Fred and Listers,
I too want to get a LAT hood and just yesterday was talking to Jeff Cushing
about obtaining one of the ones that he remanufactured. He is not using the
guy from aerodyne any more as he felt that the fellow was too hit and miss
with available time but has some new hoods just waiting for some Tiger
engine bays to cover. With all of the discussion on hoods earlier I plan to
go and critically examine this hood and then give all a step by step
critique and install procedure. Being that I am an old autobody technician
that did his share of corvettes, Avantis and Kenworth hoods I am pretty sure
that if given the opportunity it can be made to fit PERFECTLY. Fred, you
asked about making a round corner hood out of a square corner hood. I have
never seen the opening but my guess is that the round corner hood has the
sheet metal just filled in at the corners and it is necessary to just cut
the corners off of the hood. There are several ways to do this but the
easiest is with a saw and a grinder. The trick is to go slow and just remove
a little at a time. If you have nice paint on the car cover the curved
corners where the hood, when closed, will over lap the body with a good
layer of masking tape. Then mount the hood on the car and then get out some
masking tape and with the hood closed use the tape to mark roughly where the
curve is and try to keep it a little large at first as it is very difficult
(But possible) to add material to the edge. trim just enough off using the
jig saw with a fine blade so the hood is able to close. If you have left it
large you will notice that the gap is tighter in the corners than what it is
on the sides. Make sure that now with the hood closed (with the latch
assembly removed) the side and front gaps are acceptable. Once they are use
the masking tape to create a straight line along the side edge of the hood
noting the distance to the fenders continue with the tape towards the
windscreen until you get to the first corner and begin to curve the tape
ensuring the TAPE edge remains the same distance from the radius of the
corner as it was to the fender edge continue across the back of the hood
until you reach the other corner and then repeat the curve maintaining the
distance to the edge of the fender radius and down the side. You should now
have a smooth tape line with portions of the hood sticking out beyond it.
Use the grinder (Or a Vixen File ) to remove the fibreglass material that
resides outside of the tape edge. Refit to ensure you have sized it
correctly and then smooth the sharp corner that is left on top to ensure
that the radius from the top surface of the hood down the side is consistent
around the entire hood. You may need to lightly fill the edge as there is
likely to be small pin holes and exposed fibers from the Fiberglas. Also, if
there is a shaped edge (lip) around the perimeter of the hood you will need
to rebuild this as well using Sikkens body-filler. Then fix all of the waves
in the fibreglass with said filler, Prime with high solids SIKKENS
Colorbuild Primer (Mixed to exactly your paint colour), Block-sand and then
paint with SIKKENS Autobase and Autoclear. Can you tell that I work for
Sikkens (Akzo Nobel)??
Fred I hope that helps!
If you have other questions, just let me know.
Regards,
Tim Ronak
B382000680
Canada soon to be L.A.
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