Thread: Hood Help, flimsy

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I picked up a fiberglass Hood Top that im going to run on my roadster, however Im very disappointed in the quality. I baught it from ebay otherwise I wouldnt send it back. Any one done anything to stiffen one of these? I have an idea to add some material, maybe even some metal to bottom side, anyone done this. Any pics? Ideas? Thanks in advance. Ryan

Originally Posted by streetrod

I picked up a fiberglass Hood Top that im going to run on my roadster, however Im very disappointed in the quality. I baught it from ebay otherwise I wouldnt send it back. Any one done anything to stiffen one of these? I have an idea to add some material, maybe even some metal to bottom side, anyone done this. Any pics? Ideas? Thanks in advance. Ryan

Tell us more about it - make of car, a picture. We can help but need some more basics

Yes I had the same problem and if you don't fix this soon you will have stress cracks in the hood where it is flexing back and forth when you open the hood.
I made a skeleton out of 1/2" angle steel for the front to back sides under the hood and attached my hinges to them as seen in the pic., then I took some 3/16 plywood and saw cut out and slowly shaved down some templates for the cross ribs then when I got them to fit under the hood where I wanted them too (the hood must be installed and latched for this part)I took them to a metal fab shop and they sawed them out then I made 4 little feet to go on the bottom of the cross ribs with slotted holes in them for adjustment and welded the feet on to the ribs (which have to be welded on the same angle as the taper in the hood) . Then I had to take the hood back off the car and disassemble it to transfer the slotted hole locations onto the 1/2" angle iron running front to back them drill and tap them , reassemble loose install on the car and latch it down then tighten all the bolts down so the hood now will hold its shape when opened and shut back with out manipulation and bending which is where I got the stress cracks from. Picture 1 is back looking forward at radiator from drivers side.pic is looking back at passenger compartment Sorry I just tried to upload the pictures and the meg exceeds the web site 390 meg file and I have no idea how to compress them or shrink them below 390 If any one knows how please tell me this has happened to me before And I will post the pictures of what I have. Sorry

I use an old software program on my computer called micrografx. It is a picture editing tool. I am sure most any picture editing program will work. You just pull the jpeg from the file where it is stored on your computer. next pick the RESIZE PICTURE option, and have the smart size or aspect ratio box checked. Next size the pic down to where it is about 500 kb in file size. Next go to file and click SAVE AS. Just put it in the directory that you want it in, and name the file as you want. Make sure to save it as a JPEG. Once you hit the SAVE button it will compress it down a little further and you will end up with approxametely 390 kb jpeg file. Then you should be able to extract those jpegs to this site. I hope this helps.

Originally Posted by streetrod

I picked up a fiberglass Hood Top that im going to run on my roadster, however Im very disappointed in the quality. I baught it from ebay otherwise I wouldnt send it back. Any one done anything to stiffen one of these? I have an idea to add some material, maybe even some metal to bottom side, anyone done this. Any pics? Ideas? Thanks in advance. Ryan

A couple strips of plywood glassed into it will help, or the new way is to use some of the high strength core matt... Very strong stuff!!!! I wouldn't suggest using metal, fiberglass and metal expand and contract at a far different rate... With a hood exposed to the hot sun could well become a problem...

Originally Posted by streetrod

I picked up a fiberglass Hood Top that im going to run on my roadster, however Im very disappointed in the quality. I baught it from ebay otherwise I wouldnt send it back. Any one done anything to stiffen one of these? I have an idea to add some material, maybe even some metal to bottom side, anyone done this. Any pics? Ideas? Thanks in advance. Ryan

I'd buy some Dan Fink hood support rods and install them under the hood. I made my own for my steel one piece top hood and it's amazing how much stiffer it is. But, it's very time consuming to get the correct radius and center bend in the tubing. Plus they are different front and rear, for $75 a pair, buying them is a no brainer IMO. You just have to glass "the feet" into you inner side lips.