I have my whole front end off right now, so far the biggest disassembly I have done on my car. Needless to say, I have a new grudge against midwest cars. On and around the cowl, there are many spots that are rusty, particularly where one metal panel meets another and such. How can I make sure that I get all the rust that has crept into the joints, WITHOUT unwelding the metal and stuff?

Secondly, should I try to sort of spot weld the pinholes toward the bottoms of the cowl area, the seal them up, or cut out the metal and weld new metal in there? (I have no welding experience, but my bro does have a MIG welder)

Third and maybe lastly, I have never used POR15 or any "quality" products like that... mostly spray can stuff for me up until now, because I knew that one day I would do a huge project like this and all that caned stuff would be sanded off anyway... so my Q is, would I need to prime before I use the POR15? I do not have a sprayer, and it is winter so I prolly could not spray primer anyway in the coldness. Is there any "quality" primer that comes in a can? I mean, can;t someone invent a sprayer that you can hook up disposable cans to, that has some internal mechanism that mixes all components when you break a seal or something, and has self-contained... ah nevermind... I guess that is it for now. My main beef is how to rid myself of all the rust though.

Thoughts on naval jelly? Electrolysis tanks? Coca-Cola? Thanks guys!

POR comes with specific instructions- no primer tho. As for the rust, it's a judgement call. If it's just pinholes POR putty is good. Otherwise it's mig time! Good luck!

Ah, I knew I was forgetting something... There is some orange-ish stuff tht looks like it may be some kind of seam sealer around the edges of the cowl... looks like someone put it on after the manufacturer because its pretty sloppily done, but I have a feeling that it's been there since the factory. I am scraping that stuff off because there is rust under it in some spots. Should I replace this stuff with something specific? Is there a seam sealer that is made specifically for this purpose? Yeah, I think you are right DN, (duke nukem?) it's MIG time!

Rust never sleeps when it is in contact with oxygen. If you completely engulf the rust with a coating that will seal against contact with oxygen you will win the battle until the seal is broken. Drop a piece of rusty metal in a container of oil, will it continue to rust? Por 15 is a product designed to do this and also it supposedly converts the rust? I've been doing battle with rust for years and the worst areas to deal with are definately the seams. The cowl area you describe is prone to rust problems which start at the seams and spread internally along the edges of the cowl. Trying to fix these problems from the outside of the cowl is impossible. You can try bandaid approaches like POR putty, fiberglass etc. but to repair them properly metal replacement is the only solution. Along with metal replacement corrosion protection from the inside of the panel is very important. A person can weld in a patch a panel but if no attention is being paid to protecting the replacement metal from inside rust then the patches will fail. Another area of consideration are the seams themselves. Most use weldable primer to coat these areas prior to welding but the success of these products I find is very limited after my own testing. 3M makes the best weldable primer in my opinion but again it helps only so much. The ideal weldable primer would be one that flows with the heat of welding but does not burn away, I know of one product I have used with great success but is not designed for this application and is too health hazardous to suggest. I hope you win the battle graemlins/beers.gif Bob

Here is what I have done so far...
Cleaned off the cowl area of grime and rust as good as I could, then used the marine clean, metal ready, then POR15 to cover up the bare metal and paint that I didnt get off. Used two coats.

So now I will use some bondo resin stuff to seal little holes and what not, but my question is this: How do I take care of the inside of that cowl area? I can't get to it unless I cut apart the cowl itself. Suggestions? Please? Thanks
Russell

I just tackeld this same problem myself. The lower portion on the side of my cowl was gone. I had no choice but to purchas a spot weld cutter and remove the side panel. I then welded in a new piece, stripped the entire inside of the cowl on both sides, then coated with POR-15, and welded the panel back on. I then used 3M seam sealer to replace the factory stuff (and yes I noticed how sloppy the original was applied). Since I welded, I knew that the area around the seam would burn away what ever coating was on there. Since my car is gutted, I am able to get at the inside of the cowl through the large vent hole on the floorboards. This may be an option for you, I don't know. Hope this helps a little. I can sedn you pictures if you want.

Pictures would be awesome!! And how did you strip the cowl area? That is what took me the most time. I used a 3M removal disk for a lot of it, tried paint remover but that stuff doesn;t work too well, and eventually just got out the sandpaper, and for the corners I used my Dremel. You can email me @ crakarjax at aol.com. Thanks!
Russell