steel or aluminum hood for reverse cowl project?
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Senior Member
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 466
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From: van city
steel or aluminum hood for reverse cowl project?
im planning on getting this reverse vent
http://www.raceonusa.com/index.asp?P...OD&ProdID=2881
and i was going to pick up an aluminum hood to install it on, but was told by a friend that works at a body shop that it will most likely bend/warp and will not work out the way i hope it will...
so the question is... should i stay with the steel hood i have at the moment, cut it out for the vent and use that? or try my luck with the aluminum hood?
the vent is quite big (31x27") and if i cut a hole that big in the steel hood, it will take a lot of the weight of the steel hood out.... which is why i wanted to use an aluminum hood (weighs less)
what do you guys suggest i do?
cheers,Dan.
http://www.raceonusa.com/index.asp?P...OD&ProdID=2881
and i was going to pick up an aluminum hood to install it on, but was told by a friend that works at a body shop that it will most likely bend/warp and will not work out the way i hope it will...
so the question is... should i stay with the steel hood i have at the moment, cut it out for the vent and use that? or try my luck with the aluminum hood?
the vent is quite big (31x27") and if i cut a hole that big in the steel hood, it will take a lot of the weight of the steel hood out.... which is why i wanted to use an aluminum hood (weighs less)
what do you guys suggest i do?
cheers,Dan.
Ooooooh, custom.
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 618
Likes: 0
From: Corona, CA
Alright, so you want a reverse hood vent.
You could:
A: Buy that scoop and cut a hole/mount it
B: Cut your own hood and bend a part down and weld a piece in place
C: Buy one premade
D: Have someone else make one for you
Now, considering that you probably dont want to spend 400-500 dollars (or more, I swear aftermarket people think they have gold or something...) to buy a hood with a vent in it, or pay someone to do it for you, lets look at the other two options.
If you have welding experience I would suggest making your own, because you could do whatever you damn well wanted to, and wouldnt be confined to their size and shape of the vent. If you dont have welding experience, do you have a friend that makes nice welds? If so, you could do that, and save yourself a whole bunch of money, at the expense of a little more time. Cut the brace, cut the hood the shape of the vent you would like. Put a spacer in the hole to hold the shape of the vent, and weld in the side pieces of the vent. Shazam, new hood vent.
If you dont know someone that can weld, and have no welding experience of your own, then yeah, go with the other design. You can pop rivet it in, and make it look halfway decent. Personally I would much rather do something with metal, and not urathane or something like that. It wouldnt have the chance of breaking, or being forcefully removed. But definitely like the idea of the hood vent.
Good luck to you.
Edit: Quick note. If you cut that much out of an aluminum hood, then you might remove too much of the cross bracing, and then make your hood weaker/more prone to being facked up. Now, if you did that with the steel one, it might have more strength and be lighter, but depending on the braces, the same problem may exist. Just keep that in mind when doing this. The more you cut out, the weaker the middle of the hood will be.
You could:
A: Buy that scoop and cut a hole/mount it
B: Cut your own hood and bend a part down and weld a piece in place
C: Buy one premade
D: Have someone else make one for you
Now, considering that you probably dont want to spend 400-500 dollars (or more, I swear aftermarket people think they have gold or something...) to buy a hood with a vent in it, or pay someone to do it for you, lets look at the other two options.
If you have welding experience I would suggest making your own, because you could do whatever you damn well wanted to, and wouldnt be confined to their size and shape of the vent. If you dont have welding experience, do you have a friend that makes nice welds? If so, you could do that, and save yourself a whole bunch of money, at the expense of a little more time. Cut the brace, cut the hood the shape of the vent you would like. Put a spacer in the hole to hold the shape of the vent, and weld in the side pieces of the vent. Shazam, new hood vent.
If you dont know someone that can weld, and have no welding experience of your own, then yeah, go with the other design. You can pop rivet it in, and make it look halfway decent. Personally I would much rather do something with metal, and not urathane or something like that. It wouldnt have the chance of breaking, or being forcefully removed. But definitely like the idea of the hood vent.
Good luck to you.
Edit: Quick note. If you cut that much out of an aluminum hood, then you might remove too much of the cross bracing, and then make your hood weaker/more prone to being facked up. Now, if you did that with the steel one, it might have more strength and be lighter, but depending on the braces, the same problem may exist. Just keep that in mind when doing this. The more you cut out, the weaker the middle of the hood will be.
