The Camaro was suffering from soggy carpets, and after a lot of testing with a hosepipe I realised it was the cowl vents and the bizarre way they drain inside the car on a first gen Camaro. I’m taking the opportunity to fit air conditioning and heating to the car, so no longer need the cowl vents to supply fresh air to the cabin. I pulled the panel off the car after struggling to unhook the wipers and measured up for a cardboard template. I’ve always cut out patterns in metal with the nibbler or the grinder, but now I had a bench grinder and a jigsaw I did it the easy way. I got a much better fitting panel much quicker than normal. Maybe I’m learning?

I cleaned the paint off around the edges and carefully tacked them both in place. It’s a surprisingly awkward shape to do as it curves gently across the width, but a bit of gentle hammering got it right. With it all tacked, I slowly worked my way round and filled it in and only managed to blow one hole in it which is good for me. A quick skim of filler with extra hardener in took nearly an hour to go hard in the sub zero temperature of the garage, One of these days I’ll get some heating out there!. I covered the hole in the car up with some plastic sheet rather than sand and prime the panel to put it back on. The whole car needs painting, so the painter can sort that out for me. Seems strange handing some of the work over to someone else after doing the ’55. Just need to drill some holes for washer vents before it’s done.