Questions about fiberglass, hoods, and stuff..

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

I'm thinking of swapping to a cowl hood on my coupe for better hood clearance, but finding a cowl hood for a '79-82 is damn near impossible unless you wanna spend $400 on one from Maier Racing....so i'm thinking about trying to modify an '83-86 to fit. The only difference is that little 1 inch or so lip that comes down on the newer hoods...that part would need cut/ground off and smoothed out so it's flat all the way across like the '79-82 hoods. Does anyone with fiberglass experience think this would work/look right?

This would actually be better for me in the long run too, because since my car is an '85, the cowl pan/grill is also bigger than the '79-82, and the cowl hood would be the right width to match it (right now i've got no grill on it, because the '79 hood catches on it when you open the hood. Having the '85 style cowl would also clear up this issue).

[Sparky]

I think you could do it IF........the contour of the grille on your car matches an 83-86. I'm talking about the top-most "brow" of your grill where the hood mates to it to create a gap. That constant radius would have to match to make it look right. See, you're thinking about one angle when there are actually two to consider. I would imagine if it was close enough you could fill here, grind away there. I'm just imagining an 83-86 having a flatter brow to it but I could be retarded. As far as materials go, you can do almost anything with fiberglass. I'm sure there wouldn't be much bonding material left, if any where you're going to cut the lip. When the two halves of a 'glass hood are bonded, they usually only bond the outermost perimeter of the two panels. Not a big deal though. You can buy it at the paint store or just use duraglass like the cheapos do.

Kind of a shame though, I like the origional 82 hoods. If anything I would make the bolt on scoop taller and functional. THe 82 front end has that sharky "road warrior" look to it. Every body has cowl hoods.......

Here's an idea though.....grab an old steel hood and hack the lip off with a sawzall. It would be a cheap and easy way to find out.

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

I've looked at them a lot..i think i know what you're saying and the real difference is just that lip. The hood latch is even identical so no issues there either.

I LOVE the scoop, but right now i'm having to use a little 2 inch breather and that isn't cutting it. I've even thought about looking for an aftermarket scoop similar to this one that's just a little taller (i'd love to get my hands on an old Boss scoop) to see if that made any difference.

The hood was actually stamped from the factory with a huge hole right under that scoop, which is pretty cool because without this hood there's no way i could run the Vic. Jr intake, i just have to run a huge dropped base breather if i want a good size breather, and even then it has to be short to clear the hood. I'd like to run a 14x3 inch breather and i've been told that i'd need at least a 4 inch cowl to run that much breather on this intake.

[Timido]

HO Fibertrends money worth spending . http://hofibertrends.com/ They make nice 79-82 stuff.

[CAPRISTANG]

What are you going to do with the old front end?? I have a nose , mach-1 hood from a 79-82 i'll check tonight on the clearance. Are you going to keep the 82 nose on the car and tri to get a hood to fit that nose?? You could find a boss scoop at the Columbis swap meet in November. Call me @513-377-1911 Doug

[347sc]

79 Pace car hood ftw!

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

What are you going to do with the old front end?? I have a nose , mach-1 hood from a 79-82 i'll check tonight on the clearance. Are you going to keep the 82 nose on the car and tri to get a hood to fit that nose?? You could find a boss scoop at the Columbis swap meet in November. Call me @513-377-1911 Doug


I'll probably be keeping the hood but definitely keeping the nose for sure, i'm just looking for a cowl hood to match the '79-82 style noses (they were all the same as far as matching the hood goes).


What would really be nice is if someone had a 14 inch drop base breather setup with a 3 inch breather i could try out before i bother with getting another hood. If it would fit then i wouldn't even bother, the only reason i'd change hoods is so i can run more breather.

[CAPRISTANG]

Hey David try lookin into a Morso brand. I think they have a drop type filter body..