Smooth cowl panel for a 56 ?

[TNBandit]

I have seen some guys who have a cowl panel (where the wipers are) that is completely smooth eliminating the vents and making for a much cleaner look while also preventing water, leaves, & junk from getting in and rusting out the kick panel area. Are these being sold by anyone or is it a DIY type of thing ? Thanks.

[_Ogre]

i've never seen them sold.
look at my build for a write up on diy. post 89

[mr48chev]

Note he also has ac in the truck as you loose about half your ventilation in hot weather if you block off the air intake on the cowl. If you aren't installing air I would suggest passing on doing it unless the truck is intended to be a trailer queen as your significant other will raise a ruckus when she is sweating doing down the road because there is no air flow in the truck.

[buggy5872]

Like mr48chev said....be prepared to put in a/c. Big Bertha has the vent removed but also has a/c. I originally deleted the vents in my 59 and after a few hot summer days, I removed the vent covers because you just roasted inside the truck. They are back on now but only after the a/c was in it too.

[Speedbumpauto]

Here ya go. Bought it from a vendor here but will have to check reciepts later today if you want. You might do a search as I think I posted this pic in the spring. I needed the inside vent space for other stuff and I do have AC. It's made of fiberglass, not metal, but fits pretty well, IMO. Not quite as slick as the Ogre filled cowl, but I was too far along in my build for that.

[buggy5872]

please post where you got if from and how much it was....I have made a few from scratch and is is a tough one to get the shape correct. I like them to be removable incase you need to get in there for anything.

[Speedbumpauto]

It's a No Limit Engineering part and it costs $132. If you go to the "what did you do with your truck" thread page 72, you can see my first post. I couldn't find it on the site here but if you go to the web site and select "fiberglass parts" from the menu, you will find it and the part no.

[_Ogre]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

I would suggest passing on doing it unless the truck is intended to be a trailer queen

trailer queen? wtf??? truk is no trailer queen and you know that, it averages 7000 miles per year.
it gets parked in the winter when the salt trucks come out, but other than that it goes everywhere i do.
i live in michigan and truk has been to orlando, dallas and milwaukee (many times).

nice find speedbump, never saw a prefab for doing that, but at $132 i'd make my own again.
i started out hammering the fins flat but that was also changing the shape of the panel.
i hammered the fins semi-flat and used short hair fiber filler to finish the shape.
then i welded the side seams up and finished the whole panel on the truk.
you can see the screws in the bottom of the panel still.

$132 may not seem like much, but i still consider truk a low buck build.
i minimize cost by making everything ogre built.
the motor, trans, mustII and ac are over half the cost of my build.
i have no time constraints that a lot of other people do, i'll spend 8 hrs doing something that i could buy for $50

[Speedbumpauto]

I hear ya, buddy, but when I finally found it my build was too far along. I had already decided I was just going to have to put up with it......AND I had already done so much and REDONE so much I decided $133 was a pretty good deal. Kids are all grown and the house is paid for so I'm afforded a little freedom to pick my battles, for the first time in my life.