underside of hood

[mustangcam]

is it ok to take off the cloth looking cover on the bottom of my hood. it is melting onto the top of my cai somehow. would this be ok and how is it held on.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

It is held on by 14 trim fasteners. There is also a ground strap that you must disconnect.

I always take mine off, do not forget to wax the underside of the hood.

People will tell you that the paint wll be damaged from heat and/or when your engine catches on fire the fire will be worse than it would be without the blanket. I do not know about all that but I never keep the hood blanket on myself.

 

[Matt's 03 GT]

KT:

Why not?

 

[Kilgore Trout]

On the GT I had it on about half the time.

The one that was on my Cobra was really ragged. I took it off and threw it away the day I got the Cobra. Also the underside of the Cobra hood is fully painted so I think it looks a lot better without it. At some point if I have $80 to blow I may get a new one for the Cobra.

 

[mustangcam]

well i guess the demolet cai is just bigger and it rubs on the blanket. i think im gonna go ahead and take it off but is it possible to damage my hood at all?

 

[d98gt]

Yeah, mine looks pretty rough also due to when the intake manifold had a leak it was spraying up there

However, I haven't really even thought about taking it off.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

You can remove the hood blanket and then spray it down with flat black spray paint to make it look brand new.

 

[BennyBlown2v]

I removed mine after I lost a belt with the vortech (actually, only lost half of it, and it was after pulleying down and not changing the belt heh)...ripped a hole RIGHT through the horsey

Anyway, you should be fine. I left the grounding strap and just cut out a little section of the liner. Also, you dont have to worry about paint/heat - maybe if you had a KB or some turbos or some other heat source RIGHT up against the metal then yeah, worry about it then haha. On other cars i've seen it bubble the paint, but usually those are FWD's with motors that nearly hit the hood when closed.

 

[Mustang5L5]

I've had the blanket off the hood of my 5.0 for 5 years now. Paint is fine.

My paint is black, so my hood has been scorching hot on some hot summer days. No probs


The composite hood of my GT gets NOWHERE near as hot as my 5.0's metal hood does

 

[mustangcam]

bubble the paint on the outside? that sounds too risky.

 

[GDawg]

And if you do paint the underside of the hood, use high heat paint just in case. You don't want that stuff to start smoking.

 

[d98gt]

You can remove the hood blanket and then spray it down with flat black spray paint to make it look brand new.

It seems easy to remove, though i'd probably end up breaking a few of the pins and then it'd sag

I'll just leave it ugly for now

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Those trim fasteners are easily removed with a proper trim tool which costs $4 and new fastners can be purchased at AutoZone for cheap.

 

[d98gt]

So they do sell the push pin type fasteners at Autozone? That's good information

I also need to replace a black push-in fastener that goes into the door near the lower kickpanel area speaker (mach 460). The tint installer happened to break it though forgot to mention it to me so I have a slight rattle from that area when the radio is turned up.

 

[GDawg]

So they do sell the push pin type fasteners at Autozone? That's good information

They sell those push pins just about at any parts store. Different sizes but I've never seen them in any other color besides black. I've bought a few of them. And I have the tool to easily remove them.

 

[forum155pl]

I have mine removed also because of the intake cracking and wrecking the blanket, its been that way for about a year without any problems, ive overheated a few times and still nothing.. i also have vinel racing stripes, and they still look brand new...

 

[RedDaemon]

Those trim fasteners are easily removed with a proper trim tool which costs $4 and new fastners can be purchased at AutoZone for cheap.

needle-nose has helped me out a lot when pulling those out

then again i had no intention of reusing any that i took out.

 

[GDawg]

How'd that happen...?

Sorry... dup

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Here is my trim tool, it cost like $4 and is one of my best and most used tools. I cannot imagine not having one...

View attachment 420051

 

[02LaserRed2V]

I remove mine one time but found out the underside of my hood isn't painted at all- it's just freaking bare metal! So the hood blanket went back on. All my buddy's Cobra's have fully painted undersides. My engine bay isn't clearcoated either. Looks like crap.