Built another hood, this time with carbon fiber ghost flames on the inside panel. It's kinda hard to take a picture of it, this stuff jumps out at ya when in the light!! I'm building another one with flames on the outside too. If you want to see more of this hood here is a link to my hood thread
https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=199417
The carbon fiber is laminated over clear gelcoat with the first layer of fiberglass. These pictures were taken as soon as I pulled the hood out of my molds.

 

Hood installed

 

very cool looking.

 

This picture shows how well the hood fits. Look at the fender line. The hood fits as well as a steel hood.

 

That looks awesome! Do you make any other hoods besides cowl? By the way the fit of that hood is awesome nice work. I just found this picture in a thread on here and I love the hood and was wondering what it takes to make a mold for different hoods. Keep up the good work!

 

It is a lot of work tooling and building fiberglass molds. I wouldn't recommend it for one-offs. I plan on marketing my hood the beginning of next year.
This is my only design right now, but I will be starting on a 4" cowl soon. You can't tell from my pictures, but the reason the hood fits so well, is because I built it exactly like a steel hood with the 90 degree flanges down the fender line and the front lip between the head lites. The hood also contains a complete inner fiberglass panel. It's all hand laminated, then the 2 parts (outer/inner panels) are laminated together with a foam core. The end result is a very lite, extremely strong, and well insulated hood! You can do a dance on this thing and not hurt it.
Cowl hoods work really good for TPI systems, After driving my car on the freeway to work this morning I lifted the hood and put my hand on the plenum and it was COLD!! Everyone knows the benefit of cold air mixing with gas, we used to use cool cans to accomplish this in the old days of drag racing.
You also have enough room to mount gauges on top of the fire wall as I have done.

 

the hood fits really well. I am happy to say that my hood fits the fender lines just the same. I do not care for the flames, although to each his own and it is an interesting idea. Very good work on the hood though.

 

if u build that c5 type hood i would be willing to buy it for hte right price.

 

Sorry, but are you referring to the 4" cowl hood I plan on designing soon?

 

that looks sweet as hell man ive been wanting a ram air hood for my bird but i dont want to risk buying one and it fitting like crap. yours looks like it fits better than factory. any plans on a ram air hood?

 

very nice...!

i wish i could find a fg stock replacement hood let alone something made like that. definately not big on the cowl but it's sharp.

 

Very nice work

 

:rockon::hail:

 

You guys crack me up.. Last time something like this came up You and a few others wanted a carbonfiber stock replacement. and I agreeded to mold and do a few runs. but nobody but 1person (86IROCNJ) was 100% commited to this.

I even offered up fiberglass to keep cost down but everyone was deadset on cf.

 

i wasn't on the boards to notice it and to be honest a 1000-1200 hood isn't in my interests right now.....i know what it costs to make the molds and you would have to sell quite a few to bring prices down to what the standard aftermarket hoods are going for. definately would be nice though.

 

jmiller: nice hood. I have a question for you though. Why jump into the already-saturated cowl hood market? Everybody and their brother makes a cowl hood. If you offered something different like the one 85MaroZ28 posted, or a Jongbloed-style hood, it seems like you'd have a lot less competition, and it would fill a niche in the market. Something to think about.

 

I know what you're saying, there are a lot of companies making cowl hoods, but mine is quite different. It's not a generic fitall scoop sitting on top of the hood like most others that doesn't follow any lines on the hood, my cowl follows the z28/IROC curves with a soft increase in height and the side radius matches the fenders radius.
Take a look at the design of it in this picture.

 

Black Blurrrr:
Continuing with why I designed a cowl hood:
1. It's my personal preference in a scoop
2. It's more aerodynamic
3. It cools the top of the motor (very important)
4. Clearance, if needed
5. Ram air is not needed from a scoop on a 3rd gen, you get cold ram air right thru the grille in the correct direction of flow
6. Blends better with the lines of the hood and car.

I have designed and built high performance fiberglass ski and race boats most of my life (Miller Boats). I have 30 years of extensive experience in working with tooling, fiberglass, kevlar, CF, etc. I believe my hood is stronger and more show quality than the competition.

I'm not trying to brag, I'm just stating my qualifications.
I appreciate all the votes of confidence I have received from all of you and the suggestions as well.

 

i'll be honest, i dont see me buying any hoods in the forseeable future unless required for clearance..


but i do have to ask, how much added clearance over stock is there?

 

I recall you saying you would buy a few of em to get the ball on the roll so you could get one befor you had everything done.. but anyways... CF yes would have been up there in $$ a factory Glass hood would have could be in the same ball park as harwood/cervini/up22 etc..

 

I dimpled in the inside panel where the air intake box crosses the radiator support giving an extra 1 1/2" . I also have a mold for a new top piece that expands the air box thickness 1 1/2" which basically doubles the air volume. With the 2" cowl you obviously gain 2" across the top of the motor. There is also enough clearence above the fire wall to mount 2" gauges. I use this for vacume and fuel pressure. I can leave the fuel press. gauge disconnected.

 

man, that car is nice, could use a new steering wheel though, maybe we should start a jmiller-new-steering-wheel-fund. haha what is that little computer thingy for? (gotta remember, i am non cc carbed)

 

Ha ha!! Yea I drive the car so much, I wore out the steering wheel and foot pedals. That's an AutoXray scanner. I use it so darn much I velcroed it to the dash. It monitors the ECM system while I'm driving, it helps a bunch when tuning or when you have a PROBLEM.

 

Where did this hood come from? Thats bad ***!. Did you make that Jmiller? If so, when do you intend to start selling that hood ?

 

omnipotentgoku:
I designed it myself. I am just about ready to start selling them. I can send an email or PM you when I'm ready, if that's ok.

 

very nice hoods! are there any cowl hoods available for firebirds/trans ams?

 

Not yet, but maybe later next year. I want to see how this goes first, and then finish a 4" cowl 3rd gen model.
After that, I may turn back to the 1st gen camaros. I've already started on a one piece deck lid with spoiler built in so there are NO gaps or joints. I am also tooling one piece front fenders for the 1st gen. All top quality SHOW parts.

 

TPl383, very true....that was of course before i dropped 20,000 into wheels, brakes, suspension, engine, etc. redoing everything last year. i'm burnt out on the high price items for awhile.

 

that is the sweetest looking hood i've ever seen, for a 91-92 camaro