I’ve often wondered what those little holes were for!
My pop’s T had lacing on the radiator shell (which I replaced) but nothing on the cowl end other than the holes where lacing might have been attached.
I’ve spent so much time buying parts over the past year that it was inevitable that I’d come across the missing part, so now I’m trying to figure out the best way to install it.
The split rivets are pretty straight forward, but do I punch holes for them (and what kind of tool gives the best results) or will they push though the webbing on their own? They don’t appear sharp enough to do any self tapping
Then there’s the question of where to start riveting the lacing? I’m assuming I should start at the apex of the cowl and work down either side like when I installed the radiator shell lacing. Finally, what’s the best type of pliers to use to spread the flat rivets?
Thanks for any advice!
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Once you get them through the lacing, and in place, a pair of snap ring pliers set up for an external snap ring may work to spread the ears of the rivet. At that point it may require a second person to press on the rivet as you spread the ears the rest of the way with a small punch to get a good clamp on the lacing. Or a blade screw driver and bend the ears. Still would require a second person to hold the rivet.
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The bracket that holds the hinge pin is fixed to the cowl. Am I safe to assume the lacing goes on in two separate lengths, half on each side of the hinge pin bracket?
FWIW thats the way my '26 Tudor is.
Thanks. I cut the material and attached with a spring clamp and clothes pins, marked the holes from underneath with a silver Sharpie and found a leather punch for making the holes.
I’ll work on the split rivets this week-end.
Hmmm…this didn’t work very well.
Time for Plan “B”
What is Plan “B”? 
I splurged on a split rivet sting tool from Lang’s for cowl lacing.
Well, that didn’t work.
I destroyed one order of cowl lacing in the process.
A couple of cardiac stents later, I’m back working on pop’s T and proceeded thusly:
I ordered a new cowl lacing kit from Snyder’s just to see if it might be easier material to work with—it was a definate yes and no. The lacing was a bit easier to work with and the rivets were soft brass which in theory should be easier to rivet on. Lang’s rivets were plated and stuck to a magnet but I don’t know if that because of the plating or not. They were in the catalog as being brass although they were definitely harder than Snyder’s rivets. Lang’s rivet tool was hard to get enough leverage for the harder rivets, so I made some cheaters out of black pipe and a sacrificial rivet rally snapped to attention!
Costco (bless ‘em) lets me take those big sheets of cardstock they stack paper towels and toilet paper on. I’ve been using them to keep my shirts clean when working under the car. I cut a strip of the stuff and
taped it to the cowl, then I was easily able to poke the holes for the rivets more accurately with an old Stanley awl. On a piece of scrap plywood I clamped the lengths of lacing on them stapled the cardstock on top of that. With a 1/8” punch I made holes in the lacing where they needed to be.
I had to swage the holes with the awl a bit to get the rivets to go through and then set the lacing aboard the cowl. It lined up pretty darned good!
Since I have no one to help me buck the rivets, I used the riveting tool. The cheaters I made were a handfull so I used them with Snyder’s brass rivets instead—easier to set but the results were kind of wonky. Good thing you can’t see the undersides on the cowl! The most difficult rivets to set were the second from the tops since there is a bolt or nut obstructing the underside where the rivet splits and there’s no room for the rivet tool. I got around this by placing the split at a 45 degree angle so I had enough clearance to operate the rivet tool.