Thread: filled cowl

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Mike---If you are going to do anything other than just leave it closed, you are going to run ito a repaint of the cowl top, at a very minimum. If I was doing it, I would first mask off the windshield glass with some cardboard, (cereal box thickness) and all the surrounding area where sparks might fall with a good quality masking paper. Remove the cowl vent and use a small air sander with a medium grit sanding disc to strip all the paint on the top and edges to bare metal on the vent itself. While its off, get in there with a small air grinder with a 'flap wheel" on it and remove all traces of paint from around the inside of the opening where the cowl vent sits, and remove the paint all arround the top of the cowl vent opening for a distance of about 3" back from the opening all around. Set the cowl vent in place and enlist the help of a friend and some masking tape to hold it in place, making absolutely certain that the top of the cowl vent does not set 'proud" of the surrounding cowl surface. (slightly lower is far more acceptable than slightly higher). Use your mig and tack it to the cowl in about 6 places, 2 at each end and 2 in the middle. Let it cool and then add about 6 more good heavy tacks midway between the first 6 tacks. There is no need to weld it more than that---any more weld could warp things, and could crack your windshield.---(that heavy cardboard on your windshield was as much for "bump" protection as it is for spark protection). Grind your tacks flush, or even better slightly below the surface. (there is enough gap between the cowl vent and the cowl top that there should be plenty of the weld left down in there for required strength). Fill in the gap all around with "Mar-glass" filler or any other of the waterproof glass impregnated fillers, using your spreader to work it well down into the gap, all around. Use your air grinder with a 60 grit disc to knock the glass impregnated filler down flush (or slightly below) the cowl surface. Then apply normal filler to the entire area, and proced as you would with any other bondo work.---Brian