I love my 91- 92 factory Z28 hood with the speed blisters. The blisters have fake grills to simulate a heat extractor vent (I'm sure you all know what I am talking about).

Has anyone tried, or thought about opening that up and making it functional? I figured the factory grill "holes" could be drilled out and the plastic behind that could be removed. Of course the sheetmetal of the hood would need to be cut out as well.

My car is mainly used as show car, with some spirited runs to the track, so I don't really care if it really works well. I would like it for the WOW factor!

Any thoughts, or Ideas... Thanks

 

There was a post of this awhile ago, only thing I remember is that after time the plastic blisters would get soft and start melting due to the excessive heat. If these can be made out of some type of aluminum, that would be well worth the mod. Just watch for rain.

 

I searched and found some threads that were helpful, but found none that stated anything about melting? I still think that I will talk to my bodyman about this a little further and see if we couldn't make something cool out that.
Thanks.

 

I don't think the hood blisters would melt if they were in the wind while driving, but i guess it depends also on how hot your engine runs. Go for it, functional blisters would be pretty sweet. post some pics if u ever get it done. good luck

 

i got an idea if anyone wants to try it. i think that functional blisters could use a custom made duct to insulate the plastic from the heat. cut the hole in the hood and the blister and run the duct through the blister into the engine bay next to the exhaust manifolds. that way the water that runs in doeant affect the electronics for the efi. hopefully having the ducts above the exhaust manifolds will keep the heat level down and make the hours that you spent on it pay off. time is the ony thing keeping me from trying it.

 

we tried this a couple of years ago in body class with a bent up z28 hood and some cracked blisters just to see if we could make it work....it's actually pretty e-z. first off, the blisters are made of fiberglass. it's not gonna melt. people run fiberglass hoods all day long every day. whoever thought of that....stop thinking, it's making the rest of us dumber. the "vents" in the top rear of the blisters are aluminum panels that are painted black and epoxied into place. pry those out and you can easily cut a decent sized hole thru the fiberglass blister and aim it forward to help evacuate heat at speed. once you've got it all hogged out, then mark your hood both thru the hole you've cut and then check it with measurements too...dont want goofed up holes on your hood. dont forget that when you cut your hood that you will have to cut thru the support structure, so weld it all up nice to help keep it's integrity and strength. that was a good idea about keeping the elextronics dry........... and for whoever thought of the idea about them melting, don't stop thinking.....at least you tried to have a logical thought. just think it thru first b4 posting up.....
P.S. there is a post up here somewhere with pics of someone doing this. i'll check thru all my subscriptions to see if i have it still. the one we built was all made out of trashed parts so we junked it when we were done......
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That was EZ...here it is!!!!!
I hope this link works now....

 

Link's broke for some reason...... go up to search and search for "functional blister" and it will be the 3rd or 4th down and it says "my half painted funcional hood blisters" or something similar to that....