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I got the hood to cowl weather-strip for my 51 from Steele Rubber. It is attached with "carrots" that go into predrilled holes in the cowl. On test fitting it, the spacing between the carrots is slightly too long. By the time you get from one side to the other, the spacing is off by nearly an inch.

So two questions - Steele said I could send it back at my expense, and they would look at it to see if there was a manufacturing problem. I am strongly temped to just cut the carrots off and glue the strip on. Do you think that this would hold it ok? I'm afraid I'll just be wasting time and money sending it back.

Second question - which way does the "L" face? When I took off the old one, the upper leg was closest to the windshield, facing toward the engine, just opposite of the photo of the one earlier on this discussion. It does make a lot more sense to have the upper leg facing the windshield. I suspect that when car was repainted the last time, someone put it on backwards.

Any advice from you guys with original cars will certainly help. thanks

Went out to the garage and answered the second question - The "L" should face toward the windshield to help prevent rain from dripping onto the engine. That makes sense. The sad part is the the rubber carrots are about 1/8" too far apart on every hole. Steele usually makes great parts, but they really missed the quality control on this one. The part number is 70-1296-43, weatherstrip, hood-to-cowl.