I am about to attempt to build myself a half hood on my 1926 Model T project. I am looking for some guidance and helpful comments to get me started. I am considering making a wooden form replicating the firewall and grille shell ends. The span is approx 32 1/2". I've had a couple of pic's kindly photo shopped by madfish and have decided to take the next steps. I have no set ideas as far as material choice or holding down methods etc...
I am still looking for guidance if anybody feels inclined to make comment. I have made a replica of the firewall and grille shell ends and spaced them to the correct distance apart. I have also made a pattern in wood of the twin carb foot print with clearance included. I have concerns about the variation between the front and rear profiles, will this be difficult to shape to fit???
@louisb shaped his hood by hand over some simple shapes of course its easier said than done but he got it...I remember a Hotrod article where they did it simply as well... Louis B's link https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/the-brooks-special-louisb’s-29-lakes-roadster-build.1107348/page-8#post-12918886...thru to post #220 or so he tackles it quite nicely... The Hotrod articles... https://www.hotrod.com/articles/how-to-make-a-handmade-hood/ https://www.hotrod.com/articles/1011sr-hot-rod-hood-fabrication/
Wow, thanks for that, I have googgled under hot rod hoods etc but found very little to date. I do find many article in general are short on detail at times... I would never have found the Brooks hood in my searches. I see the Canadians are leading the charge again, good work.
@fiftyv8, your welcome...I'm glad your only going for a half hood as I wouldn't want to see that wild mill hidden...That's a Cool Hotrod...don't be shy in posting pics......I saw those pipes running uphill and knew something was up... Your ride looks kinda fifties style...I was in a crazy way thinking your might consider tinted plexi...There was a late fifties Hotrod 32 that ran a plexi half hood and the mill was still visible and obviously protected from the elements. Oops I thought this was your Roadster but it's a T...With a Flathead Cadi to cool...
Hey, thanks for the mention @Stogy I used 16 gauge aluminum sheet and formed the hood top over some 6" aluminum pipe and my knee. I actually ended up making 3 full sets of hoods and sides till I got something I was happy with. I found 4x4 aluminum sheet pretty cheaply on eBay. (Cheaper than my local metal shop) I tried using the oxygen tank for forming but I only have a little pony tank so I looked around on Craigs list and found someone selling scrap aluminum pipe. (From a circus tent poll no less) For fasteners I used Dzus fastners. --louis
I know you didn't ask but if you don't get what you want by your own hand your profile mentions being from CO and WA, Swedberg in Centralia, WA built my one piece hood. The area around the air cleaners is exceptional. He is an artist. He did a perfect job around the radiator and added a nice metal bead at the cowl to finish the hood and reinforce it back there. I don't have a clear picture at the moment of the underhood supports I built to brace and firm up the hood when it is open but they worked great. The only bad part is I had to remove the engine so I could stand in the bay to install them that way I could tack them together with the hood closed to hold the form. It is also secured with leather straps I had made by Hotrod Leather Eric on here
The last time I made a hood top was for a Model A, I started with poster board to get the correct shap and taped it in place as I went, I the laid it out on a piece of sheet metal and traced it with a sharpie. You now have the correct shape, I then found the center and had a extra set of hand hold it in place and worked from the center out getting a slight bend to match the couture, I did this on both sides, to get the tight roll I used a cutting torch oxygen cylinder, it turned out pretty good. I made the top- a little longer than it needed to be where I could bend it under to have a smooth edge and a place to attach the hood. HRP
Stogy, yes my buddy mentioned I should consider plexiglass. It is a distant possibility, but would not happen until I have made a regular hood first, which may then be used as a pattern and a form. louisb, thanks for your comments and I read the hood section of your thread with much interest. I do have access to both a gas bottle and several large diameter drive shafts which I realise now as very likely to be helpful. Comments from folks who have walked the walk are of great value to me. denis4x4, your engine bay and hood look just right and I like leather straps very much, but in this case those darn pipes happen to be in the way. I had in the early days of my build thought that I would use leather straps and almost purchased a set. Glad now that I did not, as they would not have worked... Bandit Billy, man your hood is to die for, what a great result. I need to build my own for several reasons, but I will definitely see if I can make the air cleaner opening as nice as what yours looks. It is sure going to be a challenge. HOTRODPRIMER, as always your comments are constructive and subjective. I got some personal comments from Justabeater37 who has said similar things to you. I fully intent to purchase some poster board asap. One of my concerns besides the air cleaner opening is getting a hem around the edge of the final shape. I took a look at a stock Model hood which shows a hem/smooth edge all the way around. There sure is a lot going on in my head right now. I'm thinking sheet metal (steel), then finding the shape using card material, adding hem dimensions and slowly forming the shape with extra hands assistance. I think the air cleaner opening will come after that unless others think otherwise. I thought of making some kind of wooden buck to shape the opening lipped edge but don't see how that would work once the sheet is shaped. If the opening was formed first with a buck I am sure it would be very difficult to shape/form the main hood space after.
