Same here, this weather is crazy! It was 13 deg. here today... same day last year we had a couple feet or snow!

 

Really though. lol Here...Idea time. Come to my house, use my garage and finish it. My garage is heated and outside it's getting into the 40's. This way we can see it done faster.

 

6000 miles round-trip? Thanks, but no thanks!
MikeR

 

ehhhhh your loss. ;-P

 

Mock-up Pics and More:
Plastic Diamond-weave mesh to keep junk out of the hood. This will be held in place by the aluminum trim pieces and some OE-style push-in fasteners. Everything will pretty-much disappear once the hood is painted black.

The aluminum trim pieces that I fabbed-up. I'm not sure yet if these will be left polished, or if they'll be painted-possibly flat black. Any suggestions? They will be pop riveted in place.







The semi-custom decals--WARNING: Jeep & Honda Content!



Here's where they'll go:

Silver "4.0L" from a Jeep Wrangler with blue "SOHC" from a Honda Del Sol. Combo absolutely "pops" on black.
As always, comments appreciated.
MikeR

 

WHY NOT use a longer piece of alum in the middle of the hood taking in all of the holes ?

Don't go to the outside of the hood keep the alum centered.

And maybe drill the larger pc of alum with a bunch of 1/8" holes or slots where the holes are in the hood and radius or chamfer the edge.

Also, is there enough room between the hood and the body at the point where the alum is ?

Just thkg out loud.

Looking good...

 

So close. looks great. cant wait to see it done. lol at the beginning of this I really didn't know what you meant by doing this mod. haha I always thought the 04+ ranger 4x4s had the powerdome hood as well. I never really paid attention. I think its gonna looks sick!

 

To be honest, Scrambler, that piece of aluminum is only there to cover-up the joint in the 2 pieces of mesh. The mesh was supposed to be 48" wide, but the stuff that McMaster-Carr sent me was only 36" wide. Since I had to hide the joint, I figured that I might as well make it look decent. I was contemplating using one long piece of aluminum to cover the whole thing, but that area has compound curves that I can't do anything with. It'll all disappear once it's painted anyway.
MikeR

 

Was just thkg out loud.

 

Appreciate that--I'm always looking for input. Again, its a long time before the paint goes on, so I'm open to any and all ideas. Thanks
MikeR

 

Great idea on those decals... they'll look good on there!

 

More updates from this weekend. I picked-up a strip of 1/8" x 3"x6' fiberglass from McMaster-Carr for the next phase. After perusing Andy's (INTERC3PTER) pictures again, I'm not sure if I like how the rubber seal at the back of the hood is visible, so I'm making a trim piece that will rivet to the underside of the hood, follow the contour of the cowl, and finish off that area. I also rethought the vent holes, and I'm going with a design similar to what Scrambler suggested, since I had a fairly good-sized piece of fiberglass left over.
Here's a pic of one of my favorite things that I got for Christmas:

A 1/2 dozen Clekos and a pair of Cleko pliers. I wish I could say that my wife was cool enough to buy these for me, but I bought them myself.
Carboard template for lower trim piece:

Fiberglass panel cut and mocked-up. Clekos are awesome for this!


The new trim piece for the vent holes--finished side:

Back side with mesh attached with silicone:

Vent mock-up:

I also filled-in the holes for the old triangular trim pieces that I was going to use on each end of the hood opening.
As always--comments and suggestions appreciated.
MikeR

 

Looks good.. how do those Cleko things work?

 

Looks sick dude
Yea what are they and what do they do?

 

Thanks guys. Clekos are used to temporarily hold body panels together during assembly. Drill an 1/8" hole in each panel, align holes, insert Cleko into pliers-when you squeeze the pliers, you can insert it into the holes; once you realese the pliers, the Cleko's end essentially expands and it clamps the 2 panels together. The Cleko is spring-loaded, and the end is tapered in 2 pieces that slide along each other. Kinda hard to explain, but they work really slick, and they're a Godsend for a project like this where you're constantly fiddling and fitting panels together. Definitely worth the $20 investment.
MikeR

 

Sounds pretty cool... so they're reusable?

 

Oh yeah--thats the beauty of them--plus, they hold the panels together really tightly.
MikeR

 

That's pretty cool... I'll have to have a look around here for them!

 

I would imagine any place that sells autobody paint and supplies would have them. I got mine from McMaster-Carr since my company has an account with them.
MikeR

 

We sell that stuff at work (CarQuest) and I've never even heard of them.... lol.

 

Every time I see your avatar, I think it's Gordon Levitt.

Your hood is coming along nicely!

 

OUCH!

 

Haha I didn't mean it in an offensive way. :) That's just who it looks like when I glance at it. Is that you?

 

Eddie Van Halen

 

Hey I just came across this thread and none of the pictures are showing up. I wanna see! Think you could repost?