Custom Camaro Cowl Hood
 

Well since I cant find a wide style cowl hood that I like and is reasonably priced me and a friend decided we'd make one out of a factory hood we had laying around. Its still in progress as the pics show but we should have it done by this time next month. It wasnt the best hood to start with but we didnt want to cut up a nice one until we saw how this one went. We may end up making a mold and doing a fiberglass one as well but thats up in the air right now. Also sorry for the halfass phone pics. The "go cubs" was on the hood when we got it unfortunately.

This is the front view about the right height.

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...9092010035.jpg


The sides will be tapered like this and look pretty close to this its me holding it in this pic.

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...9092010036.jpg

This is from the back. Were going to made the vent in the back out of a piece of polished up stainless with holes punched in it with a screen inserted.

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...9092010037.jpg

A couple shots of the car its going on. 1982 Z28 383 aluminum CNC ported patriot heads, hyd roller cam, roller rockers, all forged internals, Victor Jr intake portmatched to the heads, Quick fuel 750, 700r4. Have a set of Greg Welds for it but the pics are from when I just got it back from getting the bar put in and the stock wheels are on it. It only has 75k on it and that is the original paint.

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...8192010032.jpg

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...8192010031.jpg

Re: Custom Camaro Cowl Hood
 

Lookin' good, make a mold and sell these :P

Re: Custom Camaro Cowl Hood
 

We may make a mold and at least one glass hood and see if it turns out. We dont really have the capability to manufacture more than a few hoods so if we make a mold and one the hood we make turns out decent then we'll probably see if there is any interest in selling the mold to someone that can run with it.

Been working on the sides of it a bit and getting it all sorted out how I want. Probably work on it tonight quite a bit and hopefully in the next few days it'll be done then its time to fix the other issues in the hood and get it primed.

Got too many projects at the moment so its slow going. The car needs the interior stiched and put in, the radiator and trans cooler need put in, the muffler and upper panhard support are out at the moment. Plus we have customer stuff and I also have a '68 camaro that is on the rotissere right now so were trying to button it up.

Re: Custom Camaro Cowl Hood
 

That hoods gonna look awesome. Not sure what methods you guys would use to create a mold and make that hood outa glass' but I like the methods this guy uses, he works at Go Fast Glass in Maryland. Vid for making a mold = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9wdA...eature=channel
Vid for using a mold = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXkR9...eature=channel :cool::chevy::driving:

Re: Custom Camaro Cowl Hood
 

Thanks for posting that when I leave work Ill have to give it a look. Weve never made a mold of anything near as big as a hood before but weve done some stuff with glass in the past and it turned out ok so we might give it a go. We have wrote everything down and saved out templates so we can redo this on another hood if we so desire. I wish I had used a hood with the z28 louvres in it but I dont know that they make it in steel and Id rather work with a steel hood than a factory glass hood.

We're hoping to have the hood done maybe this weekend but there is a car show coming up Id like to go to and I still have to paint the bar, put some heat shield stuff on the floor, install the radiator and trans cooler, and buff it so the hood is probably going to wait until I get the car running at least.

Re: Custom Camaro Cowl Hood
 

I think it looks good the way it is without the louvers, more of smooth look to the hood. Based on the vid for making a mold, your best bet with something as large as the hood is to embed reinforcement across the back of the mold, like maybe small diameter PVC pipe or something.:2cents:

Re: Custom Camaro Cowl Hood
 

Nice looking car, mine looked identical when i bought it 16 years ago.

Re: Custom Camaro Cowl Hood
 

Thanks. Its due for a new nose (spider cracking) probably gonna go to the later style nose. Due for paint too gonna paint it the same just gonna paint the orange stripe on instead of using a sticker.

Worked on the hood a little bit over the weekend but mostly worked on getting the back seat notched for the roll bar and working out the pattern on the seats.

Re: Custom Camaro Cowl Hood
 

Hood actually looks pretty good! Great job! Same with the car, 82-84 z28's are on the top list of loved thirdgens for me.

But please try to keep yr correct front end, everyone swaps them to the later style when you already rarely see early z's, they just look fantastic with an yr correct front clip

Re: Custom Camaro Cowl Hood
 

I like most of the look and would love to keep it but the damn grille area is so ugly and I dont want a stupid front plate on my car to cover the plate mount and there just isnt much you can do to make it better other than put in some billet grille and I hate that look too. I love the grille insert with the red bowtie on the later models.

Not to mention the nose and gfx of the later models hang down lower which is good for me since I dont have the exhaust clearance to lower the nose of the car down like I would like.

Re: Custom Camaro Cowl Hood
 

I've always wanted to do this to my car. I would use a 85-92 z28 hood and use my hood blisters, too. That's just me, though. Glad someone is doing this. Good work!

Re: Custom Camaro Cowl Hood
 

^^did they make a steel z28 hood preferably an 82-84 style one?

Re: Custom Camaro Cowl Hood
 

Yes. Isn't that what is on your car in the pictures you posted? Or is that a fiberglass hood?

Re: Custom Camaro Cowl Hood
 

Mine is glass and I actually looked for a steel hood for a kid a while back and all I found were flat ones which is how I ended up with the one were working one. I bought it for him but it was in too rough of shape to make it good in the time frame we had the support on the bottom was rusty so we bought him a different one and used the hood above and the support from another to make one decent one.