I want to get rid of the hood ornament on my 55 chevy, I was wondering what everyone else did to make the hood detail line look right without it? I am considering hand forming a small piece of metal the contour of the detail line and cutting out that section of the hood. Its going to be a gasser style car. Thanks, Scot
i did one before, I cut to hump around the ornament out and the whole hood fell(I cut out its structure) and it looked killer, built up a peak and done. It was on a custom so I dont know how it would look an a gasser?
The inner support structure that holds the latch is attached to the hood by some of the bird attaching studs. It will take some modification to that too. If you have switched it over to a tilt front end or hood pins that's probably not an issue. I wonder what I did with the piece I cut out of my hood? probably gave it away years ago...
I see 99% of the racecar 55's don't have the ornament so I just want it to look good without. I'll probably just cut out the hump and fab my own detail line then unless there are any other better suggestions?
The bird is the best part, why not be in the 1% minority and keep the bird, those other guys are f glass front ended. Save the bird!
Here is where I'm at now: The car is getting a 454, fenderwell headers, etc... Before I radiused the wheelwells: Radiused wheelwells with fabricated lip from steel tubing and a lot of welding Latest pic, it will be going into the shop again as soon as I finish a customer paint job then I'll work on it all winter. I WILL have it on the road this spring!! Needs rear wheels and tired BAD, the wheelwells look huge now...heh
To quote an old racer friend of mine. "If you don't know whether to leave a part on your racecar or not, throw it up in the air. If it comes back down leave it off, it's too heavy." Larry T
I'm so torn, the car had really clean quarters, it looked good before it looks good now, still would keep the bird.
You must have missed the giant rust hole right in the front of the wheelwell in the first pic. this is probably THE rustiest car I have EVER worked on next to my 4 door parts car I cut up. Here is how far I cut it up chasing a bad cowl and rust!! Take a look at the floors too, Here is what was left of the cowl, windshield posts and dash I removed from the car: Here it is with the 4 door donor cowl welded back in:
I don't have any close ups of the hood, but here are a couple of pics of my 55. Basically, the mounting holes for the hood bird and the emblem were welded up. Then the hood was smoothed off, without any cutting. The original rib down the center of the hood is unmodified. The area where the rib flares out to mount the bird has been smoothed off, with a slight convex shape. If I wanted to put the bird and emblems back on, all that would have to be done is clean out the filler and redrill the mounting holes.
I've got a "Bull nose" on mine. I found it at a swap meet 30 some years ago. It's old and crusty now, and I don't know if you can still find them but it's an easy way to get away from "the bird". It bolts up to the factory holes but is less obtrusive.
holy cow you really put some work into that Chevy! Looks good. I was gonna say ditch the bird until i saw that neat bullnose...bet they're hard to find though. Removing the bird platform isn't as easy as it looks on these...
My painter did this a few years ago. He said he bent a piece of sheet metal over the edge of a 2X4 to match the hood crease. I like it!