Today was much warmer outside, so I decided to tackle one of my biggest pet peeves about the car: the painted cowl grille. Luckily I was able to secure an OEM one in Moncton shortly after buying the car and got it shipped with it.
1st, raise your wipers arm and unclip them, pushing the small tab towards the windshield and lifting them straight up.
Then pop your hood and remove the firewall to hood rubber gasket. It's only held to a pinch weld by a J-channel running along its entire lenght. Remove the 3 plastic screws underneath it.
Next, carefully pry each end of the cowl grille from underneath the base of the A-pillars. Locate the one the 6 clips along the windshield and slightly pull up to unclip them. Unplug the 90 degree fitting underneath the driver side washer fluid nozzle.
Transfer the metal clips and hardware from your old grille to the new one if it wasn't included. Thankfully, the washer fluid piping had been left on mine so I only had to transfer a few missing clips.
Place the new grille back in place, making sure to align the wiper studs properly through the holes. Before clipping it in place, reconnect the 90 degree washer fluid connection.
Once all the clips are secured and both ends are pried underneath the base of the A-pillar, go back under the hood and re-install the plastic screws.
Re-install the firewall to hood rubber gasket.
Re-install your wiper arms. Make sure the blades are parallels to the base of the windshield.
Wipe everything down to remove your greasy hand prints and admire.
Next will be removing the painted mirrors. I may have located a set locally as a friend had purchased a wrecked 95 GT last year to use the powertrain in his 48 F1.
I also have a set of replica OEM-style headlights on the way. I went with the Cobra-specific crystal lenses.