A couple days after taking the upper cowl off, I decided to go ahead and remove the lower cowl as well. There’s rust on the horizontal top flange of the firewall (where the upper and lower cowl weld to it) and it seemed easier to just go ahead and remove the lower piece rather than trying to work around it. It was quicker to get out than the upper was. The upper, lower, and firewall/cowl side/dash flanges are all spot welded at once with the 3 pieces together it seems. So it’s the same spot welds holding the lower cowl to the firewall/etc. and the upper cowl to the lower cowl. Some of the spot welds I had drilled deep enough when I removed the upper cowl, while others I had to drill a little more.

The driver’s side air vent needs to be removed (well, maybe you could squeeze it out still attached, but I didn’t try), and a bolt on the heater box assembly that goes into the lower cowl also needs to removed. I unbolted the wiper linkages and the wiper motor bracket from the cowl, but I think I could have left them in place and just pulled it all out together. When I put the lower cowl back in, I’ll probably reassemble the wiper parts to it before putting it on the car, since it seems like that would make things a good bit easier as some of the bolts are hard to get to with the cowl in place.

It’s really weird to see the car without the lower cowl in place. It really highlights how simple these cars are. Since everything is so accessible now, I’m going to do a little cleanup on the back of the dash and other things in the area. The heater box and firewall insulation are already out. Otherwise, I’m trying to figure out the best order to work on things now. Having the firewall so easy to get to is making me reassess my plans since I need to patch a couple areas on it.