I am planning on buying a Summit cowl to install onto my stock hood.

My question is should I reinforce the hood if I cut out the portion under the cowl? Like make steel brackets that run along the contours of the cowl, or is that over kill?

I am also going to rivet it onto the hood along with the 3m tape they got.

 

Hey man, go the safe way and just buy a new hood with a cowl. My 305 had the stock hood with a cowl on it, it looked like crap after a few years. You wouldnt want to make your car unsafe cause if your ever a a car reck, you know what would happen. Go ask a body shop what they would do.

 

I had mine installed by the guy that did the bodywork, all becasue I've seen a few buddies try it themselves and it just flat out looked like sheeot. I already had the hole cut in the hood to let the breather stick through, he took and used some kind of urethane adhesive that they use to glue corvettes together with, followed by riveting, then fibeglassed over that to rough blend it in, then bondo to smooth it all out. I made no reienforcement under the hood at all, 3 years of getting beat to death street/strip and everything looks as good as the day I picked the car up. All the buddies after the paint was applied you could easily see every rivet they covered with fiverglass, than cat hair bondo, and regulare bondo. Coudl'nt see them through the primer, or feel them with the bare hand. But after paint was applied, it looked like an old WWII air plan with all the divets.

 

hmmm, vette glue...

 

Did you use a fiberglass cowl or was it a plastic one?

 

my dad had a fiberglass 6 incher put on his t/a. the shop left a hole in the hood about 2 inches smaller that the scoop. IMHO it wasnt done right. but you cant see it with the hood down. if ur going with a steel, u may not need that much reinforcement. not sure

 

How much did it cost you to get that cowl put on by a body shop??

 

my father in law bought his camaro with one on it, and whoever put it on before did a crappy job. his engine made the thing vibrate loose and crack the bondo they used to glue it also exposing some rivets. just my

 

exactly what happened with my fathers.

and big c, he doesnt know really. he had it all done at once when it was in the shop after he was rearended, along with paint and a new spoiler put on... so sry but he dont know.