Cowl Lacing Difference???

[FoMoCo]

I tried fitting my new cowl lacing from BOTP on my 67 and not 1 hole lined up. My truck is super early 67, A00474. Could this be a 66 cross over thing with the lacing? I'll call BOTP to see if I need 66 lacing.

Nick

[jor]

I got my cowl lacing for Dennis Carpenter for my 67 and about half did not line up. I had to stretch it to fit. Keith can likely anwer the question regarding possible differences but I think this is a matter of poor quality control in manufacturing these things.
jor

[CACWBY]

I have bought from LMC and Dennis Carpenter and neither matched. Ended up cutting off nubs and using weatherstrip adhesive to hold it on.
Have heard same story from practically everyone.

[FORDification]

I have no experience in this, but I've also heard nothing but bad reports on fitment of these. I wonder if it would be worth it to drill new holes to line up with the nubs on the reproduction pieces?

[CACWBY]

One of the ones has metal clips that press through, and thats actually the one I used, I thought I could relocate the prong type clips but couldn't be done, so snipped them off and used the weatherstrip adhesive. The other had round tapered plug type things that were molded into and wouldn't line up or fit into the slots on my truck. Sorry I can't remember which one was which.

[FoMoCo]

Mine has the green metal clips that have teeth digging into the rubber. I think I can bend the teeth back, remove the clips and use weatherstrip adhesive as noted. Great idea, thank you.

Nick Wilson

[Joe Kriston]

I have no idea what you guys are talking about...What's cowl lacing?

[FoMoCo]

It's a rubber up-side-down "L" shaped strip that prevents water from entering the engine bay between the wiper cowl and hood.

nick

[granitestate68]

Thanks Nick ,also for Joe for asking, see another day and I learned another new thing. This place is great......

[68F250]

Ya know what else that cowl lacing does, it prevents the vents from sucking up the under-the-hood engine fumes and smells when you open the vent or turn on the heater.

[granitestate68]

Keith or anybody have a picture of the lacing installed?

[Joe Kriston]

Gee,thanks...No wonder I feel like I'm getting stoned when I drive my truck ...I have no cowl lacing at all...Shoot,now I realize my truck's missing something...I used to have a '70 Dodge p/u,and every time it rained hard,it would stall...Now I know why...The distributor was in the back,right under the gap between the hood and cowl...Good thing Ford put their distributor in the front of the truck ...

[granitestate68]

Hey Joe, want to get together and let our trucks run and sing Coom bye ya some time

[Joe Kriston]

Sure,Lee...

And then crowds will gather...And they will remark with astonished amazement that "these men are full of new wine"...

"No",we will say,"we are not drunken,as ye suppose,seeing it is but the third hour of the day"..."We drive Ford trucks with bad cowl lacing"...

And to show our goodwill,we offer them not a drink,but a ride in our trucks...And they,too,will know why a Ford truck driver drives with a smile on his face and a song in his heart,....until,of course,the brane damnage setzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz in ..

[FORDification]

I looked through all the pics I had, and it was AMAZING the number of "100% restored" trucks that still had chunked or missing cowl lacing! I'd say 98 out of 100 trucks had this piece missing or in pieces, even if it was obvious they'd invested a boatload of money into the paint, engine, interior, etc.

Well anyway....of the pics I have, this is the best I could do:

This pic shows what most of our trucks probably look like, with chunks of the cowl lacing missing. You might still have the clips, or a previous owner might have even removed the clips and just left the bare holes:



...and this pic shows what it would look like with new cowl lacing, which seals the hood to the cowl panel: