Started sanding the paint off my cowl and found a little surprise. Previous owner patched up the rust on the cowl with fiberglass and painted over it. I ended up peeling back some chunks of rusted metal. Mostly on the left side. I believe water seeped in over the years and made it worse.

I have looked up threads and videos on other making the cowl repair using the AMD 465-3468 lower panel strip along with the lower vent panel. In this case has the rust gone too far on the top dash? I've looked for a top dash replacement panel but they don't seem to exist other than for a Camaro or Firebird. What would you guys do here? I am going to be paying a welding to repair the crack in my frame soon and will have him fix this at the same time. I just want to know what would be the most time and cost efficient way?


Before removing fiberglass patches





After removing fiber glass patches

 

You need to find somebody with a parts car that you can cut the metal out of. Sorry, that is some ugly stuff. Good luck with the repair.

 

The cowl upper panel is reproduced because it is the same as for a Chevelle. The upper dash is only made as a thin section that may or may not cover your holes. The Cutlass and Chevelle upper dash panels are different and the correct Olds panel is not reproduced. The Chevelle panel can be made to work if you can do metal work.

 

I was able to clean it up a bit more and remove a lot of the rotted metal to get a better idea on how far its gone. Couple questions I have...is it worth the time/cost to replace the entire cowl vent panel or cut the rusted areas and replace it in with a new piece of metal from a new panel?

 

Wow, you have my sympathies. Nobody needs a surprise like that. How are your metalworking skills? I don't think it would be economically viable to pay somebody else to do that, and you don't know what else may be lurking underneath.

 

I am considering drilling out all the spot welds needed to remove the vent panel to do as much of the non-welding work as possible so save on cost. I figured when I have the frame repaired I would have them spot weld everything in place and fix what needs to be replaced on the top dash. Either that or I buy a welder and figure it out from trail and error like I have everything else. This is the series I would go off of which is pretty straight forward

 

I have a parts car with a nice cowl panel. Let me get some pictures tomorrow and I will send you a couple

 

I have a couple questions for those who have already done this repair. I purchased he new cowl panel and lower windshield channel.

1) For the cowl, would it be best to trace and drill the factory spot weld holes from the old panel to the new panel to make lining it up easier?
2) For the lower shield channel (I purchased the AMD version), did you have to cut off the tabs on the back along with the lip that folds over? Those tabs interfere with the vent ducting and want to confirm it needs to be trimmed before cutting.