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I like the idea of bonding adhesive to install this dude on your hood. I would be too concerned with warping the hood by welding that large of an area, once warped you'll never get it smoothed out with body filler. Even if you do get things smoothed out you will most certainly lose any definition that you would have otherwise created with the grill standing proud of the mounting surface.
 
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Break out your clecos and drill some jig holes in the mesh frame and hood to line things up. Then you remove the clecos, and clean everything real good with MEK or fast evaporating solvent. Smear the bottom side of the mesh frame with JB Weld, leaving a 1/4" gap around the cleco holes. Cleco it in place and let it sit for 24 hours. Remove the clecos, fill the holes with JB weld and sand until smooth. But you already knew all that...

For the uninitiated (not madmike1157, he probably has a drawer full of them), this is a cleco fastener.
It is used to hold sheet metal parts together for assembly and comes in 3/32", 1/8", 5/32" and 3/16" sizes...

ClecoTool2.jpg
 
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I will try to make this shorter than my usual rant.
It's 6 PM on a Friday night, the wife wants to know what we're doing for dinner, (which means we're going out), and I've been in the garage all day.
If she catches me sitting here doing this, it'll be even shorter.

I've decided to stay on course w/ the Gila Hood.
I'm going to go against my norm, and see the thing through to completion, as opposed to getting it "roughed" then moving on to something else.

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Behold the twin nostril Gila hood.

As I suspected, I was unable to clone the right nostril, and could only get it close to the "OG" G nostril. As with everything I do, the second version is always better than the first. and there is a problem between the two. The photos will help to scrutinize the difference, and if alot of you can see it, I'll consider changing it. But if you cant, I'll swear on a stack of bibles that I won't change it.

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There, you just walked around the thing. You see the problem?

You guys let me know what you think it is.

But wait, there's more....

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The openings for the G vents w/ the obvious pathway for hot air to get out, and rainwater to get in.....right on top of the down pipe.

I guess this goes to ask, I'm thinking of getting some of the material they use to make magnetic signs, and using that as a cover on the turbo side of the engine if I get caught out in the rain, and when I decide to go to the car wash after driving the thing to get there. I realize that the mag cover won't stop water from getting past that G vent, but I think it'll slow the water down to a small, manageable trickle. I can keep the two covers for that side "stuck" somewhere until the need arises, and then slap those dudes in place.

Whadya think about that? Or is that just some weanie attempt to justify leaving a gigantor hole directly over the hottest part of the turbo system?
 
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Round out the back of the driver side to match the passenger side. It's too sharp. The smooth transition back down to the hood looks better. Or just do what you gotta do to make both sides match! I dig the look a lot though.

Edit: Is there a dense foam or rubber material you could use to plug the nostrils in the event of bad weather or a bath? I worry about magnets taking a toll on the paint after a while. Ever see the damage those magnetic "support _____" ribbons on the back of cars do? Maybe a yoga block in the color of your choice cut to fit with a electric meat carver?
 
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In the pics one side looks flatter/wider than the other? Needs to be rounded off slightly like Race stated. Really really like the design though. Almost as much as the rear(that I feel is perfect). :nice:
 
The slope of the two scoops is different, it is most noticeable at the back. The rear downward ramp of both scoops is also different.

Dealing with the possible water entry problem; that's a lot of expensive and water sensitive hardware under the hood. Make the scoops like those on an 2003-2004 Mustang - closed and non functional. Put some wire mesh a short distance from the opening of the scoop and then put a black metal plate behind the mesh. Make it all smooth and water tight and your problem is solved.
 
They're not mounted, so..........

Braaagggghhhh !!!
* buzzer noise*

Round out the back of the driver side to match the passenger side. It's too sharp. The smooth transition back down to the hood looks better. Or just do what you gotta do to make both sides match! I dig the look a lot though.

Edit: Is there a dense foam or rubber material you could use to plug the nostrils in the event of bad weather or a bath? I worry about magnets taking a toll on the paint after a while. Ever see the damage those magnetic "support _____" ribbons on the back of cars do? Maybe a yoga block in the color of your choice cut to fit with a electric meat carver?

In the pics one side looks flatter/wider than the other? Needs to be rounded off slightly like Race stated. Really really like the design though. Almost as much as the rear(that I feel is perfect). :nice:

The slope of the two scoops is different, it is most noticeable at the back. The rear downward ramp of both scoops is also different.

Dealing with the possible water entry problem; that's a lot of expensive and water sensitive hardware under the hood. Make the scoops like those on an 2003-2004 Mustang - closed and non functional. Put some wire mesh a short distance from the opening of the scoop and then put a black metal plate behind the mesh. Make it all smooth and water tight and your problem is solved.

I know clearance is part of the reason you made the Nostrils. But is there no way to make a bottom or a catch pan to run under the scoop that would go above the turbo piping?

Ok, here's the real deal.

As you look at the hood from the front, the left ( first done) G nostril is all wrong. Firstly, it's made from 20 ga. As opposed to the right one,which is made from 18 ga., and is considerably flimsier than the other. It oil canned like mad, and I had to shrink the top to make that go away. ( you can see the 5-6 spots where I heated the thing to do that).

Underneath both scoops, I've cut the hood skin completely away, fully exposing the bottom of the hood scoop in its entirety. Since the front is open, I did not like the "cave" under the scoops that I was left with when the old sheet metal was still there.

Yes, there is a difference between the ramps at the rear of the scoops. That transition into the hood will "equalize" when I add filler, as I intend to smooth out the intersections where the scoop meets the hood.

So that ain't the problem.

As for one being flatter and less crowned than the other, I guess that's potentially visible in the pics because again, the 20 ga piece is now warped to hell because of the shrinks, and the 18 ga piece is freakin perfect.

