plain sheet metal. Have you thoroughly checked the vents/vent (-70 non ac cars had two vents right?)? With that much damage on cowl I would assume that those are busted too and repairing/changing them is bit hard if the whole cowl isn't removed. It can be done from the underside and inside of the car but that will be your call.

I repaired pretty badly rusted cowl on mine with just plain sheet metal, but I changed the looks somewhat and eliminated some of the badly designed areas that are prone for rusting. I did remove the whole top to ease the repairs.