I've been working on my barnfind Z since I brought it home, car was originally a flat hood that at some point a cheap plastic cowl piece was riveted on, about 40-50 rivets were used. Other than the holes from rivets the hood is clean. The car came with a GM cowl hood that was purchased in early 80's and is in excellent shape and never been on a car. Car is now disassembled and ready to get blasted and body work started, im torn on what hood to use, i love the cowl look but would also like to keep it original as possible, not sure if i try and fix the original or simply bolt on the new one or sell it and use the cash to help fix up the car...what do you guys think?

Flat!!!!

Unless the car is a total original that requires a flat hood, I would go with the cowl hood.

I prefer the flat hood also, especially since it originally came with one.

If you cant decide, a common option is to go ahead and have both of them painted. That way, if you decide you dont like one or the other, its a simple swap.

im leaning towards using the flat, but concerned that with all the holes from the rivets,after they are filled and cleaned up they might pop up after its painted, or like you say paint both. Whats a Gm cowl hood worth these days? and i wont be putting it on ebay either...

I kind of agree with DougP. An original car should respect the original flat hood, but otherwise the cowl hood looks really good.

Car will not be numbers matching,have non original 302 and same as trans,other than those all the other panels are original..i to like the cowl hood but am stuck on being original...ive seen the pics here of guys cars with both hoods and they all look great

What Dave said.

Flat hoods rule!

Flat hoods rock!

If you want to keep the flat hood, but concerned about the rivets, they are plentiful and a nice one can be had for about $50 or so. They're everywhere.

You would be surprised,not much in this area for clean metal...they pour the salt on the roads around here..calling for snow tonight...but good point if i can find a clean flat hood...any ideas on value of the cowl hood?

In my opinion it would depend on how correct the overall car is. If it so so correct I would go with what you like. Otherwise, I would go as close to 100% correct as possible.
I personally, have the flat hood on my car. It was still on it when I bought it.

I say flat because I am changing my non-original ZL2 hood out to flat.

By the way, does anyone know if there is a date stamp on GM hoods?