Hot Rods With a Hood or without?

No hood on my T, but I like full hoods on most everything else.

 

My 27 T tudor has a sexy six Ford in it with an Office intake so it's hard to keep everything under wraps. With a 4 barrel or double twos.

 

Thanks Danny. But I am not going to leave it this way. I intend to put some finned aluminum valve covers on it and re-route the wires so it looks neater, if I can ever get around to it.

 

Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't. Depends on the car. I have a hood for my Roadster all painted and ready to go. I put it on once and did not like as much.

The Coupe on the other hand I think looks right with the hood on!

If the fenders were on the roadster it would then need a hood! IMO

 

I agree with the hood top only on this one, that's gorgeous!

 

I prefer mine with the hood on. I will take it off at shows and stuff if somebody wants to see the flathead but I really don't like it that way. Back in 2007 we were lucky enough to be one of the cars on the event shirt for the Goodguys show in Atlanta. Which meant that the car was also on all of the show's art work, tickets, dash plaque, etc. The good news is; it's pretty cool to be on an event shirt like that. The bad news is; the artwork was based on a photo they got at an earlier show while the hood was off.



I hate the way the car looks like that!

 

I also love that flag!!!!!....

 

My f100 has been hoodless on a few occasions. Motor swap, broken hinge, louvering. Its always hard to get myself to put it back on. Looks so hooligan(y) with it off, but more civilized with it on.

 

1956, my bud Kent Onlen and his Dad installed a...What??? ''55 Chevy V8??? in his sedate green '40 Standard Coupe!
Kent had done up the engine compartment nicely, made that 'unusual' Chevy in its fresh Chevrolet orange and Corvette valve covers show up nicely, left the hood off for the first 2 years. Hell, it was the only Ford with Chevy V8 in town!
Then came Ron Heimerman with his '50 Ford convert...said that Chevy dropped in there with more room than the flathead took!
Now? Doubt if you could PAY them to run hood-off with a SBC.

 

Imho, it depends on the style. Some off and some just the hood top. Snowman

 

Amen and Amen!

 

I have a hood top but run without it if I can help it.

 

Some cars look pretty good without!

 

Little later stuff but Use to be the thing after you changed an engine to run around a few days with no hood and loud exhaust, hood hinges standing tall and proud...Saw some "Good ole boys" just today doing just that in a off topic camaro.
You dont see that much anymore like you did 30 or 40 years ago, also finding a good body to put your "motor" in was actually a thing you heard more of back then

 

With hood


Without

 

I feel on an early car it can change the vibe almost as much as a different set of wheels and tires or caps.

For our model A project I’m trying to make it look good with a full stock hood and with out.

But I’m also making a full hood punched full of louvers that will let me run it full, just the top or just the sides. It’s kind of an aquired taste to run just the sides but I dig it.

 

The hood less thing will depend on the car, and the theme in which the car was built. A hood less car tends to look more aggressive.
It also depends on the motor and how it was built. A motor with anything protruding through the hood might look better without a hood, but a motor without something protruding through it might look better with just the hood top, and just the top gives a person a bit more calmness when driving in a rain storm.
A stock looking and unmodified motor, or something less traditional, might be better with a full hood.
The year of the car makes a difference as well, once you get past the mid 40s, the motor would need to be more radical to look right without a hood, in my opinion. Gene

 

Part of that is pure necessity considering you might need to take it off again because of......
The other part is......it just looks so cool........and if I have to explain it, you wouldn't get it.

 

I am of the full hood group.

 

I always liked the flowing lines of the model 40s and I believe removing the hood interrupts those lines. I also think the 34 chevy hood sides promote the looks of a long nose with their horizontal louvers.
If I had a model A it'd probably be hood less.

 

Add my $.02
With even just the hood top on, there's "continuity of line" and it visually marries the body and the grill.
Without any hood, the grill, engine and body become three separate components.
It's all good... as they say.

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Trying to decide as well...

 

I've been very seriously contemplating going hoodless again for a while. Through my 39's history before I acquired it, it was often seen without it's hood at shows. Now in my hands and a whole lot more polished pieces I think that it'd show really well without it. Although I have to admit that I love looking out at that bitchin' louvered hood while driving it! Just a few bolts and half an hour will change it back and forth with ease so it's no big deal, I really love both on most cars!

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Hood top! Hell yeah!

 

Nope, it needs the hood. Cool motor, but the lines are ruined without it. IMO.

 

Some cars like Billy Bandit's just flat look more complete with at least the hood top on them while 292's with that Hemi out in mid air rocks as it just looks like it should be that way.
As he and others said, it all depends on the individual car.

 

Your car and you are free to do what you like, but the cars that look best to me HAVE FILL HOODS. I also like to see them CLOSED. Nothing looks dumber to me than a row of Post 1949 cars at a show with the hoods up, looks like feeding time at the alligator pit in the zoo. Bob

 

I change every few days as the mood takes me. With full hood, without sides, without top, with/without fenders.

 

U2 has made a song pondering this very dilemma;
"With or without hood/
with or without hood?/
I can't live/
with or without hood."

 

Here's an example of WTF.
Electric fan front & center, lack of hood deletes the character of the '57 Chevy. Tri fives need hoods.