Shooting myself in the leg

When this UFO flew back to my garage in December, I told my friend who was helping me at the time, that I'll drill out the 200 spot welds and open the cowl to be able to fix the cowl wents. He asked me whether I was planning to shoot myself in the leg as well. He is the one with Corvette and does not understand the full meaning of rust repairs. The spots are marked red now, so that I'll see them better when I drill them out. They may not be 200 altogether, I lost count after 150.

And here are the new cowl vents waiting to be installed. The new life insurance for the floor.

It took one evening to drill. I lost six drills and two spot weld cutters while opening the cowl. A lot of rain and autumn leaves have have gone through here. And a lot did not. Causing the cowl to rust.

The driver side looked like this.

And the passenger side was not much better. Safety instructions: Always wear rubber boots when driving in the rain.

Starting from the driver side. First I safely cut away the most but left the upper edge. On this side there are three lugs and a hole for wiper mechanism. I left them in place so I could place the new repair panel on top of them and mark their position.

Next evening I cut away the rest of the rust and welded the repair panel. The holes for wiper lugs were drilled where I had copied the marks.

The passenger side is easier as there are nothing else to be positioned than the cowl vent itself. The red mark on the windshield frame and the fender apron form a straight line against which the cowl vent hole must lean on.

On the third evening I was able to weld the passenger side.

I did not have cone-shaped bore at hand so made a change in my plans. Instead of drilling the opening and welding lugs, I transplanted the part from the old panel.

The cowl vent grille panel needs a lot of grinding and intensive care before the coffin can be nailed up. But my leg still feels OK.