i wanted to lose some weight and make my car a little easier to work on but also keep the window wipers. i trimmed the cowl flush with the bottom of the windshield. i just kinda bubbled out around the bottom of the wiper shaft. if you carefully cut around the top of the shaft, where the black plastic is, it is plenty sturdy still. its not painted yet but heres a few pics. what do you guys think?

 

i would like to see a pic with the plastic installed on it. looks good so far though.

*edit* okay, I think i read wrong as to of the "black plastic". i was thinking you meant windshield trim, but now I think you just meant wiper motor plastic

 

Have a pic with the wiper linkage connected up? Would also like to see a pic with the plastic installed. How hard would it be, or what mods have to be made to reinstall the plastic piece seeing there would be no metal for the plastic push-clips to mount to?

 

cool idea, filler plate looks good.


wipers=short hood
wipers= driving in the rain. But with missing cowl trim, your going to get a lot of water just dumping down on the PCM, harnesess, and the motor. I see you pribally have a LT1. But any ideas for keeping it from pudding on the intake, under the intake (LSx). Its gona rust any non stanless bolts, like arp head bolts, intake bolts, valley bolts. Make sure if you have a gen3 LSx the knock sencor seals are really good.

 

there are 2 holes left for clips on the driver side of the plastic, and 1 right in the center. i havent mocked it up yet, but i think i just have to come up with a little something to attatch it on the passenger side. its not a daily driver by any means, so it dont have to be perfect. ive been caught in the rain before with no wipers and its not very fun. thats the main reason i wanted to keep them. i'll get some more pics in a day or 2.

 

Thats another reason I wanna keep my wipers. No daily driver here either but plan on rarely taking it out to the street when I shouldn't at all. Has anyone had experience with rainX or something better to bead off water on our cars?

 

rainX works great when you moving over 30-40mph

 

Have you taken measurements or mocked up the engine yet? The usual reason for trimming back the cowl is for intake clearance. The passenger-side wiper mount is dead-center, and could be in your way.

 

the wiper linkage is connected and unmodified. i didnt take any pics before i welded the filler plate. the only thing missing is the wiper arms. there are still 3 of the factory holes left for the clips that hold the long black plastic piece that runs along under the winshield. two on the driver side and 1 in the center, right next to the passenger side wiper shaft. i still need to make a little stand off(s) to secure a clip or 2 on the passenger side. i think it should be pretty easy.


if you look close, i cut the bottom out of where the passenger wiper mounts. it dont stick down very far anymore. i just boxed across underneath the actual flat mounting surface. its just an lt1 intake, so clearance should be no issue.

i am going to try to mount that long plastic piece this weekend. i'll take more pics.

 

i got everything finished today except paint. i only had to drill a 5/16 hole, above the pcm area, on the passenger side for a plastic clip.
it is attached at 5 points now, 3 clips and the two ends. they're marked at the yellow arrows below.
its seems plenty rigid. i dont think it can go anywhere because the ends are basically locked in place from the factory.

 

looks good man, i may just have to do this on mine as well. sure will make it easier to work on, and you still get to run a regular bolt on hood.

 

thanks man. it actually looks better than i thought it would.

 

Looking good...I'm probably going to do something similiar when I get my cowl...

 

that came out really cool.

are you going to fill the open screens now? I think I remebed the end drip lip is metal, so thats gone now.
What hood do you have, dose it touch and push tight to the weather stripping. I would think wated would just run under the weather stripping. Even the push T holes, I know mine still the factory setup some of my pushtees drips water still all over.

How did you remved the under fender metal. I have to do that.

 

remove the fenderskins and take a cutoff wheel to the fender metal. check the sticky in this section. it may help u more

 

thanks for all the kind words guys. i am just running the stock hood for a while. so far, it seems to seal pretty good against the weather stripping. i plan on leaving the screens open, i figure it will help vent a lot more under hood heat than it did before. i have considered possibly trying to move the computer into the car, or at least make a cover of some kind to help keep it dry. then the water can just drain off the ends of the plastic and it shouldnt really hurt anything. other than that, i'll have to wait and see how much water gets on the motor. hopefully the car will rarely, if ever see the rain anyhow.

i used a metabo with a cut off wheel to roughly cut the inner fenders. then i switched to a stone grinding wheel to smooth it out evenly. it was really easy.

 

ok, I was wonding if you could drill the spot welds?

 

This has saved my *** the last few months for sure haha

I did DD my camaro no wiper system hooked up at all for a good few months rain, sleet, snow, shine here in MI. Like studderin said, once you get moving its not too bad with the crazy angled windshields our cars have.

With the cutting, I do like the idea of the extra room to work if it is still durable and sturdy when the wipers are running at full tilt.

Ive seen some cars use that place as extra storage and to clean up the engine bay tho

 

i was just thinking about some thing like this the other day!! bad ***

 

So...9 years later its going back together lol.