Riddle my rivets!
 

As a new comer to Ford Barn I want to Thank all the folks who share their knowlegde and experience on these forums.

"Without it I believe I would have never garnered the courage to begin the frame off restoration of my father-in-laws '29 Tudor".

So to my question, I wish to replace the rusted cowl panels that are below the fuel tank and are riveted to the firewall.

Where do I begin?
How much do I need to be concerned with the stability and alinement of the firewall? (will it take care of itself)
What rivet tools are recommended, do I need a air tool?
What size rivets?
Should I be losing sleep at night of this?

Lance

Re: Riddle my rivets!
 

If I am not mistaken, the cowl panels are spot welded to the firewall. The only rivets would be the 3 on each side under the bottom where that flange rivets to the subframe connector.
The cowl lacing rivets would go along there, but they don't hold the panels together.

Re: Riddle my rivets!
 

If the cowl isn't that badly rusted out, I would simply install a patch in the rusted area. It is that hard to do, much easier, I think, than trying to install a repro panel that may or may NOT fit correctly - note the emphasis on NOT. I have installed several cowl patches and it is not that hard.
Rusty Nelson

Re: Riddle my rivets!
 

The panel is only rusted the botton 4 inches so I have concedered a patch, but with out the use of a welder and wanting to do as much myself as posible,
the entire panel seemed the way to go. However if these are spot welds that I am looking at and not rivets then that changes things.

Re: Riddle my rivets!
 

Take it to a guy that can weld in a replacement piece of sheet metal. It is a job for a welder, and it should not cost too much to get it done right. Prefabricated patch panels just do not seem to work that well. (This is what I recommend anyway, others may disagree!)

Re: Riddle my rivets!
 

just get the bottom patch panels thats a common spot for rust out.