Hey guys, I have a question. I've always wanted to get the SS hood from Hawks but I hear that they are ALOT of work to get absolutely straight. Soooo..... I have a friend here in town that has an SS hood that he said that I could copy the scoop from. I've been doing research online an how to make scoops and I'm no stranger to fiberglassing. How do I copy his scoop without tearing up his hood? Meaning I would be using his as the "plug" so to speak? I myself already have TWO stock SMC hoods that I would put these new scoops on to. Any help on this matter would be great.

 

First thing you will want to do is tape off 3 inches away from the scoop and cover the area that you are not going to mold off with some plastic to keep it from getting resin on. Then use a mold release agent (they make a specific wax for this ). and apply it to the area you are going to copy. let it dry and then apply the gel coat, You can spray it on with a paint gun or a brush, let it set up for a few minute until it is just barely sticky.then apply your fiberglass. You want to just wet the glass not soak it.To much resin is a bad thing. since this is just the mold you will have to build up layers, On the fourth layer you will want to add some wood strips to reinforce your mold. Apply two more layers of fiberglass and let it set for a day or so, Then you can remove it. To remove the mold from the plug you will need some shims to get in between the two. it will take some doing fines to separate.
For the fiberglass you will want to use .75 once, it will be easier to mold to the curves than the 1.5 once that is normally used. Do not use bondo brand resin as it has to much wax in it, its really not a good resin to use.
Also if it was me doing this I would just make a mold of the whole hood and make a mold of the underside frame work. or at least the outer frame. then you could mold that into the the hood so you can have a bolt on hood. with doing this you can then make some extra hoods to sell so you could pay for yours.

 

Where would be a good place to find these materials? I know what you mean on the bondo resin. I'm not a big fan of it lol. It has a NASTY tendency to congeal.

 

I buy mine from uscomposites.com. And for making molds I use there 404 line of polyester resin. It is a very strong resin.
As for the the other stuff congealing and setting up to fast you can slow that down by thinning it with acetone or mineral spirits. The only time I use bondo brand resin or filler is when I want to make a milk shake, That is a mixture of resin and filler. I use that when I am making a plug, its easy to sand and is still kind of tuff. You can also paint right over it with out the paint wicking into the fiberglass.
Remember make small batches of resin at a time.
I mentioned before to wet the fiber glass not to soak it, I did not have a pic to explain but this should help others to know what I'm talking about. Applying your fiberglass like this and then putting wetting the rest of the glass will result in a much stronger piece. you can use bigger pieces of fiberglass than this it's just to shou you how to lay it for better results.