Technical My 55 Chevy fiberglass flip setup

I’ve been working on this for a bit, stuck it in my build thread, but thought I’d post it on main page.
I’ve got it pretty well finalized, it’s been a journey to get it to this point but works pretty sweet.



I required it to come ahead without rotating, or pitch up like a normal hood, also wanted the front lip/valance to end up below the frame rails and circle far enough out to clear frame horns. I also wanted to not have the fender bottoms smacking me in the head when working on the engine.

 

That works nice...

 

Did you build a whole inter-structure also?

 

nice

 

Now that works really sweet !

 

Yeah the whole shebang.

 

Very well thought out! A tilt frontend that opens without hitting the doors, and can be done by one person is very nice.

 

Very nice!

 

Friend of mine had a saying after finishing an obviously difficult and time consuming job.
He would say "LOOKS EASY"!
That was the first thing that came to mind having followed your other thread and now seeing these results.
We know it was anything but easy.
Great work.

 

I think you have a marketable design/product; now get it patented. I see you're in Canada, do you have "patents" there?! I've seen lots of tilt mechanisms, and none worked like yours; not even mine, but it was a really idiot simple design on a drag car. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

THAT IS SICK!!!!

 

Very nice..

 

The entire inner structure is pretty artsy, the plus side is that it Works! Great Job, I think Butch is on to something.

 

Thanks guys, the problem is with link mechanism is more suitable to a DIY than mass produce. Every tiny change will change the way tilts.

It opened perfectly the first time, then I struggled running simulations and trying changes so it would go out further and land under the frame at the front. I'm glad I stuck with it, its much better this way.
Its a balance, I had it close a few times but it would push the top of the fenders into the cowl during the initial opening, if you go too much the other way and it opens flatter the bottom of the fenders drag the cowl as it come forward. Lengthening and shortening the links changes things drastically, also the height of the links, distance apart, degrees apart all change everything drastically.

There are some things I would do different if I change the bottom links to make them connected and not independent of each other. This would make it travel a bit more evenly, when it crosses the apex the RH side wants to come forward a little bit more than the other side. It's not a big deal, but would work better that way. It could also be my wishbone I was thinking, these hoods aren't perfectly square and even so to get the wishbone lined up with the center inner structure it may not be 100% square I was thinking.
Either way I'm calling it good enough.
I'm going to add some shocks to over come that and some stops at the open position.
I'm not sure I'll need some stops at the back as it sits in the catches I made, but I'll add some rests in 4 corners anyway.

 

Very nice!

 

Really nice but doesn't all that hardware negate the weight savings of the fiberglass ???

 

meh. I’m definitely not going to call it lightweight, but that wasn’t my primary concern. The fiberglass front end is a bit more about form than function for me.
I don’t have the desire to have a dedicated race car, anything I build needs to be a Swiss Army knife.
I want the look, but still be able to take it on a 3000 mile road trip. So for me it’s not a big deal. I have unencumbered access to the engine bay, and I can still lift the hood on and off by myself and don’t have to worry about the front end coming off, cracking or falling apart in the future
So fits my needs, and gets away from the ugly cut fenders, or silly slide and tilt setups.
This is still quite a bit lighter than all the stock stuff, but if I had a tig welder, it’d be all aluminum supports and linkage and be best of both worlds.

 

excellent tilt setup , the fact that you can fine tune it makes it perfect...i was gonna weld my hood and fenders together and just tilt it forward using chevy suburban door hinges ,, they are battleship built...55 chevy is my all time favorite...

 

A little different. And good.
Better, even.
I like how it not only fits well when in closed position, but also opens to the standard position.
Don't be surprised to eventually see a few copies of your design.
Thanks for sharing! Cool 55!

 

Very nice!

 

We made a tilt front end a little more complicated than yours but it also allows one person to operate it but like you, when asked about making another, you almost have to do these as one off.

The time it took us (as it seems for you also) would make another too expensive for someone else to have one done.

Ours stops on the front of the frame which would mean someone would have to do their frame the same way also.

I really like how simple you did yours. Nice.

 

Yeah it’s about as simple as you can get. Other than figuring out all the geometry lol

 

First class.

 

Thanks!

 

I did have some questions about tire clearance. Not much of a concern as the wheel centreline is ahead of wheel well center. Also the axle is narrower and the wheels aren’t that close to the edge, but nonetheless it is still has a lot of clearance.

 

Works great, looks beautiful!
Nice.

 

wvenfield, That is a different use of a Hurst T-Handle! Both tilts are interesting and different. Saw a 55 in a car show once that used a pair of curved, aluminum channel, attached to the side/firewall area, to guide furniture casters attached to the trailing edges of the fenders, to guide the tilt up/down. It was all powered by a hydraulic ram that must have been powered by an electric pump. Just a poser effort and not really practical for a drag car. Sat at the show with the frond end tilted forward. What are you guys doing about keeping the paint from getting scratched up?
I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

wvenfield, that is pretty dang trick right there. It's a lot harder to make a sreel front tilt easy with the extra weight. Both of them sure have a lot of time invested, really nice fab work on both cars.

 

My paint has long been scratched up. LOL From the best I can tell my car has had one repaint in 65 years and that was quite awhile ago.

 

I think I’m gonna go buy a ‘55 just to have a tilt front end like that! Nice job!