Cowl Vent Grille Mounting Kit Mustang 1983-1993

The cowl grille is one of those parts on a Fox Body that simply doesn't hold up real well. The black plastic tends to fade, and over time they also tend to crack. For years, your only option for finding a good one was to scour the classified or hit up your local swap meet. Today, high quality reproduction is a phone call or click away. Today I'm going to show you how to replace it using this 1990 Mustang convertible.

While the rest of our convertible is in really good shape, the cowl is typical of an older Fox Body. We've got some cracks on the edge here. The entire thing is dated. It's time for a new one. The installation is very straightforward; the only tool required is a Phillips head screwdriver.

We're going to start by removing our wipers. We're going to lift up on the arm and pull this little tab out, rest the arm against the tab, and slide the wiper off. Now we'll remove the six screws that hold the grille on: two here, two in the middle, and two on the other side. Once we remove the screws, the grille will just lift straight off. We're going to reach underneath and disconnect the washer nozzle hose. Before you throw your old grille away, you want to make sure you get the washer nozzle off of it. You'll need that for your new grille.

We'll install the nozzle on our new grille, and it's ready to install. Before we install the new grille, we're going to clean up this area and replace these screw retainers as well. Easy way to get these out is to push them through and pull them out from the bottom.

We'll install the new screw retainers, and press down and click them into place. Now we're ready to install the new grille and reconnect the washer nozzle. We're going to tighten these down snug; you don't want to over- tighten them, since you're tightening into plastic. Now the last step is to reinstall our wipers. We'll line them up, tilt them forward again, push the clip down, and release. And our installation's finished.

A few minutes of work made a huge difference on our convertible. Installation should take you no more than about 10 minutes. You'll be back on the road in no time.