Dodge Dakota Cowl Cover Install

Here's the stock cowl area on any '97-'99 Dodge Dakota. Nothing really special about it--it doesn't look bad, but it doesn't look good either; it's just there.

There's no doubt that Dodge Dakotas are awesome-looking trucks. In fact, from the factory there's darn little to change, from a styling perspective. Sure, just about every truck benefits from the installation of a rear roll pan and a bit of lowering, and we've done both on our Emerald Green '97 Dakota. In fact, roll pans are so aesthetically pleasing, Chrysler offers its own for the trucks.

One thing we never even noticed on our truck was the large open space on the cowl area of the Dakota. We'd seen it, picked leaves out of it, changed wiper arms over it and all that, but we never paid any attention to it at all. What's to see? It's just a part of the truck that's as natural, and interesting, as a doorjamb--until we saw another truck with Street Scene's cowl cover. All of the sudden, that never-before-noticed space between the back edge of the hood and the windshield looked like something was missing.

The Street Scene cover is a bolt-on body panel that fills the area, continuing the flat plane of the hood all the way back to the windshield. Simply put, it makes the truck look finished. The cowl cover is made of fiberglass, comes ready to paint with all the holes drilled, and includes excellent instructions. The installation time is all of 20 minutes. The factory cowl panel can be taken off by popping six plastic push-in-style fasteners, which are normally found in vehicle interiors. Once these plastic fasteners are out, removal is simply a matter of disconnecting the windshield washer hoses. Street Scene's cover goes right in place, using four fasteners--supplied in the kit--to hold it.

The only problem we encountered was that the new cover didn't rest perfectly flush against the windshield on the passenger side; it had a slight warp from having stood in the corner of our garage for six months. This was easily fixed by replacing the push-in fasteners in the lower corners with sheetmetal screws in the existing holes. We also popped about $20 for new weatherstripping. Each corner of the hood is sealed to the cowl with a piece of J-shaped, self-adhesive foam. The main piece of weatherstripping in the center of the cowl slips on and off the cowl/firewall flange, and is not glued down, so it can be reused. We could have used some adhesive-releasing agent on the original corner pieces and glued them in place on the new cowl cover, but it was easier to just replace them with fresh ones. It will probably look better in the long run, too.

Take a look, and see if you don't agree that while the truck looked fine before, after seeing the Street Scene cover in place, it just doesn't look finished without it.

Begin by opening the hood and removing the wiper arms. They are each held in place by a single 15mm nut on the shaft.	Once the wiper arms are removed, there are six push-in fasteners (like those found in interior trim panels) that can be easily removed. Don't worry about destroying them, because the Street Scene kit includes replacements. Once the cowl panel is free, raise it, disconnect the windshield washer hoses, and remove the panel from the vehicle. The box attached underneath the cowl on the passenger side (arrow) is a vacuum reservoir for the washer system.	Here you can see the stock piece (top) and the Street Scene cover (bottom), after we had it painted to match the truck. The holes along the top of the factory panel are stock attachment points, and are not used on the Street Scene piece. The four holes on the outer edges (arrow A) secure the Street Scene panel in place. Arrow B shows the weatherstripping that is glued in place. Rather than try to remove and reuse these from the original, we bought new seals. The three screw heads (arrow C) are the vacuum reservoir's mounts.
Three screws hold the vacuum reservoir in place under the cowl. Remove the reservoir and discard the screws.	These fasteners are included in the kit. The three sheetmetal screws and the spacer are used to attach the vacuum reservoir, the adhesive-backed C-clips secure the washer hoses to the underside of the cowl, and the push fasteners secure the panel to the truck, as per the original.	The vacuum reservoir is attached with the new screws that run through the panel from the top, unlike the originals, which ran through the reservoir into the panel. This spacer (arrow) is used on only one hole. The reservoir fit perfectly in place.
Pop the stock washer squirters out of the factory panel and into the Street Scene piece. These holes are already in place.	Lay the new panel in place on the truck, and attach the windshield washer hoses to the reservoir and the squirter nozzles. Then use the supplied adhesive-backed clips to secure the hose to the underside of the panel.	After pushing in the fasteners to attach the cowl panel to the truck, a gap appeared along the windshield on the passenger side. The new cowl is supposed to rest flush to the windshield. Ours had warped a bit from sitting against the wall in the garage for six months.
We corrected the gap by removing the plastic push-in fasteners from the lower corners on both sides of the truck, and replacing them with a sheetmetal screw and a washer. This pulled both corners down tight to the truck and closed the gap, something the plastic fasteners couldn't do.	The only pieces not included in the kit--but we felt were needed--are these two corner seals. We went to the local dealer and picked them up for $10.50 each.	The seals are adhesive-backed and fit in place, just like on the stock cowl.
This is the new cowl from under the hood. In the corners you can see the new seals, and the middle seal is the reused original. It simply slides over the flange where the firewall meets the cowl, and is not glued down from the factory. It's a simple matter of remove and transfer. If yours is torn or beyond saving for some reason, add another $19.25 to the bill. The 10 holes in the new cowl are molded into it, and they take the place of the plastic vent grilles on the original. This is where the air is pulled from for your climate control system; the holes seem adequate to do the job.	This is the finished cover--installed. It sure cleans up the hood area of the truck. Not including paint, the installation takes about 20 minutes. Chrysler really should consider redesigning the cowl area to match Street Scene's. Like we said, after seeing one on another truck, we couldn't shake the feeling that ours just didn't look finished. Compare the before and after views, and see if you don't agree.