Has anyone on the boards successfully created a tilt hood? I was considering just having two sets of hood pins, so that when i work in the back crevices of the bay, the hood is not in the way, however the idea of this tilt hood seems pretty cool. Any ideas on how to do this? and for as little cost? and avoiding buying a 300 dollar kit?

at least one person on the forum had built a tube frame with a tilt front end

You need some sort of tube work to hold the upper part of the front strut since the inner fender is actually part of the framework. Making a tube front frame to hold the front suspension will allow you to cut away the inner fenders.

Tilting the nose and fenders would just expose the inner fenders which wouldn't accomplish anything.

The fiberglass front ends for a third gen that you may find available are for tube chassis cars. The fiberglass is for cosmetics only and offers no structural support. There needs to be some sort of framework underneath.

Look at this thread http://thirdgen.org/techboard/body/2...***-front.html

I saw a magazine article about 5 or 6 years back that had a purple third gen in it, that had a tilt hood. The owner used hinges from an 80's buick car with a tilt hood. I believe it was a Skyhawk, but it might have been a LeSabre. I'm no Buick expert.

My question has always been, doesn't that make it harder to work on your car?

(unless you're talking a full tilting front end, and not just the hood)

Mathius

time to dust off this post.....


after some digging i've turned up 2 pics of forward tilting hoods




I'm diggin the look of the grey car and hoping the other one (ugggghh chameleon paint is lame, except on a TVR) is just a bad angle. word is that this can be done with a late 80's/early 90's buick hinge set up? anyone try this recently? most of the posts on it are old and I was just wondering if anyone followed through and can post better pics/ how to

and mathius, I don't believe it would make it harder to work on the car since the engine is mounted pretty far back against the fire wall...but you would most likely lose all that up front plastic realestate i've grown so accustomed to setting tools on!

Yes it can be done, I just finished doing it to mine actually. The hood hinge to use is from an 85-90 Buick Electra or Park Avenue. I tool pictures of the process and I plan on posting up a thread showing the conversion process here shortly as soon as I get all my pics organized.

As for cost, how does $10 sound? I got the hinge from a junkyard for $10, and the sheet steel I welded in I already had laying around from previous projects.

It actually opens up a lot more room in the engine bay to work on. I can get at the sides a lot easier now. Front access is not bad at all, unless I would need to be standing directly in front of the engine, but I can't think of anything where that would be the only way to do it. And no, Phishman, you don't really lose access to the built in tool holder.

can u post a pic of were u welded

I'll get that thread started later today and post up the link here. I was waiting to try and get some better pics of it completed, but there is just too much snow and its too cold to push it out of the garage right now.

that sucks man I cant relate as I live in florida lol thanks for the quick response cant wait to see it. when u post could you also give the meassurements on were to place the hinges becuase I would louve to have this mod thanks and stay warm

Here is the link to the thread:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/fabr...=1#post4006879

Yeah, its cold here in PA, the HIGH for tomorrow is forecast at 6 degrees and 4 on Thursday.

I don't actually have any measurements as I marked the hood from the underside while it was on the car. You'll see what I mean in the post. I can try and grab the measurements when I get home tonight, but I can't guarantee they would be the same on yours, especially if your working on a Firebird.