Ordered a Ram Air 1 hood from hawks last Friday, and received it today. Having some fitment issues, which are slowly but surely working themselves out. Hood wouldn't close all the way down in the front (about a 3/4 of an inch gap), and noticed that part of the hood was hitting the inner section of the headlight brackets (behind the headlight motors). Lowered the brackets, helped a little, but then realized that part of the hood (under the nostrils) is hitting the radiator support on the frame (just behind the hood lock). Wanted to shave/sand the hood down, "some", to help it seal all the way when closed. Will this cause any implication (loss in strength)......?

Also, the infamous area in which we all know and love, the back cowl, well, the back "sealed" cowl. Noticed that that little wall back there is coming down, slightly, on my windshield wipers. I'm sure I can adjust it to stop, but I'm not liking that wall back there, especially when driving (looks terrible). I've run a search and found that people got very creative with that particular area. Some trimmed it down entirely, others cut to sweet looking holes that followed the hood to both sides, then sealed the deal with some mesh. Some actually cut holes in the hood, and installed gauges. Awesome!

Now, here's the thing. Not sure which route I'm going to go just yet, but rest assured that "something" will be done with that rear wall. The question though, of course, is how much strength am I going to lose by trimming and/or cutting it down/away? For those that have done this mod, did the hood feel a lot less stable afterward? For those who work with fiberglass, is this a smart thing to do? Will the hood eventually collapse due to loss of it's structure? All opinions are welcome. Now, back to TRYING to align the damn hood with my headlights *&^(*&%*%!!!!!!

-Rob

 

Mine was installed by a body shop - so I won't be much help as far as getting it to fit up front. But it does fit (and quite nicely at that). In the back, mine hit the windshield wipers just a tad, so I had the hood cut a bit to clear them. That wall though needs to be there (in my opinion). I cut mine just quite a bit and now it causes issues when it's raining - will fog the outside of the windshield with the hot underhood gases hitting it. I'll do something about it eventually though...

Here's a picture of the fitment by the headlights to show that it can be done.

 

Heres what I made for mine, I couldnt stand looking at that huge flat spot. Its been like this for about 5-6 years now and it does shake just a little, but its really not bad, certainly not enough to have any doubt about its structural rigidity.

 

only problem i had with mine is the back cowl part also i just dremeled on it for a while and they dont hit anymore.

 

EyeCandy, I've thought about that as well. About 7-10 inches ahead of the wall back there is an area designed for contact w/the stock weather stripping. I removed the stock weather stripping from the stock hood, and permanantly installed it onto the car (top of the firewall). So now when the hood closes, it'll seal the water out of the engine bay. Rained last night here pretty badly, and so far so good, no fog. By the way, your car looks great....!

Orinackra, that's exactly what I'm considering. What honestly bothered me though was what I was told by seller; to not cut the wall at all, due to loss of strength. I'm at the track at least twice a week, all season(s) long, running pretty damn hard off the line. This is one of the main reasons why I'm concerned, I don't want it to collapse on me. Being that you've had it done for quite a few years, w/no problems, helps me a lot! Thanks....

stagefright4, yeah, I started trimming it down slightly last night so it would avoid the wiper arms. Trimmed maybe a quarter of an inch off, and it worked like a charm. Itching to go even higher though (like what Orinackra did), but I'm still a little hesitant....

 

As far as hitting the wiper arms...

Could it be trimmed just enough not to hit them, then paint the remaining part in a flat black, to hide it? Then flat black would help to negate any glare, making it less visible.

 

It is a little nerve wracking slicing off the back of a 400 dollar hood, but imo it was worth it. I wasnt planning on doing this, but the hood hit my wipers too, so I figured what the hell. Had some spare sheet metal laying around, put some weatherstripping on it, and voila.

Oh yeah there was mention of rain water....Between my metal piece and the cowl I have some rubber sandwiched there, and between that, and the cowl vents(which I assume have a drainage hole) I havent had a single problem with leaking, and I used to drive the car in rain/snow.

The only bad thing I've noticed is that hot air comes out the vents in the rear, and my wiper blades tend to distort very easily. Its kind of a pain really, but I can live with it.