Well, our dilemma over how T-top Coupe's engine/intercooler package is going to be covered, has finally been resolved.

After spending a lot of time going back and forth over the idea of installing a new, taller (3" or taller) cowl hood that hopefully would cover the entire engine/Igloo intercooler, or cutting an opening for the 'cooler in the coupe's current Cervini's 2.5" cowl, I finally decided to go with my proverbial "first mind," and made the cut.

Details on the big move are after the jump...

Coming to the "cut it" decision wasn't easy. Despite all the measuring and calculating I did, I wasn't able to be absolutely certain that the intercooler wasn't going to stick out through a hole in the 2.5" cowl (like a 671 roots supercharger on an old hot rod)--a look I did not want.

I finally bit the bullet after speaking with Big Steve; always the "Voice of Reason" at times like this, who said, "well, you can always get a bigger hood if you don't like it."

As usual, the boss is right. However, I don't think I'll be going with any other hood because I really do like how the opening worked out.

As you see in these photos of the initial surgery, Perfecto Hernandez, owner of P Fiber Glass in San Fernando, California [(818) 890-7175], put the jigsaw to the Cervini's hood, and came up with exactly what I wanted. Perfecto work is top notch. The man is a fiberglass master. The top of the intercooler's bonnet just barely sits above the opening Perfecto made, and smoothly flows with the "sweep" of the cowl. Perfecto has a little finishing fiberglass work that must be done, to tighten up the hole just slightly and to ensure the finished job is, well, "perfecto."

After that, it's off to Ford Auto Body in Van Nuys, California (www.fordautobody.com), aboard M&M Towing's [(818) 968-0252] flatbed, where paint specialist Danny Quezada will get the colors mixed up and laid down, and have the modified hood looking wet and just like new again.