<I thought of making some kind of wooden buck to shape the opening lipped edge but don't see how that would work once the sheet is shaped.> Wooden buck is right. I used the one in front of my car port that adjoins my garage. It's the wooden telephone pole. Where I had to hold one side, I simply used a piece of 1" X 3" wood slat screwed onto the pole with 2" drywall screws. The overlapping edge pinched the hood material firmly, so I could roll it to a nice starting radius. Loosened the screws, flipped the hood, tightened the pinch slat, did the other side. Danny's right, the oxygen tank does the trick. But I fortunately had 2 old posts from a fence (4.5" diameter, they were round, with 2 flats. (Clutch ('Double D') shaped.) These radii made the final bends around the cowl and shell...
Now that you mention it Mike, I have two poles out the front of my house, I must take a closer look and diameter measurements. Thinking back many years ago, I recall a hot rod shop in Longmont CO, where the guy had a homemade trestle setup with a number of same length pipes of various diameter welded into a revolving gizmo where he could slip a sheet in between pipes and pull it around the pipe diameter of his choice. Not that practical for a small home garage but not a bad idea all the same... You got me thinking.
OK, just by good luck, I remembered I had a huge roll of suitably thick gasket paper that was a good width on the roll. I cut a piece off and have managed to wrap it over my replica engine bay profiles and stapled it to the wood. I am pretty pleased with how it has taken the shape with no stress points. That was my first concern, as I had expected to be finding stress points because of the difference in front and rear profile was quite different. So far so good. Now I have something to look at and I also feel a little more relaxed about the air cleaner cut out area as it sits a lot flatter in that area than I had anticipated, maybe I was just over thinking it... Probably a dumb idea, but it had passed thru my mind that maybe I could make a left and right hand side and run a turned 90 degree edge down the center of the hood from front to rear and say spot weld them together showing a fake seam/joint. This though occurred to me as an way of dealing with the air cleaner cut out challenge. Any thoughts folks.
ive never attempted this but im sure a solid stable platform would help.take the first picture I would add diagionals from the front corners to the rear corners with timber the same thickness as the blue piece.ie you removed a little at the front piece so the buck would sit flat on a table for example you would have a stable buck to work with.im from a carpentry background /worked in workshops for years.im sure the better the buck the better the finished hood will be.screw the buck to the table or hold it with clamps.best wishes and good luck.im following with interest ps I would use mdf instead of plywood can get a finer finish and no splinters
jaw22w, thankyou for your information on sheet thickness I was thinking about 1mm which turns out to be quite close to your 20 gauge. I have a oxygen bottle lined up for the purpose. Next is to acquire some sheet metal and see if I can get a smooth edge hem put on it before I start trying to roll it in to shape. I also have a utility pole across the road from my house that is also looking handy roll shape... nunattax, I hear you regarding my choice of wood, but I have just been trying use up scrap that I had here at no cost. Probably not the best choice, but I never did have much of a plan when getting started, things have just evolved. I do believe you are right about extra bracing which I intend to add soon. While my choice of words may not be correct I use the word "buck" quite loosely as really it was only originally intended as just a form/shape confirmation structure, but as I am progressing, I see that it will become more. I must confess that your idea of screwing it down has also come to my attention and I have made plans to get that done. Thanks for your knowledge based input. Send my best wishes to the Murphy's of County Wexford who are distant kin and also carpentry folks.
