'65 falcon 2 dr wagon resto

while the roof is getting tended to on the tudor wagon I have turned my attention back to the cowl.....as noted before I was able to get a hold of the outer cowl edges off of a falcon parts car.....I was able to drill out the spot welds that hold the firewall section to it....might need the upper edge on the PS as that is rotted out as well...otherwise the rest of the firewall section will be tossed out...here are a couple of pics of the cowl replacement sections.....once the roof is done it will be just a matter of cutting out the rust and welding in the new cowl sections...I also was able to keep one of the cowl hats as a template to be used

 

Visited Mark over at the shop today and he has the roof on.....it is clamped down and ready for weld.....He told me he raised and lowered the roof 36 times using his pulley system.....It went on real nice with minimal massaging on the drip rails...project should be done in the next couple of days....I also dropped off the donor cowl pieces that I got and will have Mark take care of that next since he has the car

 

be rollin in no time

 

Roof is done! Now onto fixing the DS/PS cowl sections as well as the firewall piece/engine bay brace....the prior owner hacked the firewall up trying to install a power brake booster....bad decision....so it is a return to stock on that one.....also it appears that at some point the prior owner tried to add in metal under the cowl to fix it....again didn't work as the pics show....the rot extends into the upper door hinge...no problem though

 

Mark sandblasted the outer donor cowl pieces along with the upper cowl piece...Man I didn't realize how cool soda blasting was! He has already cut out the old firewall piece and clamped in the replacement stock piece I gave him....I also ordered the front floor pans for the tudor wagon from Classic 2 Current....cost me $136.81 for both sides(including shipping) which I didn't think was too bad

 

tower brace and firewall piece has been rewelded back on.....still working on the cowl...the rot was so bad due to a prior owner trying to braze in tin to "temporarily" fix the outer edges of the cowl....not a good idea! Anyway it will get fixed and the Estimated time for finish is the end of the month....Mark has literally taken apart the donor cowl pieces by drilling out the spot welds...the outer structure by the A pillar was corroded as evidenced by the picture

 

Cowl rot is very common in Fords of that era. Generally if caught soon enough it is limited to the vent and air box area. That's one of the critical areas to be inspected when looking to purchase "restored" Falcons and Mustangs especially. Pretty paint can hide lots of bad. In your case you knew going in that there was lots of metal work to be done.

You are braver than I. I don't do metal very well nor do I weld.

 

cutting and replacing metal is all about bodywork....having access to replacement cowl sections has made this much easier to fix the rot...this cowl rot is considered excessive and that is why Mark at the bodyshop is doing this job...he is going to have about 100 hrs into fixing this rot

 

Here is the update on the cowl: Mark has welded in the PS cowl donor piece along with properly seam sealing underneath....fitment of the piece was real nice! He is going to start on the DS next week and should have the cowl completely fixed by the end of the month....I have tried to start searching for a replacement DS front frame rail...the one on the tudor needs replacement as it is rotten

 

Way to go, awesome work! I love seeing the pictures, thanks!

Arvid Svendsen

 

I got a hold of Brian Lukas out in CA.....He has quite the collection of falcon parts cars , and he has a parts falcon wagon that has a good DS front frame rail.....will cut it out for me and get it to me the first week in March....so I have that lined up while Mark is finishing the cowl on the tudor

 

Great story...keep the pictures coming. I'm really enjoying your progress

 

more rust?????.....dude...im thinkin you shoulda bought a clean car

either way...your my hero...the wind beneath my wings...my soul and inspiration..........................................

 

Rev,

Does rust sleep anyway like a tired baby, I think not? I am finally getting down to getting all of the structural big fixes done....Normally I wouldn't have gone this far on this tudor wagon but because of the rarity, options, and original v8 status she needed to be fixed the right way....AS of now there are only 44 registered in the country as someone who is driving one...Again out of that amount how many are original 289 v8's with the options the car has....I have also promised to take the former owner's wife for a ride as he passed away in 2010

 

The DS cowl has been welded in by Mark. He just has to recreate the cowl hats on both sides, seam seal, rust proof, and reweld on the upper cowl....everything is lining up real nice....I took a couple of pics with the upper cowl clamped on and also of the finished DS cowl