Thanks TuTone. That's kinda what I thought might make sense. Shoot black from the top of the firewall to the windshield. Then when you shoot the cowl body color, the vent ribs on the cowl are 'highlighted' against the back background.
This may all be moot anyways since I'm going to put the stainless screens on the underside of the cowl vents to keep those beloved Georgia pine needles from getting down there and uglying things up. I don't know how much we can see through those screens anyway. I guess I could powder coat the screens black.....it never ends!!!