June 28, 2007

I'm ready for the first phase of glass work. Today I braced all the broken pieces together, kinda like putting plates and screws into your lower back to "fuse" your vertebre. Trust me I know! (Been there,done that).

Anywho, I took these aluminum bars and conformed them to the curvature of the hood on the GOOD side and the flipped them 180degrees to the other side and screwed them down. They are thick enough to force the loose cracked material into following the bars' shape and mimics the other side. Just before final tightening of the screws, a thin metal sheet of aluminum was slid in under all the bars as a "backing plate". Now I'm ready to glass from the OTHER side, which is actually the inside. I will have to cut away some of the damaged area of the inner liner and then glass the backside of where these bars are. After that, back the screws out and begin rebuilding the inner liner and modifying reliefs for the SC and throttle body/intake tube.

After that's done, back to the top to remedy any irregularities that remain, fill screw holes, grind reliefs in the cracks from the top and fill those, bondo and remaining minor areas and then refinish. The hood is now off the car and on the back patio on a table on it's backside ready for work tomorrow morning! Wish me luck, it's gonna be rough!!




Here's a sticker INSIDE the layers...Confirms it's a SHELBY!!!

June 28, 2007

lol man that was one exspensive hood to buy new.. it looks good on your car though even if its missing the stripes and cracked!

June 29, 2007

Rickeyracer: No I didn't. I added the intercooled HO Whipple kit with a custom tune. The kit upgrades the injectors to 39#, and it requires the upgrade to the GT500 fuel pumps. It included a CAI, and Fluidyne air to water charge air cooler in addition to the in-manifold intercooler. I am running 10psi, and have a custom tune instead of the canned Ford Recing/Whipple tune. I retained the stock throttle body. I went from a dynoed stock 241RWHP, to a conservatively tuned 465.1RWHP. The highest dyno run with my setup was 488RWHP, but the installer/tuner detuned it to prevent me from grenading it.
The HP figures you state are closer to a roots type blower, like the Roush, or a low power twin screw like the Saleen. The Whipples and Kenne Bells are known for extremely high output capability.

June 29, 2007

look's like you have a good start on it Tim keep us posted on your progress





Walt

June 29, 2007

I'm into it, boys and girls! Going hot and heavy this a.m. before the heat sets in!



While this cures, I'll be tracing out the areas on the inner liner that have to be cut out for clearance reasons. More pics in the gallery if you're bored.

June 29, 2007

You have a up hill battle on your hands, but I know you love a challenge!

Looking good so far!

June 29, 2007

I've now trimmed out the two areas to be relieved. One for the intake tube and the rectangular area to clear the SC pulley. Expanding foam is sprayed in and when cured will be trimmed to make "walls" so I can glass those cavities. If these cure fast enough, I hope to glass in these two areas today. Then turn my attention to rebuilding the bottom skin and fabricating the missing "chunks". Maybe tomorrow if I can't finish it today.

June 29, 2007

I knew this project would be right up your alley! Great work Tim!

June 29, 2007

Thanks, Chris. And I want to publicly state that if it weren't for Chris, I'd have MANY more hours of work to do than I already have. That link he posted to the forum from "another" site about someone else with the same hood and SC was a lifesaver. So, KUDOS to BROMFED!!!

On another note, after the two layers laid up earlier this morning cured rock hard, I removed the external braces and backing plate. Although the cracks are obviously still visible on the front, the entire hood has regained it's rigidity. I am soooooooooo stoked! It's stiff again!(He shouted with glee, LOL)

The relieved areas with expanding foam in them won't be ready to work with until tomorrow. Although they have "skinned over", the core is still sticky and gooey and not completely cured. So, that will have to wait until tomorrow. But for now, I am VERY pleased that the overall structure is solid and in it's correct shape.

Time for a beer.

On the agenda for tomorrow and thereafter is as follows:

Trim out relieved areas and glass them in.
Replace portion of inside liner that was cut out to allow access to top layer and fab it in and replace missing "chunks"
Repair all other cracks in bottom layer by grinding "V"s in to the cracks, feathering them out and laying in glass to close them.
Do the same to the cracks on the top layer. Grind away fractured edges of cracks, feather them out and then glass them back in to close them.

Then comes the surface prep on both the inside and outside for final finishing. So far, it hasn't been all that messy. But when it comes time to do all that sanding....It's gonna be fiberglass powder all over the place.

June 29, 2007

Well, I went and checked on the expanding foam ONE more time before calling it a day. It was ready for trimming so I knocked out that chore. So, these two voids/reliefs are ready to be glassed in. I will chamfer the edges first thing in the morning so when glassing them, it'll will have a nice radius all the way around the perimeter edge and plenty of surface area to grip to.

June 29, 2007

W O W ! ! !

June 29, 2007

Yeah, not bad for a day's work, eh?