I found this part to be somewhat difficult. Lots of careful measuring and figuring out exactly what I wanted. Very time consuming
The hood and nose come as one piece. For a street or show car, that’s probably fine. But I wanted components that were easier to handle in the garage and at the track. What do you do with that one big piece when you take it off? Anyway, I decided to split them in to two pieces. I measured 45.25 inches from the back edge for a cut line.
The blue tape creates a good straight edge to guide the cut. I used a air powered cut off wheel. Do this outside, because it creates a LOT of dust.
Then it was a lot of adjustments here and there to get things where I wanted them. Tape, clamps, and wood blocks were pretty helpful
I decided to use standard pins for the hood retention, 1 on each corner. Aero catches look better. But pins are simple, reliable, and cheap. Easy to remove the hood out on turn 9 if I need to; no tools required. I welded tabs on the frame. And them made these stand offs from some large washers and tubing.
The rear pins are a lot easier. There’s already brackets welded in for them. That aluminum panel I made to cover all the electrical stuff. There is weatherstripping around the edges to try and keep the crud out. It’s held in place with #10 machine screws.
Getting the “nose cone” in place was a little more difficult. It’s a matter of holding it in place while you install brackets to the frame where you want them. I decided to use Dzeus quarter turn fasteners here. Still easy to remove the nose, but requires some kind of tool. Looks kinda cool, too 🙂 Working from the back, I welded on the tabs where I though they should go. Then I put the nose in place, and marked for the holes.
You need three holes for the flush fitting Dzeuss fasteners: 1 large for the center post and 2 #30 for the retaining rivets. The pop rivets (of course) stick out the back a little ways. Which kinda prevents the panel from sitting flush against the tab. I didn’t like that. I did a lot of research, and I couldn’t find a cure for that.
So I invented one. I aligned the oval shaped fastener with the long axis of the tab, and latched it. I drilled one #30 retaining hole past the end of the tab, and then put a Clecko in there. The second #30 hole was drilled through the panel, and through the body of the tab. The hole in the tab I then enlarged to 3/16″. You can see that hole in the tab in the above left picture. That allows room for the rivet back to go though, and allows the panel to sit flat against the tab.
As a bonus, the hole in the tab meets the back of the rivet and acts like a locating stud. Makes it really easy to put the nose in place and it will stay there while you grab the tool to set the fastener. You can have the nose off or on in less than 1 minute.
While I was working with it, I dropped it a couple of times. The front edges are now kinda scratched up. Put some painters tape on the front edges before you start. I’m considering putting some 3M paint Defender on the front. Hitting a rock at 140mph will leave a mark.
Another clearance problem developed with the nose. I had welded in these lower radiator supports. But they were too far outboard, and prevented the nose from fitting. I cut them off and moved them inboard as much as possible. That worked fine.
Once the hood and nose were in place, another problem cropped up. The two outside edges of the hood were supported at the pins. But, the center of the hood sagged, and left a big gap.
To fix that, I glassed a piece of scrap alum sheet in place for support. Seems to work pretty well.
