Ken, Ray, et Listers,
It both amuses and dismays me that a decent fitting LAT-79 hood still
eludes us. Back around 1978, a Tiger owner here in San Diego asked Kent
Wilcox, who does aeronautics fiberglass professionally and is also a Shelby
enthusiast and parts supplier, to make a knockoff of the LAT-79. Compared
to the previously available hoods, Kent's looked terrific; nicely finished
both top and bottom. Unfortunately, the mold was taken from another LAT-79
hood, so all of the defects got propagated. Kent has made some improvements
to the fit since then and also included an aluminum tubing frame for added
rigidity. However, it is still not a "bolt-on" piece and needs quite a bit
of hand fitting and finishing. Also, it took at least a year or so on my
hood before the surface stabilized enough to hold a color sanding. A couple
of things I would do if I were starting from scratch to produce these
hoods: First, I would use a straight-as-a-pin steel hood as the basis for
the mold. Also, I would add a skoshe more clearance over the air cleaner;
just another 1/2' or so would be so nice. Finally, I would make the hood
plenty big; big enough so that you might even have to remove some to get it
to fit. Most of these hoods look like they fit with too much gap. Now, it
seems to me the best idea would be an aluminum hood; either all aluminum or
one that uses the frame of the standard steel hood and is re-skinned in
aluminum. How much would it cost to set up to stamp the top sheet metal out
of aluminum? Maybe someone wants to take a trip to Poland and start that
MIG factory where they're making the Cobra bodies working on this project. ;-)
Well, TTFN. It's time for my Optometrist appointment. 8-)
Bob
At 02:32 PM 5/23/99 -0600, Ken Tisdale wrote:
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>I purchased a fiberglass LAT hood from a source in SoCal. Getting it to
>fit "correctly" took a lot of time and pain, and the folks who did the
>fit, prep, and paint for me have threatened to "shoot on sight" anyone
>who brings a LAT hood near their shop. That said, it may not be a
>perfect fit, but it looks pretty nice. If I had to do it over again, I'd
>get an Alpine hood and have a "great" bidy shop modify it for the NACA
>ducts and scoop. It couldn't cost any more than the LAT hood + the work
>that had to be done...;-)
Robert L. Palmer
Dept. of AMES, Univ. of Calif., San Diego
rpalmer@ames.ucsd.edu
rpalmer@cts.com
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