But again, that's not the problem.

The actual Problem, is that the OG is 1/8" taller at the front than its next door neighbor. That is probably the main consideration in the full slope looking different. MAJOR PITA to change, as it involves a complete cut away of the OG in its entirety, and a complete redo in a different, thicker material.

Additionally, the front angled sides of the opening on the OG piece are thicker than the perfectly streamlined ones that are on the 18 ga piece. That is not so bad, as that can be corrected w/ a creative application of filler, but that would mean that all four would be thick, as opposed to the way that the second one looks.

I'm hearin myself as I'm writing this, and I'm not liking what I'm sayin BTW.

If you could see the bottom of the hood, there is actually a " dropped" ramp that drops 1/2 inch below the surface of the hood at the scoop front.What that does is it makes the mouth of the opening 1.5 inches tall, while the actual scoop only stands 1 inch above the hood. That transition also has to get cut away, as its part of what looks like a simple rectangle sitting on top of the hood. What I'll get left with if I cut the OG away is a disasterous hole, bigger than the actual finished opening.

The pic that didn't post shows the fronts of the scoops, w/ grilles exactly like the G vents welded in place at the front of the scoop.

Air and water are gonna go in there. I want the air, I don't want the water.

The mag covers are totally temporary, and would only be placed over the openings when the situation came up. Since the front ones are completely perimeter welded, and the rears are completely perimeter bonded, they will seal pretty well if there is a cover stuck onto the " berm" that the frame creates I think. Worse case scenario, I could carry racer tape and duct tape the rear grilles if I think I'm gonna get caught in a monsoon.

But I'm gonna drive this car.

Not everyday, or anything like that, but the chances that I'm gonna be somewhere, and get caught in the rain are a reality. Placed into percentages, the design reasons for the functional scoop/ vent things are the 90 % of the time I want 73 bagillion degree hot air to get out, versus the 10% of the time I don't want pipe cracking cold water pouring down on top of 1000 degree hot steel.
 
What I want to know is,.......Who bet I'd change it? Who wins the pool?

Given that I said that I wouldn't unless somebody could see it (and @jrichker saw it straight away) that left me with the only option available to me.

To cut the old piece of junk off of the hood.

But first, I had to convince myself of that.

It's made from .20 ga steel. Using steel that thin goes against my grain as it is just a giant pain in the ass to work with. Since I had it laying around, I used it. What I got was a piece that ended up w/ an "oil can" effect for what ever reason.
The YouTube solution was to use a torch (an oxyacetylene combo is what I used) to heat a small dot to cherry red, then quickly quench that spot w/ cold water. That process is supposed to shrink the metal, and "tighten" it up so the oil can effect gets pulled out.

I did that.

While it worked, it left the top of that scoop full of dips, and bumps.

This morning, I decided to see if it could be saved, so w/ a hammer and dolly, I tapped and pecked, pounded, and banged on the thing trying to get it to flatten out.

The oil can effect returned.

I got the torch back out and heated up several more spots.

The oil can effect was gone.

Only now, there was a surface that looked like it had been through a meteor shower. Now I could come to terms w/ cutting that oversized, warped assed piece of s hit off the hood.

So I cut it off.

0A9D45EB-A3E1-4F7D-8021-44ACD928C622_zpsbr0ttvu1.jpg


This is what it looks like w/o the scoop on top.

The back story:

Obviously, I needed some steel to recover the new hole I just created in my hood. It was Saturday morning. I knew that I wasn't gonna find what I needed anywhere save for he local Home Depots of the world, so I set out for that very place.

Home depot is a Joke. When it comes to steel the only thing they have is galvanized .24 ga stuff.

I left there and headed for Lowes.

Lowes has steel alright. All of it marked as 16 ga.

I got to looking at it and it seemed "thin" to be 16 ga. so I headed off for the tool area to see if I could find a Vernier Caliper hanging on some hook so that I could measure the thickness to verify that it was in fact 16 ga steel.

See, I didn't want it to be 16 ga steel,.....I wanted it to be 18 ga steel. It looked to me like 18 ga, but they were charging a 16 ga. price (35.00 for a 24x 24" sheet). I didn't want to pay 16 ga. prices for 18 ga steel.
Could I find a caliper?.....Nope. The only caliper they had was entombed in plastic, and I wasn't about to open it to see if I was right. So.......What the hell,....I bought it anyway. When I got it home however, that was a different story.

According to my caliper, the stuff I had was .0500 thick. 16 ga. stuff is supposed to be somewhere around .0625.

The stuff I had measured .050.

Did I call Lowes and bi tch out the manager for selling 18 ga. steel at 16 ga. prices?

Damn straight.....Managed to get a 20% credit refunded to my CC as a result.

Regardless, the piece still cost 27.00 dollars.

So now that that was behind me, I set about cutting, and bending the new piece.

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* For some strange reason, this stuff cut like 16 ga.,...and it bent like 16 ga.,...but it measured like 18ga.

The pic above show the thing after bending, and then the front 1/8" x 1/2" reinforcement that goes along the leading edge to give me a "stop" to put the grille against.

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So now I got this piece tacked in place, and only requiring the little triangle dudes that make up the front transitions;

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Still have to build the grille insert, but the left, and right G nostrils match each other.
 
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I like it a lot, Mike. Between me being part blind and looking at pics on a little cell phone, I couldn't spot the 1/8 inch diff until it was pointed out and I blew the pic up. Those scoops remind me of a ram air T/A. (Which I always liked) Between the Monte Carlo styled spoiler and the firebirdesque hood, it's definitely going to be a different Ford. But- it's great! So many people stick to Ford styling cues, which there's nothing wrong with btw, to mod their mustangs.. It's cool to see thinking outside the box. I've always really liked unique. And this car is dripping with it!
 
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