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Once the kick panel was done, I moved on to the filler piece between the kick panel and the outer cowl. I had removed the entire thing earlier in order to get the old kick panel out. This also allowed me to clean up the space behind the door pillar. Everything was treated with rust converter then given a coat of grey paint.

I've read a number of times that the filler pieces (what I call the 'inner cowl' pieces) are the worst patch panels in terms of the manufacturers not getting them very close to being a good fit. That's a bit of an understatement. First off, the manufacturers didn't appear to even try to get the top end the same shape as the original. It's also too wide at that end. Next, in the case of my new pieces, the sides bow inward so when you get the piece in place, it doesn't come close to touching the kick panel or the cowl. Lots more 'cut and paste' work!

Since the majority of the original inner cowl piece on my cab is in good shape from about the 1/2 way mark, I decided to cut off the top end and re-use it. The marks on it made by the spot weld cutter were great for getting it right back into the same position. The new piece was then chopped down to match and test fit. The outer side of the new piece was coaxed out with a hammer to get it where it would meet the cowl, but the inner side had to move about 3/8" to meet the kick panel, so I cut it completely off. Once the main portion of the inner cowl piece was tacked in, I fitted the side piece so that it fit snug to the kick panel and tacked it in. All of the pieces were pre-drilled in the appropriate locations for plug welding as needed.

With the inner cowl piece installed, I took some time to clean up the parking brake lever bracket, temporarily bolted it to the toeboard (the original top bolt hole was still there) and used it as a guide to drill out all of the mounting holes.

At this point I decided that another day of sitting and laying on a cold concrete floor wasn't going to happen so I spent some time cleaning up the inside of the firewall and giving it, and the new kick and floor panels and good coat of epoxy primer. The last photo gives a pretty good before-and-after view (comparing the left to the right side).

I have some new metal to install on the lower portion of the outer cowl panel (where the fender mounts), then it's over to the passenger side.