Quick question: how many peanut shells are in your cowl right now?

At present, my answer is "zero".  If you asked an hour ago, I would've said "some?”, but the correct answer would've been twenty-two.

Sad to say, I'm not confident that there aren't more hiding in there.  In case you're wondering why I'm vacuuming the cowl instead of finishing up with the damn engine already- the glassman arrives tomorrow to install the windshield.  I've been well aware of when this was going to happen, but the fact that I need to dress up the area where the glass goes in escaped me for some reason.  While that sounds like a short thing to attend to, I assure you it's much more of an aggravation than you'd expect.

That's with most of the rusted metal being cut out.  This is going to be fixed up tonight, though it's not going to be a permanent (or correct) fix. For this to be corrected the right way, it's going to require a new cowl be welded in place if this one.

I'll post details on my half-assed solution in a bit, but right now I need to get some brake fluid.  I figure if it strips paint like it's nothing, it should get this damn windshield adhesive off, or eat the paint underneath it.  Same results, either way.