I'm sure most 32 guru's have seen the Tindal 32 orange crate with it's tilt body & several other similar subjects including 'T' & 'A' bodied race inspired builds...&.I know through the years several like mentioned subjects have appeared with forward tilting hoods, however looking through the archives have not happened upon any photo's or builds, I've a general idea in mind just thought if anyone has input would appreciate a comment.... My thought would be for the grille shell, plain sides & one piece top to tilt forward as a unit.
Street rod stuff that is now obsolete for street rods. Simply meaning a short lived fad if it could even be called a fad that lost favor because your 32 grill was pointing at the ground rather than standing proud. I think if you dig through Street Rodder mag adds from the Pastel era you can find the add for them .
I think a tilt nose 32 would be cool, if it is done right. A one piece fiberglass unit would probably be best if you do it. But on a separate note, I hope to God they never bring back monochromatic paint jobs and tweed interiors. And I don't even want to think about that billet craziness. Billet is good for a one off engineering solution to a part fitment problem and racing heads!
With all due respect I know about all those past fads that come & go...I'm not talking one of those billet type supports, the original hood was an aluminum one piece lift off (dirt car) of which I'm not particularly fond of kicking it around off the car, the 32 grille shell is only the upper 2/3 anyway, I would miuch rather let the flathead stand proud flanked by the hood with it's vintage shop lettering . Hey, I really do appreciate the input...
Could not find it but Hog Mountain Dave has a 32 3W drag car called Hell za pop'n, it (may) have what you are thinking about.
Please post pics of the process and the finish. I would like to watch it come together. I also have a flip top body on my 1927 coupe.
I didn't find any construction photos that show hood and grille attachment, but appear to have dzuez fasteners front and back of hood. FB is Hog Mountain Garage.
Race car is a whole different game than street car, Race car tilt hood is for the convenience of the crew working on the engine between rounds and not looks. Still even if I stick that 32 shell I have stashed away on a rod, I want the world to see that I have a 32 shell sticking out for the world to see and not tilted to the ground hidden. My flathead has a lot of shiny stuff but still isn't important enough to hide the grill shell just to show it.
Only practical way I could see it working would be to fix it to grille surround as you suggested and have swivel point as low as possible at bottom of grille surround. Some tilt hoods on mid fifties cars actually pulled forward a little on runners, then tilted, so that the hood edges didn’t hit the body work. You may consider doing that also due to the convex curve of the cowl. Anything can be done with time and monetary input. Wouldn’t tilt too far until it hit the headlight bar though……… So headlights are another consideration……..
I too hated all that billeted stuff but I must confess I sure made a hell of a lot of money machining custom aluminum parts for those guys. Every now and then one of those billeted buggies someone stashed away shows up on the local classifieds and makes me smile remembering the days of pulling into a car show in the nineties and seeing a bunch of cars painted up like Easter eggs.
If there are headlights, they need to be far enough apart not to interfere with the tilt. Whether the shell is over the axle or behind it, there could be interference. So, you probably need to figure out linkage that will move it up and forward as it tilts.
Have a tilt system in mind, nose gaurd, headlights, not of concern, the chrome stuff ok for most applications just not this project, more focus on heads, intake, ignition etc.
You might have to make it raise somewhat as it tilts forward .........maybe even make it tilt independently of the grille shell. Rear sides would need to naturally spring outward to clear the cowl as it rotates up and forward. Kind of a pivot on each side of the grille shell.
Thought about the cowl interference & thinking a fuzzy or thin leather strip on the inner hood side or inner fire wall/ cowl area might prevent it from being a two man venture, my biggest hurdle might be the amount of tilt as dictated by the front nerf/bump bar. As mentioned above don't mind some of the billet stuff in the right application have a gauge panel & a column drop that comes to mind in another project.
Kind of like this set up. Kinda based the hidden door hinge set up but beefed up or extended. This was on Summit Racing site some time back and used it as a basis for lifting my seat for battery access.
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