C3 Corvette Headlight Cowl Delete

If you're at all familiar with the 1968-1972 corvettes, you've undoubtedly born witness to the insanity that is the headlight cowl. In an effort to hide the headlights, Chevy added a cowl that covers them up during normal operation. To be able to use them they devised a system that lifts the cowl up to expose the wipers... which required vacuum to lift. To prevent the wipers from going too early or too soon, the vacuum doors trigger a switch allowing power to the whiper motor.

All in all, this system was insanely over engineered, and really just not nescessary. It is also prone to failure, and many people have just taken to living in fear of the passing rain storm in their Corvettes because of it. I know with my Corvette that it will be tough if it rains due to not having working wipers.

So, there is a work around!

In 1973, the Chevy changed the hood, much to the liking of mechanics. It is possible to fit a 1973+ hood to a 1968 Corvette, as I discover in conversation with a fellow C3 owner on a facebook group. There is some work required that involves a body shop, but it is entirely possible. This appeals to me intensely, as I want to simplify the Corvette as much as possible to increase reliability, while it also simulteaneously ditches unnescessary weight.

So the game plan is to hunt down a hood, document the process of adding the hood to the vette, and then notate what steps were nescessary to delete the vacuum operated system and change the wiiper system to simplify the whole process!