starting at the Pass side corner cutting out spot welds

sometimes to find a weld that's hiding you can pull up on the loose side to see where it's still holding

a little pry on the loose side while you're cutting will let you know as soon as you're through, so you don't go deeper than you need to

more prying to find hiding welds

I lifted the rolled over top edge for better access to lift up on the rest of the welds. it was easy to roll it back down after the lower welds were put back in

closer shot of a hiding weld

with the top cowl panel removed we can see the remains of an earlier attempt to seal the fresh air intake, it worked for a while, until the rest of the car crumbled around the schmoo

a lot of perforated rust along the whole bottom panel of the cowl, or what they called 'the Pillow' on the assy line because the top & bottom panels were already together when they set it in place. story is that the pillow wasn't even painted inside or out, I didn't find any evidence that it was

Driver side corner where the fresh air vent would be if it were a non-A/C car, more trouble here

reconstructed intake stand-off. for some reason I decided to go with rivets rather than tack weld it in

fiberglass resin & cloth to cover the holes

i sprayed black paint onto a wet fiberglass resin 'wash' in hopes that the paint won't ever peel off

inside of cowl cover rust treated, extra holes patched & epoxy painted ready to go back on

closer shot of the holes left from cutting the spotwelds out

top edge of cowl cover clamped in place

some clamps near the fuse box area of the cowl