OK, so here's my problem. When I switched to the new cowl induction hood I inherited a clearance problem. My old hood opening was the same size as the L88 cowl. No problems with hood clearance in any direction, and vertical clearance was just enough for my 14" air cleaner assembly.
Now the new cowl hood is the same height outside, but has inner sheetmetal and a round hole that reduce the clearance I have. Because of my Torker intake the carb sits pretty high, and as the hood drops down into closed position it hits the back edge of the air cleaner. I think once it is fully down it wopuld center in the round opening, but it needs to be around 12"-13" instead of 14" to clear as it drops.
Here's what the back side of the hood looks like:


I've looked everywhere for a 12-13" air cleaner but still no luck, except for a FORD air cleaner that's 13", and I don't want my air cleaner to have FORD embossed into the top. So does anyone have any suggestions for air cleaners, or ideas? Right now I've got a thin little 10" element sitting on my 14" base, with foam around the edge to seal against the hood. I'd like to get a bigger element that will allow some drop, and still clear the hood.
Present setup:

 

http://www.pauls-place.com/products-...ir-cleaner.asp

well heres a 11 and a half and still looking

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Corve...f#ht_800wt_732

heres one on ebay its black but you could rechrome it with something like bumper chrome or
body color it but its listed at 35 bucks with 0 bids and 30 days to go with a buy it now its 12 inches

 

can you trim a little off the hood?

 

I suppose I could, but I'm hesitant to trim on a hood with brand new paint inside and out!

 

i would stick with a 14" filter for the fact you can get a fram 14" filter replacement. i have that problem with my 10" filter. i must buy there filter for the same price of a 14" fram (i like fram) what you could do and probably need to do is protect the paint and measure up and carefuly use a dye grinder or dremal and cut off wheel it. take all day take 10 mins? but make a 14" fit. cause then u can get any 14" and be happy with it. im tryin to figure out what im doing too so dont feel too bad. lol i hate my 10" also dont get that pro-flo 1000 series triangular one from edlebrock. had a friend of mine backfire though carb melt it into his 327. they dont take blasts like the round ones

 

the metal isnt that thick right? if not use some hand shears. u only need to take a 1/2 inch off.

or heres an idea, trace the top of your airlid on the roof panel and make straight cuts to the line and bend them back.

 

just if your worried bout paint take a ton of time and make sure end of the day ur happy with your work. being i saw how your megashifter went youll be fine dude

 

The metal is actually double thickness, as that area is both the inner and floor of the outter hood area. Too thick to cut with snips.
I wont cut the hood regardless, as it would look ugly no matter what I did. I went to NAPA today and found a factory 13" element for some unknown car. I'm going to cut a 13" circle out of 12 ga. sheetmetal, then cut the inside out of it and weld it to my 14" dropped base. That will raise my 14" about 1/4", but still room between the hood, as it's a little thinner element.
Then I'll cut 1/2" off my air cleaner top and that will clear the hood opening. At least if I screw up it's just the air cleaner, not my newly painted hood.

 

I had the same problem with my 72. The engine has an Air Gap manifold with a Holley on top under the same hood as yours. A 14" filter would just barely hit when closing the hood. I cured it with an AFE 14" (AFE-18-31404) filter from Summit. They are like the K & N top flows but have a slight taper to them, just enough to clear. I used a 4" high so when the hood is closed about 1" of the filter is up in the scoop.