It's the little things that make a big impact when you're trying to separate your custom truck from the rest of the herd of "me-too" rides at truck shows. Finding ways to clean up the body lines of your truck that don't overly change its appearance will more often than not make the truck look a whole lot better. This is one of those mods that is subtle and yet still makes a big impact on the appearance of most trucks in the windshield and A-pillar area.
Shaving the cowl of your truck is pretty easy and lots of you can do it at home. We're going to shave the cowl of my '67 C10, but we are going to also keep the windshield wipers intact because I plan on driving this truck someday. The tricky part with this mod is to avoid merely putting a couple of holes in the freshly smoothed-out cowl for the wiper cogs to poke through. Scott's Hot Rods in Oxnard, California, is doing the work, and of course the shop had more than a few great ideas for making this job go smoothly and look even better. With a price tag of less than $700, this mod won't break the bank, but it might break a tie with another competitor at your next truck show. Of course, if you have the tools you could do the job yourself and just drop 20 bucks on some sheetmetal.
 1.Thanks to technology, there...  1.Thanks to technology, there are better ways to receive music from the airwaves than with an aerial mounted through the corner of the windshield cowl. We'll be rockin' to satellite audio in this truck, which means we'll have a small, glass-mounted antenna to receive our signals, so there's no longer a need for this hole. |  2.After stripping the paint...  2.After stripping the paint and primer from the sheetmetal using a right-angle die grinder and 80-grit circular sanding attachment, a template of the hole was traced on poster board. |  3.The poster board template...  3.The poster board template was then transferred to 16-gauge sheetmetal, which was then cut out and MIG-welded to the cowl. You've seen the gratuitous welding and grinding shots a hundred times before, so we'll skip those photos and get straight to showing you what the finished product should look like. |
 4.Next, the perimeter of the...  4.Next, the perimeter of the cowl is relieved of the factory paint and primer in preparation for the next areas to get reskinned. Rather than filling in each one of those tiny slots, Scott's is going to simply cut out the entire center portion of the cowl and fill it in with fresh sheetmetal. We'll hold onto the areas surrounding the wiper cogs because those can be added back in to our new metal. |  5.After cutting out the center...  5.After cutting out the center of the cowl, several measurements are taken and then a new piece of metal is sent through the bead-rolling machine. The bead roller will put a small flange in the edge of the material, which will kick up the edge of the material at the same angle as the top of the cowl. |  6a.Our filler panel is marked...  6a.Our filler panel is marked and centered in the cowl and then clamped in place (6a) so that we can begin tack-welding it to the cowl (6b). |
6b. |  7.The filler panel is actually...  7.The filler panel is actually sitting on top of the front edge of the cowl, and although Justin could simply weld it there he took the time to cut out the front edge so that the filler panel would sit flush with it. Small details like this will make a world of difference when it comes time to install the hood. It will mean the difference between two body panels that line up perfectly and a cowl that might sit up a bit higher than the hood. |  8.See how the top of the cowl...  8.See how the top of the cowl now sits perfectly flush with the rear edge of the hood? Also note that the wiper cogs are poking through a pair of plain holes in the cowl (inset). |
 |  9.Once Justin was satisfied...  9.Once Justin was satisfied with the fit of the new part, he continued to weld and then intermittently cooled the metal, grinded the welds, cooled the metal, and then grinded again until the metal was smooth. |  10a.The finishing touch was...  10a.The finishing touch was the molding of the factory wiper-cog recesses into the new filler panel (10a). Those recesses were cut out of the original centersection of the cowl and then welded, filled, and smoothed into our new part (10b). |
10b. | | |
The Final Word
Professional custom shops like Scott's Hot Rods can turn a simple mod like a shaved cowl into something truly inspiring. Not only is our truck a whole lot more stylish, but its also one step closer to being legal to drive on the road because it still has windshield wipers. The real benefit here though is the way the wipers were retained. Instead of poking through a couple of ugly holes, our wiper cogs are now housed in a panel that looks as good as it did when it came from the GM plant.