I didn't use any bucks. I used the car for my buck. I made marks on the body and the shell at the tangent points and the centerline. I know they are not really tangent points, but you can approximate it pretty well. Then I laid those dimensions out on my new hood sheet. That tells you where to lay the sheet on the bottle to start bending. It takes a lot of fitting and adjusting, but you can get it. The hardest part for me was getting the fit right at the cowl and shell. I wouldn't trust your mockup implicitly to achieve proper gaps at the cowl and shell. My hood does not have hemmed edges at the cowl or shell. I made marks on the shell and cowl parallel to the indentation and 1" away. When I got the shape of the hood pretty close, I trimmed it down to where I could see those lines. Then marked that line 1-3/16" in onto the hood. Trimmed to that line and had good 3/16" gaps. I left the sides long too until last. Trimmed those to 1" more than desired height and broke a 1" 90 on it. Anyway, that's how I did mine. My hood was attached with Dzus fasteners, but that got to be a PIA. So, I made hinges to open the hood forward, up and over the radiator. Now I have to make a new hood skin to get rid of the Dzus holes. That's going to be my project for the next couple of days. Good luck with yours.
jaw22w, boy that is helpful information for me as I am just at that point. I just got back from my buddies workshop who does do sheet metal work, Fortunately he has the correct size sheets in stock and advised me that I needed to leave a minimum 3/8" hem on any sides that I required a smooth/safe edge on. I am just about ready to take my template to him, but have decided to take stock of my holding down intentions first. As you have said, that you put a 90 degree bend on the side edges, which could be something that would work for me also. My buddy has also offered to roll my sides, if only to start to a point where I can massage them to fit. I needed a separate replica engine bay to work on as my car is painted and this hood has come as an after thought actually. I guess that I will eventually get to the point whereby I will tape up the edges of my actual engine bay and do the last tweaking there just to be sure to get a good fit... Hinging has also been on my mind and I really like the idea of lifting up from the radiator point, but so far I am not willing to use those billet repro hinges I see on eBay for big $'s. I really need to confirm a hinging method that I can work towards. Being as finished as I am , means working within the limits I have already set for myself...
Well here's my hood. Just measured it and it looks like 14 gauge. All I can say to that is that the stuff as free. By all means use something way thinner. The old bend it around a tree or oxygen bottle wouldn't cut it. Also, with it that thick, the louvers tore a bit in the corners. Found stainless lunchbox latches on Amazon from China. The company from China were easier to deal with than Canada Post. They were more than willing to refund me for my missing latches when the real culprit was Canada Post who took their own sweet time before releasing them from their warehouse. Had a hard time finding a cereal box big enough to use for a pattern. Later, my neighbor told me that I could buy pattern material from places like Home Depot or Lowe's.
@fiftyv8 there was a Model A Coupe that had a unique hinge system and I have a pic in the Homogenized thread of a Jalopy racer with a side opening hood...both of these are one piece hoods I will see if I can dig the Ole Jalopy up...and the coupe was that real nice black one in a thread recently with the wild headlights. The Black Coupe Hood post...below...dayuum he nailed it with this coupe check the thread out. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/just-another-black-model-a.1122429/#post-12742058
Stogy, thanks again for your input. Sadly, I have struggled open most of the pic's in the HAMB link you posted above. I saw I think a couple of the hood but none with actual detail. If there are any there that shows hinge or latch etc please be kind enough to say post them here. I would be most grateful. Russ.
I'm pretty sure this is a hand fabbed mechanism... https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/just-another-black-model-a.1122429/#post-12742058 Credit to Photographer, Owner @rsss396
Started out with a template then had it roughly rolled at a local sheet metal works then finished it by hand Sent from my moto g(6) play using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Stogy and Blackjack, thankyou both for your pic's. Blackjack, that is the coolest hood finish I've seen before. I am interested in that lift up hinge setup on the 30 coupe. Time to do some figuring and take stock of my direction.
You might want to PM @rsss396 and ask about how he achieved that...it really is pretty cool and actually plausibly period correct to boot...perhaps he could do a Tech Thread on it...nudge nudge...wink wink... I haven't found the other vintage pic with the side opener yet...I wish there was an easier way to find posts in threads...
I started a thread here called "Hood Hinges Ideas?". I don't know how to post a link, but search brings it up. There are pics of how I did my hood hinges.
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