Agreeing with Art (as usual) that a screen is needed if we are to keep junk from going down into the cowl - creating a mess and problems down the road - I decided why not use screen? Duh! So after being unable to locate the roll of screen I know is around here somewhere, I went out and bought some more. It is fiberglass, 24"x84", and cost around $6.

I then needed a way to hold the screen in place. For several years I have been salvaging the little but amazingly strong magnets from the bottom of my Sonicare toothbrush heads. I use the brushes for cleaning small parts and, regards the magnets, always thought "save them, you'll find a use for them." My mother speaks!

So my first idea was to make something ala the nice, 3-d printed cover by Swedish Baklava mentioned before by CB. I found some of this white, translucent foam-like sheet material used to pad stuff in shipping (again, save it and find a use for it) to employ in drawing and cutting out a template of the entire cowl vent area. I held it in place with magnets while drawing the outline of the area with a Sharpie. Worked great.

I cut out the template and then used it to transfer the shape onto a piece of the screen material cut to 36" in length. The upper edge of the template is straight so I made that parallel to the edge of the screen. Thinking I would secure magnets in a hem around the entire screen, I left about 1" extra all around as I placed the template and then made my cuts. Note the cut-away for the passenger side window wiper.

I then spent a ton of time doing unfamiliar work trying to shape the piece with a hem. Sewing is not my thing. I managed to get this pinned into a reasonable shape and fit. But then was stumped as to how to sew it into place and with what. Normal thread seemed too wimpy and would likely deteriorate too fast over time with the elements. I thought about some fishing line my wife uses for making beads. While I was thinking about all this, I put the pinned screen in place on the 1980 and placed a large number - I think there were 21 - magnets all around. It seemed secure and looked ok, I guess. But I was still stumped about how to sew it all together and deal with the damn magnets attracting each other and mucking things up while I worked.



I was still worried that my original idea might not hold in place at high speed despite the plethora of magnets employed. Overnight a new and much simpler idea came to me - bolstered, perhaps, by my previous experience with the fiberglass screen. It is a pretty nice material - flexible, doesn't unravel or come apart. I thought, why not use the cowl vent members to hold the screen in place. That would likely be bomb-proof and might even look better. It certainly could be done more easily and without testing my sewing lameness.

So I cut a strip of screen material from the remaining 36" long piece. I measured and guessed I could get away with a strip 3.5" wide. Once I did this I began to "weave" this through the cowl vent members slowly. I found a small tweezer with a bent end helpful in doing this. I went slowly and worked out a pattern that seemed to look ok and solid enough. I then used only 3 magnets per side to hold down the extreme edges. This took about 20 minutes per car.



Only time will tell how/if this will work. But I think it looks ok - better actually than my original idea. It should provide the needed protection and doesn't need to be put on/off. It will likely not last forever. But I certainly have spare material now and could manage the 20 minutes every few years (if that much).



Maybe this approach can work for others? Cheers