body and interior Removing braces that run the length of the hood? (Pressed metal louver q's)

[LikeStig]

I need access to the underside of the hood where the underside braces run front-to-rear. It appears that I could cut the braces at each end and carefully remove the braces from the hood which are attached with some type of glue or insulator. Two questions:

1. Has anyone seen this done and reinstalled successfully?

2. Are there any cars out there running the stock hood without the braces?

Thanks in advanced,

Edited November 9, 2015 by LikeStig

[ray_]

Marshall cut a section out of his...

 

 

Cheers,

[LikeStig]

Marshall cut a section out of his... Cheers,

Page 18 has good info, thanks for digging that up. Going without the ribs doesn't sound like an option if modifications to ribs effects the rigidity of the hood. Edited October 24, 2015 by LikeStig

[Jeff]

I did for my race car and took a little too much off.. I'm going to add some bracing back since the hood lifts too much at speed.

[LikeStig]

Thank you for sharing Jeff, I dropped my hood off at a Hot Rod shop near the Illinois/Wisconsin border this weekend to have 60-70 pressed louvers added to the hood. He was able to successfully remove the braces, but I got a call this morning that he's found about a 1/4 inch of body filler on the underside of the hood and is hesitant to continue removing it as it appears there has been some very well hidden repair some to the underside of the hood.

Does anyone have experience removing gobs of body filler from the underside of the hood? This area is right underneath the braces and since there is no evidence of the braces being removed before I'm hoping that the metal under the paint is in fact solid and the body filler was something done at the factory.

I attached a picture here of my hood and an example of the pressed metal louvers I am planning on having added.

['76mintgrün'02]

But... but... but... why?

[LikeStig]

But... but... but... why?

Because Rock 'n roll! They are going to be on the center of the hood, over the engine in a diamond-like pattern in six rows total between the creases that separate each half of the hood. There is only about a 1" taper inward to these creases, and I already picked up some E9 CSL wind splits to go with. The car isn't going to be stanced or anything else sacrilege to the 2002 ethos, so if the next owner doesn't like it he can easily find a hood to swap it out.

The guy doing the louvers generally is exclusive to 30's and 40's cars, so I'm hoping someone can confirm here so I can call him back and tell him to keep plowing through the bondo.

Edited November 9, 2015 by LikeStig

[adawil2002]

Sounds like a real pain to re-engineer the hood. Factory race cars used stock hoods and they won stuff.

[AceAndrew]

I look forward to seeing how this turns out.  I want to do it to an extra hood just for giggles.  It looks neat on a couple Datsun 510's and Alfa GTV's I've seen it on.

['76mintgrün'02]

"... and they won stuff."  haha

 

Just for giggles is as good a reason as any, I suppose... as is Rock'n roll!  

 

( that must be why they louvered the trunk lid on a rear engine Ghia   )

[LikeStig]

@76Mintgrun'02 lol I did not even think that the Ghia is rear engined when looking at that picture!

Just got off the phone with the metal-guy, unfortunately I need to find another hood. He thinks at some point in the car's life something was dropped on the hood or it was stepped on, and the body shop added "pits" to make the metal rigid once again and then bondo'ed in the gaps.

If anyone in the Midwest has a solid hood for a reasonable price please message me. Off to the WTB section...

Edited November 9, 2015 by LikeStig

[LikeStig]

Just got a call that the hood was done, I need to take the drive tomorrow to pick it up but here is the pic he sent! Found another faq member out of Wisconsin through craigslist who had an extra hood which was solid- now I have a stock pastelblau hood and the cheese grater!

Edited November 27, 2015 by LikeStig

[TobyB]

I kinda like it...

 

t

['76mintgrün'02]

Are you going to have them do the trunk lid?  

 

(edit: poking more fun at the Ghia guy)

Edited November 28, 2015 by '76Mintgrun'02

[E39guy]

Looks like that hood worked out well, I'm glad it went to a good home!

Edited November 28, 2015 by E39guy