[Vic1947]

All that was left to do on the passenger side was to spotweld and finish welding and grinding the edge of the cab corner patch. I had one small area right in the middle of the rear window that had some pinholes in it, so I cut it out and built a little patch panel that I spotwelded to the existing pinch weld flange. I then welded the rest of it in. This should insure a leak-free repair when the rear window goes back in.

I moved on to the driver side, where I had a much larger area to patch. In the end, it too would get front and rear lower door pillars, inner and outer rocker, cab corner, lower kick panel and a floorboard patch. The floor brace was in great shape on the driver side, so I was able to retain it. Process was much the same as the passenger side, except that I had to spotweld the backing plate for the accelerator pedal to the patch panel. The area was not all that similar to the stock panel, so I measured as carefully as possible and tacked it in place in case I needed to move it later.

Now that the floor, rockers and etc. were in place, I removed the firewall. This gave me better access to the cowl. As you will see from upcoming photos, there was a significant amount of rust in the cowl. I was faced with a dilemma at this point. Some of the vendors offer an aftermarket cowl that replaces the outer shell completely. My problem was that I had no way to fixture and spotweld it in like they did at the factory. I'd have to come up with a way to hold and weld it but any mistake might possibly lead to fitment issues later with the firewall. Plus, I was painfully aware of how poorly the patch panels I'd used up to this point fit. Did I really want to pop for $300 for a cowl assembly I'd have to overhaul anyway. Nope, decided to patch what I had.