Well, things are back to normal with work, so I have weekends off again. Back to the hoods. I started on a new hood today, beginning with the underhood bracing mold. I'm looking at changing my work hours to 0530 to 1500 (instead of 0700-1530). That will get me home about 1.5 hours earlier than normal. This means it'll give me an hour or two on weeknights to try and get some work done in the garage instead of just the weekends. I really want to get to where I can make more than 1 hood a month. I've saved all of my PM's about the hood over the last 2 years to keep track of those who had interest in a hood. I'm sure the majority of guys listed here have gotten tired of waiting and I can't blame them, I'm slow getting these completed. ou: So here's what I'm working with; if you're still interested let me know, if not I can move others up on the list. I've already heard from #1 and #2 recently. BTW, as I did last year I will donate $200 of the first 2015 sale to the V8Buick board. 1) BK455 DONE 2) tt455 DONE 2a) Had to make 3 Jeep/Buick 350 fan shrouds DONE 3) Krayzie949 DONE 4) Da Torquester DONE 5) Greg H 6) LKBumm 7) rufstok 8) britt's Stage1 9) Never L8 10) mild2wild 11) Todd GS 12) Stratoblue GS 13) 7GSX1 14) N360LL 15) Buick GS Rules 16) 70 purplerag 17) Alaska Hickey 18) Jeff Hart 19) arden_dean 20) Sun Coupe_72 21) Kam Kam
No problem Tom, I made some tweaks to the underside mold which will just make bonding the 2 pieces together more efficient, I'll shoot some tooling gel-coat on it tomorrow, buff it out this weekend and then get down to laying up another hood.
I have been following this project from day 1. I would love to be thrown on the bottom of that list. These hoods seem well worth the wait!
Hey guys, I haven't been on the board much recently. My wife was given a big promotion with Macy's Logistics as their first Sr HR Manager, the down side is it requires an ~1-2 year relo to Martinsburg, West Virginia. Since I still have about 2 years before I can think about an early retirement, I've been racking up some frequent flyer miles. I've been here all week and fly home tomorrow. We did check out Mason Dixon Drag Strip just outside of Hagerstown, nice little 1/4 mile track with beautiful grass pits The plus side is when I'm back in AZ, I have a lot more free time for the garage, even getting out there in the evenings on work nights. I modified my mold that creates the underhood bracing and airbox. It doesn't change the end product but should cut several hours out of my build time. I also made a crazy looking clamping jig that I'll use to clamp the hood and bracing together easier and quicker. (I'll post a pic when I use it the first time) I laid an underhood bracing part up using the new modified mold, it came out good. I started prepping the hood mold before I left for WV last week. Next weekend I'll lay up the hood and then we'll see how well the new bracing piece and the clamp-o-death work together tt455, I didn't keep you updated like I normally do when someone is #1 in line only because once this next hood comes out of the final mold, I'll want to bolt it on to my GS just to make sure everything lines up correctly. I didn't want to get you too worked up and then the thing doesn't fit correctly. I don't suspect that will be the case, but never say never uzzled:
Actually had time to get Toms hood in the mold. This was yesterday and the first layer of mat. I laid up the second layer this morning. I'll start mocking up the underhood section tomorrow, a little trimming and adding in the metal for the hinges and the latch hook area. Then bond those two pieces together and see how my new clamp works!
Yeah I saw it Tom, thanks, I'll get back with you on cutting the holes in the hood as far as what you size & shape you want. I finished up the second layer today.
Yes, I am am slowly but surely making them. I just sent this one back to Tom who was next on the list. I just finished building some cabinets in my garage to keep some of my stuff cleaner when I make the hoods. Gel-coat and fiberglass dust gets everywhere! It also gives me a little more room to work. I want to water sand a few spots on the mold that got scratched pulling Toms hood, then buff it out and start the next hood.
Hey Craig... I gotta ad NICE JOB!! Ive done my share of glass work on good sized boat repairs etc and can appreciate the time, money and especially the effort to see even one to completion; didja ever consider just doing an insert like "back in the day" (gawd how I hate that term!!) you could buy a cowl induction hood top or a tear drop top and glass them on yourself? Just thinking that a 2 X 3 foot mold would be easier to work around than a whole hood... How about a W-33 OLDS hood, or a Poncho "The Juror" model??? Keep at it!!! ws
I actually built I guess what you're talking about just using the existing mold. Briz molded it onto his Riviera. It was quicker to make, the downside was it wasn't really all that much smaller, length is about the same, width is maybe 5-6" less on each side. That being the case, shipping is such a killer with something this size :shock:
