The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop AD inner cowl panels

I recently purchased replacement inner cowl panels, among others, from Jim Carter. The curve at the bottom, where the panel meets the floor board, is pretty far off. It looks like it will take quite a bit of reworking to make it fit any where near original. Are there better panels available, or is this pretty much what I can expect from all of the suppliers? :confused:
Additionally, the panel itself is warped pretty bad. I only need the lower half, which means I will be cutting most of the warped portion off. Overall, a very poor quality panel.

You are 100% right. I know of no better parts. Tell one of the dealers the part fits like #### and you will get 'Gee we sold 10 million of then and never had any problems are you sure you know what you are doing' Good luck

Thanks for your help with both questions, Metal Man. I suppose I should look on the bright side and consider this a chance to test my creativity with reshaping panels!

I purchased a pair from Chevy Duty and the match is 95%. Remember these trucks are all one offs, made to fit by craftsmen when they were new 50 yrs ago. Guess i just got lucky.

I replaced the outer cowl, inner to outer piece, and the inner kick panels when I did my truck over. This was before the newer redesigned lower cowls available now, and the replacement lower cowls stopped well below the hood curve. Now they include the hood curve which is often gone from rust through and I recently learned is what GM put out. I saw an original NOS lower cowl replacement piece for sale on eBay and that's the first time I noticed it. Long story short: The fit was lousy then and it sounds like things haven't changed.

I'm afraid that it's the lay of the land. That's why they make big hammers I guess.

The good news is that you don't have to fabricate everything you need. The bad news is you might spend as much time fitting as you would have fabricating anyway!