This is the first of a few of my Body Mods that I plan on doing...since I am at a point where I know I will be the first to do it, I am letting you guys know what I am doing.
I wanted a modified hood, BAD. It is the LAST body panel that I have yet to modify. But I HATE the Cowl Induction hood that has been put on EVERYTHING. It is notoriously GM, and I really don't like the idea of a trademark GM trait, on a Blue Oval product! So Cowl Induction was out of the question.
Then I got to looking at what others have done to their Explorers, and I REALLY liked the 94-98 Cobra Hood scoops that someone (troll? Xbox?) grafted onto the 2nd Gen X hood...but the 1st Gen is WAY too square to make it look right.
Then I thought about the 2001+ Mustang GT Hood scoop that seems to be popular, but again it only looks right with the later hoods, as they are flat, and the 1 attempt I saw at putting on an 1st Gen hood, looked horrible. The center body line on the hood runs right though the scoop, and it looks HORRIBLE, no matter what you do to it.
So, I was walking through a car show a couple years ago, and saw a 03/04 cobra up close, and I LOVE the "Heat Extractor" hood they had. I wanted that look...but I had NO CLUE on how I was going to make it work.
Okay fast forward to my researching for the Cobra Brakes I swapped onto my Explorer. I came across a picture of a 1967 or 1968 Mustang with what was known as a "Deluxe Hood". It has these ultra cool Turn Signal Indicators in the hood with "Reverse Scoops" that were sunk into the hoods...At that moment I knew....I had found my hood modification!...So looked on ebay for a hood scoop insert, just to see how it would look, and if the proportions were good...and it's going to look factory!
So tonight I went and picked up my hood...and I am starting to cut it up....here are the pics:
I did the initial layout on the Explorer Hood..
..oh yeah..
One other tidbit on the modification...
I am also 'shaving' the outer valleys/body lines on the hood. I think will make it look too 'busy' with competing lines in the hood. It will simplify the look, and make it just a little more different from stock.
I think I am going to have cut a long strip of thin steel about 1" wide, and weld it in place, hammer and fill.
I will include pics of the process of doing that too.
In this picture, you can see where I laid 3/4" white masking tape on top of the 1-1/2" Blue tape. I did this so I could cut the blue tape in half, and transfer that tape onto the Mustang hood, and lay out where it was to be cut.
Once the tape transfer was complete, it was time to get cutting. I used a 3" cut-off wheel. With the method I chose, I had to cut the Outside of the Blue tape on the Mustang Hood, and I have to cut the inside of the white tape on the Explorer hood.
Here's the cut out piece sitting on the Explorer Hood
Here I finished cutting out the other side of the Mustang Hood, then placed them on the Explorer hood to see how it will turn out:
Here I cut out the passenger side of the Explorer hood, leaving the support braces mostly in tact. I only had to cut the forward mounting point to clear the 'dip' in the scoop. It will get re-routed & re-attached later on.
And here is the makings of what an Early Mustang Hood Scoop looks like grafted into an Explorer Hood:
I spent a couple more hours welding, grinding, and cutting strips to fill the outer body lines.
I'm not quite done yet, but I did get a lot closer to being done!
I have some more grinding to do, and a few more welds to do.
I finally have some filler on the hood!
1/2 of the hood is in a guide coat of white...that will all get sanded off tomorrow, then I'll throw a coat of glazing compound on there and final sand with 320-400...
Note that I have shaved the outer 'valley' on the hood to smooth out the lines. I don't know if I like it, but I'd like to know what you guys think.
The hood is painted!
I'll install and take more pics...
AT LAST:
Before, Front:
Before, Driver Side
Before, Passenger Side
Look ma'...no hood!
After:
And before anyone else points it out, I KNOW the hood needs to be adjusted to the Drivers Side about 3/32" - 1/8"...
As with all my posted pictures, just click on the pic, and get the larger picture in a new window....
Ryan
