1967 ss/rs resto/mod

[Too Many Projects]

after a conversation with Dustin, who has a good friend who is an AMD dealer and installer, I purchased an OER cowl assembly from Jegs. His friend said it is a good fitting part with no fitment issues with the windshield. His friend advised I check Jegs as they sell them very reasonably and he was right. The price for the assembly WITH free shipping was less than many places wanted for just the top cowl panel. Jegs did add an over size fee..... $10 ! Unbelievable deal to me.




I'll be picking up the glass set tomorrow and this may be here by the weekend.

With that all happening so quickly, I got to work on the car. The hole in the left A pillar brace was cut out, a patch formed and welded in.







The right side is solid enough to leave, just did an initial clean up with the stone wheel.

[hogdaddy]

That AMD looks like a nice piece and probably the best for that repair.

[Too Many Projects]

It's an OER brand, which is what AMD sells, as they don't have their own tooling for this. The dealer said it's actually made by CHL and sold to OER... I guess I'll see what stickers are on it when it gets here.

[dustinm]

Yes its a CHL piece, you would need a special decoder ring to figure out who makes what and if it fits/functions correctly... I dont even try to follow sheetmetal anymore - I let Spencer keep tabs on all that, as fast as he rattles it all off.

With Spencer's blessing and we all know the reality of finding a good donor cowl for a 67 Camaro Im glad I could help Mitch through this small hurdle.

[1967Z28]

Good move, Mitch. You did the right thing.

[Too Many Projects]

Well, the CHL cowl assembly got here at 11:45, so after lunch I took it out to the shop and got to work. I attached the cowl grille to see where I wanted to cut this in.



I drew a line around the grille and then used 1.250 wide tape to draw another inside that for the cut line.



About 15 minutes later, half of the ugly was gone. I was going to cut it thru the vent holes but I wasn't certain how close they would line up so cutting it here, the seam will be completely hidden under the grille.



I then clamped the cut off onto the new piece and marked that to cut. I haven't cut out the lower cowl yet, so I cut the new one long enough to trim back to fit....hopefully.







The new piece is quite accurate, except for the grille screw holes. 2 are good, but a third one is off 1/4" and the fourth....well, I don't know what happened here. If they are all getting stamped like this, someone needs to fix that die. Oh, well, minor issue it fix.







Had to cut thru the column brace to get enough of the lower cowl.



There almost done...

[Too Many Projects]

I'm REALLY slow at trimming away the extra material to get a donor to drop in place and after 4 hours, this does look quite good.






I'm going to leave the slight overlap on the lower cowl panel. It's going to be challenging enough to get this welded full width and having some overlap will make the seam sealing a little better.






The top lip, that is immediately under the dash panel, is way too straight and will need much massaging to get it to lay down flat, like the original.







.

[Lynn]

Looking good. Boy, does this make me thankful for how little rust I had to deal with my my 69 Z/28.

[Too Many Projects]

This mornings endeavors. I secured the panel while clamped, with drill screws so I can put it right back in the same place after every removal for fitting, prepping, etc.





This is the left corner, that is badly out of place for the dash panel.



I removed the panel and made a pie cut 8" long and 3/8" wide at the outside, tapering it to the inside.



Clamped it tight and drill screwed it in place.



That's the first modification. The entire lip needs to come down for the dash to lay on top, but after tapping the end down, it started to buckle, which I expected. Bending that lip down decreases the radius and the extra metal has to go somewhere. I'll need to make pie cut reliefs every 3-4 inches to get it to cooperate...



Before...




.

[Too Many Projects]

After a little more relocation work on the right corner, I did the cuts in the lip, bent them down and set it back in. The dash is sitting there very lightly touching the channel. I'm very pleased that it fits this well but the real test will be tomorrow when I set the windshield in it. I was going to do that today, but neglected to bring my glass suction cup handles into the heated shop from the back storage room, which is about minus 4 degrees today. They'll be warm in the morning.








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