The Crusty Cuda: Whole lotta Shakin' (N96) Goin' on!

[A12pilot]

I made the executive choice to fix the original cowl instead of using the aftermarket AMD panel. While nice, there's a few stampings in it that aren't exact. Not to mention the VIN. So starting with the rotted edges first, I spliced in new metal from the donor cowl and next up will be patching the minor holes. Still some more grinding to do, but it's solid again and the areas that will be seen under the hood are smooth. The outer edges have undercoating sprayed on them so you'll never see this work. But that doesn't matter since I have to do it right or it'll bug the crap out of me!!

Interesting thing, there's a remnant of a parts tag around the dash retainer speed nut hole. If you remember from my Beater Bee, I found one if these between the inner rear quarter window brace and the quarter panel on the driver's side, still wearing V2 Hemi Orange. This tag wire still has FC7 on it!

Best part is I'll use the curved pieces of the donor cowl to repair the inner cowl area.

More to come..

Cheers
Dave

[njsteve]

Good call on the donor section use. I know it hurts to cut up a brand new part just for a couple scrap sized patches, but you’re doing it right. I did a similar thing with Gramma’s Firebird. I still have gigantic remnant pieces of expensive body panels stacked in the garage as future sheet metal scrap, after cutting only an inch or two off the edges.