Topic: Cowl Well and Wiper Motor Colors- Nov built Dearborn Mach

[Popa G]

I've searched and I'm not able to find a definitive answer to these questions regarding a Dearborn Mach 1 built on 11/26/1968. I've also included some photos of the area prior to being send to media blast.  I bought the car in 1982, it has been painted a root beer color, then I had it painted red.

1- Is the "cowl well" supposed to be body color or some shade of black? Hood black or engine bay black?
2- What color is the wiper motor and plastic cover supposed to be?
3- What about the mechanism that connect the wiper motor and pivot?

Thanks in advance.  I hope these photos are helpful to someone in the future. I do recall spraying black paint through the cowl panel when I was a kid.

[J_Speegle]

You have two things going on in that area of the car.

First you have what was done during the first part of the build with exterior paints, engine compartment painting and interior black out of areas.

The secondly you have the application of the hood and cowl black out that was done later so you have overspray, direct paint application which can produce a kaleidoscope of patterns under the cowl cover.  With that said let me gather some pictures to help illustrate

[J_Speegle]

Let me try and respond to your question through the process rather than the finished product at the end of all steps since you will not be able to see much of it once the car is all assembled. This will get us to the same end just through one of a number of possible routes

1- Is the "cowl well" supposed to be body color or some shade of black? Hood black or engine bay black?

The cowl and well area would have been painted body color prior to any bolt on parts being added in that area of the car. During the period when you car was painted the black paint from the engine compartment paint application was not normally extended above the firewall to cowl pinch weld. That was done later in the production year at that plant in 1969

2- What color is the wiper motor and plastic cover supposed to be?

Wiper motor has a natural bare cast top or transmission section with a semi-gloss motor section. The steel bracket that attaches it to the car was paitned semi-gloss black before the rubber insulators were added. The plastic cover was unpainted black plastic

3- What about the mechanism that connect the wiper motor and pivot?

Those were plated likely cad but today many use zinc and dull it down a bit

So you have the body color cowl section





Was not unusual to have a small thin amount of black out applied to just the upper lip of the cowl panel to black out the area behind the VIN and gap around the dash pad





Once the hood and cowl cover were installed the hood black out for the Mach I and Boss package was done. This produced direct paint application to those items directly below the cowl cover grill openings and an overspray mist on the surrounding surfaces.  It could produce a "tiger stripe" pattern on those surfaces such as the top of the cowl, wiper motor cover (the plastic shield) and wiper motor bracket.





Though not in black  a similar pattern is produced (in this case in white) when a car was repainted later in life and the car was painted with the body panels in place. Ignore the black above the  engine compartment pinch weld - this is from a later example




Hope this helps explain things

[Popa G]

Thank you Jeff.  So if I understand correctly I need to find a old cowl, put it on the car, make sue it aligns with the actual cowl then paint the cowl black. The overspray is going to leave black tiger stripes on anything under the cowl.  It seems that a lot of body color will still be visible?

I'll also need to paint the area at the base of the windshield black.

[J_Speegle]

Thank you Jeff.  So if I understand correctly I need to find a old cowl, put it on the car, make sue it aligns with the actual cowl then paint the cowl black.

Or just wait and paint the hood detail on the car like originally done after the hood and cowl cover are added. Saves allot of steps and if you don't you'll have to install the hood and cowl cover align the edges, removed both of them paint the black out then reinstall them. Just allot of extra steps

The overspray is going to leave black tiger stripes on anything under the cowl.  It seems that a lot of body color will still be visible?

Depends often on how contrasting the color is. Normally not allot of color is seen IMHO since the black should cover much of what is visible with paint and overspray.  Unfortunately all of the pictures I have though and over the drill section of the cowl cover are from later cars with the top of the cowl blacked out with engine paint so don't have a good example of the outcome of the different steps

Welcome to the site

[J_Speegle]

Did find an original paint San Jose example of the area. None of the Acapulco blue is visible but it does not show all angles

[Popa G]

Thank you Jeff!!