I just took off my font fenders and found that my firewall is rusted out on both sides down by the bottom of the doors. They are both filled with dirt and everything else, whats the best way to fix it?

You do not say what year you are working on,but if its a 68 or up I suggest going with an entire new firewall.They are under 300.00 bucks and it cleans up the whole firewall and toeboard /body mount area.It is not hard to do either.

i think he might be talking about inner cowling? like this?

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c374/montelsx2004/SA400001-6.jpg

mine was packed with dirt and leaves too. rotted from the inside out.

if thats what your looking at they do make a patch panel for the outer piece. the inner stuff has to be fabbed. i fabed up all mine.

I guess about the only right way to fix it is to replace the rusted metal. Depending on the exact location of the rust, you can decide if a patch job will be enough or if it will require larger panel replacement. Just remember you need clean metal to weld new metal to.

These are easy repairs and are not easily seen once the fenders are on. Like others have said, you can make repair panels out of 20 to 22 gauge metal purchased from most Lowes or Home Depot stores. Before you cut any of the metal out, it is best to measure the areas to be replaced and make templates from poster board or thick paper.

Cut the rust out into good metal to insure a good weld. Clean the inside of the cowl area before the panels are replaced. Replace the panels and coat the inside of the cowl area with a rust preventative coating to prevent future rust. I used POR 15.