I guess I pictured it in my head as being substantially smaller... Making big "One Off" stuff is such a pain. Youd almost need an assembly line for the amount of orders you've got! If you were up this way I'd offer a business proposition as theres millions of square feet of manufacturing sites that are empty and lotsa cheap labor to boot! The downside is a poorer quality control issue which I think you have well covered! Nice stuff! ws On a side note, does that glass hood offer the strength to overcome the hinge spring pressure and associated stresses? Glass hoods used to be pinned down on the 4 corners; just wondering...
Yes, the hood is strong enough as long as you use a light weight spring made for a glass hood. I haven't found quite the right spring though. The one on my car is a light weight hood spring from Jegs which alone wasn't enough to hold the big GS hood up, so I added a small inner spring I found at Lowes. I kicked around the idea of renting some space, but the downside of that is once you sign a rental contract then you're committed to spend a certain amount of time every week building hoods just to pay the rent. That's OK if it's your primary job, but this is just a side gig I do right now because I like building the hoods and other glass stuff. A great price around here for a smaller shop is around $700 a month plus utilities. I'd have to build three hoods a month in my "spare" time just to pay the rent with hood profit. I'm looking at early retirement in a year or so, then, I may look at doing something about some additional space, be it rental or my dream, buy a bigger house with a 1500 ft2 shop out back
Hey Briz do you have a couple of good pics of the hood on the Riv? I had one or two but can't find it. I try to keep pic's of all of the hods I made when they're installed Craig mltdwn12@q.com
Craig, Please add me to your list - not in a hurry per se, just want to get on "the list". Thanks. - Ken
Update from another thread; Well its been a while since Ive been on the board as well as out in the garage making hoods. Sometimes work and life just takes all of your time. I spent the last year flying between Phoenix and Baltimore every month, in May I made one last trip and drove a moving van and car trailer back to Arizona. I have a new steering box and rear seat cover for the GS that have been sitting awaiting my attention for months. Now that its 110+ degrees in the valley things have returned to a less hectic pace, I can get back to my hood building, yes timing is everything! Anyway I pulled the hood underside mold back into position now that I can move in the garage. A little touch up and some release wax and Ill get back into building hoods. I dont anticipate another moving van adventure for maybe two years, if at all, so Im back to hopefully being able to work in my garage on hoods as well as give the GS some attention along with my poor boat that hasnt seen the lake in 3 years! I have a nice fresh B&M blower awaiting me to freshened up the 509 and start using that toy again as well!
Great to hear things are going well! Think there is a way to incorporate a hood tach spot in future hoods? Take care, Kevin
Well it's still a bit hot out here in the desert and the humidity is up! It was 110 degrees in the garage today but I did get the 1st layer for the underhood brace section laid up today. Come on "winter" The toughest part was I normally work with about 1 half of a quart of resin at a time, today I could only use about a 1/4 of a cup. I'd get near the bottom of the cup and the resin would start to gel. Once I got the right volume down it went smoother, but at first I wasted some resin!
One more layer, trim it and pop it out of the mold and bond in the metal for the hood latch and the hinges. Then start on the actual hood mold layup.
Yeah with those temperatures you hardly have any time before your resin starts kicking off. Makes for fast work.
The fumes aren't too bad I have a couple of fans running, the PITA is keeping your sweat out of the mold We've had a hot summer this year, a lot of temps over 110 during the day.
