anobii

Heres what I started with: I've got a carb swapped LSX 5.3 and of course, the carburetor wont fit under the OE hood. The plan from the beginning was to do a cowl hood. After searching for a bolt on hood with out any luck, I settled on a Harwood 4" pin on used and slightly damaged for nearly pocket change. I don't like pin on hoods, I've never seen anyone be able to keep a decent paint job on one with all the removing and moving them around. From the get go I decided to cut the cowl section out and bolt it on to the flat hood from underneath, but I'm not going to graft it on. This chronicles the process for anyone looking to do something similar. There's about 5-6hrs of total work here, not including paint and fiberglass curing time. I'll try to explain the process, but pictures are worth a thousand words. I posted some of this elswhere, but I wanted to put it all in one collection and since this is a carburetor specific mod, I figured I'd drop it here, in the carb section. If it belongs anywhere else feel free to move it.


This is what I started with.


This is the hood I ended up with. It was busted in a few spots. especially underneath in the reinforcement areas. Think I paid 30 bucks for it. I mainly just wanted it for the cowl section as it was the correct length, width and shape to match the factory flat hood.

I marked the cowl hood approx 1/2" from the side of the cowl with masking tape and cut using a pneumatic reciprocating body saw.






removed the front reinforcement and trimmed the rear. It was busted in both places and not bonded to the hood very well at all.

anobii

I lost a few pics of the cut out process. First I had to cut a section of webbing from the underside. Then to get the center mark for the hole, I bolted the hood on the car and gently closed it on the air cleaner stud, which created a dimple in the metal. From there i unbolted the hood and put a sheet metal screw into the dimple. I then tied a string measured out to be slightly smaller than the O.D of the air cleaner housing I was planning to use (more on that in a bit) to a marker and used it to mark the circle for the hole and cut it out using the body saw.


I followed the factory "cutout" for the louvers to open it up some for added clearance. I secured the edges with some polyurethane adhesive.


These are pics after underside paint.


Back to the topside. I needed to make hidden mounting points to attach the scoop to the hood. I don't like visible hardware.


Using some machine screws and fender washers, i glassed them to the hood to make forward mounting studs. I used superglue to hold the studs in place until the resin cured.


In the back I bent some aluminum tabs and glassed them in. Again using super glue to hold them in place till the resin cured. The Tabs are tapped 1/4" x 20 for easy install.


Resin cured. I added some to the rails so I could get them smooth. The rails will be held down with 3M exterior mounting tape and will seal the scoop to the hood. This is the same tape most import spoilers are held on with, the stuff is almost impossible to remove without solvent.

anobii

Hood prepped and primed.


View of front mounting holes.


Now for the fun.


Here is the air cleaner i will be using. This is your every day run of the mill TBI air cleaner housing from an early 90's silverado. The snorkel has already been removed.


Using a stiff ruler, place it on the flange of the carburetor like so and measure the distance in the front...


and the back. Also using the same method measure the sides of the hole. So you get at least 4 points of measure.


Now, flatten the snorkel flange and remove the section as shown. This will be your start ad finish points for cutting.


Mark measure and mark the air cleaner with approx 3/8" shorter than your actual measurements on the hood. This will allow some wiggle room on the weather stripping. These marks should be made from the flange of the air cleaner, not the bottom. The flange hangs down about 1/4" or so below the bottom. Easiest way to do this is to just lay the air cleaner flat on a table, on the flange, then measure from the surface of the table to where your mark should be. Once you have the marks in place just follow them with a peice of tape to get a straight line to cut by.



This is why i bent the top lip up. When cutting it makes it so much easier to work with. I used straight cut tin snips with little trouble.

anobii

Test fit and trim if needed.


I managed to get it spot on the first try. :P


This (and the scoop) is the only non gm piece I used. This is trunk weatherstripping from a toyota camry. Camaro hatch weatherstripping is remarkably similar should you wanna keep it all in the family.


Just push it down on the edge and trim to fit.


It will fit like this.


It seals like so...


and so.


One more.

anobii

Now for the lid. This is the cheap and easy way to make this work.




This was the quickest and easiest way I could come up with to trim the outer section of the lid. Using a belt sander or an angle grinder would work too. just grind the edge down thin. On the sander I could see the metal glow and I knew it was thin enough.



Once the metal is thin enough, you can take a scratch awl or a utility knife and just score or cut the center out.




The filter fits like so.


And the lid fits like so.


Clean...


and paint.



The filter is a stock TBI filter and available off the shelf. You could alternatively get a tall 12" K&N or similar, and you can also use any 12" air cleaner lid, like chrome or the max flow type with pleats in the top. The housing is about 14" total diameter.

I'm going to paint the scoop and the hood in 2 pieces then put them together. The mounting tape will stick and seal better that way. It should be ready for paint in a month or so. I will post some finished pics then.

t-top havoc

iTrader: (3)

Thumbs up!!
Thanks for all the work & pics!!

Chevy2035

This should be a sticky!

Great write up man, Ill be doing something like this soon.

mjdavis68

iTrader: (1)

Nice complement to that motor too!

91 camaro racer

iTrader: (2)

That looks really good!!

anobii

Update: finally got it painted, yes this is the final coat. I like flat finishes Anyway, I couldn't be happier with how well the scoop sits. The mounting tape holds super well and the bolts keep everything secure. The only issue was the corners at the front. I had to counter sink and install lathe screws to hold them down tight. I could have smoothed the heads and dabbed some fiberglass resin over them and blended them in, but I liked the way the looked as is.

Scorpner

iTrader: (4)

Nice job!

Ghettobird52

Looks Sweet & Functional! A++ Job!