lefty ultimate heat reduction hood !! ricer style

[chrslefty]

alright go easy on me !!
so i've had this hood planed in my head for a while and i think that it will give me the best of both worlds in slow and high speed heat reduction .i needed a welding and body project to get some practice on .that and im fighting some heat issues so i thought that id give this a whirl.
here the pics from tonight !
"please excuse the crappy cell phone pics "

to be continued

 

[DanMan2k06]

...? I can't even tell what the hell is going on? Is that just a huge hole in your hood? Looks like a ragtop install haha.

 

[chrslefty]

a the pics arnt all that great .
whats going on is . im putting a doge lazor vent in the front of the hood .it was placed to be drectly behind the radatior .
and the back is / will be a cowl induction scop.

 

[Milford Cubicle II]

And you're theory is that the cowl will suck air through the dodgelazorventhole and keep the engine cooler. While it should indeed suck air through the dodgelazorventhole, all you're really doing is moving air across the front of the valve cover. I think you'd be much better off with just the cowl so you're actually pulling air through the rad and the entire engine bay. However, there might be a low speed benefit to your design thanks to the giant hole in your hood for ventilation. Now you have my opinion

 

[chrslefty]

My undestanding was that the fan and veichal speed pull push air trough the rad .and a cowl will force cooler air into the engin compartment.and from what I've read and seen in diagram is most of the heat is right behind the rad . What I'm hopeing to achive is the venting of the hot air after it leves the rad and to help with the cirulation by bringing in cooler air off of the wind sheild . If it dosent work that's ok beacouse I'm just trying to have some fun with this and get a little welding and body experance . And it will be a bonse if it works right and hopefully it will look some what nice and it will be a little difernt frome everyone ealse.

 

[chrslefty]

Dose anyone have any tips or good reading material on stitching/tacking sheet metal ? I should have the pieces cut out in the next day or two . I know that I should do just little pieces at a time and work from corner to corner . Any toughs or tidbits to add ?you input would be greatly appreciated .
Thanks
Chris

 

[JamesM412]

As far as welding the sheetmetal you will need to tack it in place then just keep tacking it all the way around. But dont keep tacking on one side then the other. Tack about a few on one side then the other and keep going back and forth like that to control the heat build up. Heat build up will cause the panel to warp. You will eventually tack weld the whole panel. Also if you have access to the back of the panel use a hammer and dolly to hammer down the tacks to restore the metal to the orginal height if you have some warping going on. You can see a ton of body work patch panels I did in my online journal on hotroddders.com. Go to project journals and look at gator412's journal. Good luck and have fun.

 

[DanMan2k06]

Make sure NOT to cool down the welds either. Everyone always thinks by applying a wet rag to the welds immediately after tacking helps control warpage, WRONG. It causes it. Heat up a soda can with a torch, and then submerge it in a bucket of cold water. Watch what happens

By letting them cool down in the ambient air temperature, they are not only stronger, but warping is kept to a minimum.

 

[muddyrocks]

I've completed the welding stage of my hood project just this week. It is amazing how little heat it takes to blast a hole through sheet metal. I used 16 guage to wedge the sides of mine (cowl style, following the hoods lines with a 3/4 inch lift). It might pay to practice on some scrape 16 guage or any other scrape body panels you have laying around in order to get dialed in on the heat.

I did this for the similar reasons as you; experience so that when I do more important things, such as rocker replacement and roll cage, I've gotten a better grip on welding to sheet steal.

Cool design, good luck, and I hope it works for ya.

 

[JamesM412]

For welding up holes or thin sheet metal you can use copper behind the weld. The weld will not stick to it so it make a great tool to back up a hole you are trying to fill. Just hammer a piece of copper pipe flat and use that to backup the holes. If you do a lot of sheet metal repair you will have a few of these in different shapes as they come in handy.