What’s your favorite appearance mod?

I recently swapped out the Roush hood scoop for a Boss 429 scoop. Much bigger, wider, taller. Next time I have it out of the garage, I'll get some more pics. The old Roush scoop went on my Rangers hood.

Have new mirrors coming tomorrow. Classic design, look like they time traveled here from 1969. I am sick of the truck mirrors on a sport car. Also the radiator cover extensions that cover the frame all the way to the fender. Came in today. Will get pics as soon as I can get out to the lake, likely this weekend.

As promised, new pics with the Boss 429 hood scoop and the new sport car mirrors, MMD Classic Style Mirrors. On the way to the picture taking site, a little boy told me "really nice car". Hopefully he grows up to like hot rods.

Deleted the fake rear gas cap this weekend. Mine was kind of grungy anyways, and couldn't find a replacement. So I went another route. They provided a black circullar sticker to put around the key receptacle, but it didn't fit well. So I just used black RTV around the key hole after the install. Also faired a layer of black RTV along the entire top edge to eliminate what I thought to be an unsightly gap there. Much nicer having done that.

I got the carbon fiber hood vents installed. Finally. Car had a transmission failure, so it was out of my hands for 3 weeks. Got them done Sunday the 25th of April. I had made an aluminum template to transfer the inner outline to the hood. When I finished cutting the hood, the pieces I cut out were mirror images. Couldn't have turned out better if a pro had done it.

Sorry, no pics at this time. I'll get out to the lake tomorrow and take some good pics. Do have a pic of the cardboard and aluminum templates I made to mount them. I will keep the templates, since I took the car out on cruise night Sunday evening, and already have two others that want me to put some on their cars. Not holding my breath, these carbon fiber parts are $400 for two.

As promised, here are pictures of the installed carbon fiber hood vents. They turned out Bitchin! l already have another guy in town that wants me to install some on his 2013 Mustang. Fortunately I made that metal template.

I think that next weekend, I will remove the shiny screws and replace them with flush black screws. ACE Hardware has a nice selection of black hardware. I'll have to lightly countersink the holes, but that's not a problem.

Doesn't the water pour in when it rains?? Seems to me in driving rain when slowly going down the road you will have a lot of water pouring in. I love the look. A foxbody would look nice with those.

They are far enough out to the side that there is nothing underneath them to cause issues. I have some on my old 98 Ranger, did it first to see if I could do this successfully. Been driving it in the rain ever since sometime in the summer of 2020. Even has an open hood scoop over the center of the engine. Never had an issue. Oh, I don't drive the Mustang in the rain. It stays in a garage, as does my Lightning, which also has the exact same hood vents. The Ranger is the vehicle I keep for when the weather is bad. Rain, sleet, hail, snow, the Ranger is out on the road.

Little story about how well those vents work. It had snowed for a few days in mid February. When I needed to go somewhere, I brushed all the snow off, except the snow in the vents. When I was out driving, at around 45 to 50 mph, all the snow in the vents suddenly came flying out and hit the windshield about halfway up. It would take a lot of force to do that.

There's an aerodynamic engineer on YouTube, Kyle Engineers, works for Mercedes. He has a video on hood vents. Says the advantage is twofold, to let all the hot air out on top, rather than under the car. And also, due to all the pressure building against the underside of the hood, it actually produces life on the front of the car. The hood vents give all that pressure somewhere to go, and it's best if it comes out on top, rather than under the vehicle. He also addresses the water issue in the vid.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDKBYfslzSw

2Blue2 said:

The Ranger is very 'Red Neck',
I approve.
carry on...

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It's a 4.0 V-6. No muffler, MAC intake, 93 octane tune. Has Lakewood traction bars and Hellwig anti-sway bars front and read. Runs great and goes around corners swell, and it talks to you. ;-)

cbxer55 said:

It's a 4.0 V-6. No muffler, MAC intake, 93 octane tune. Has Lakewood traction bars and Hellwig anti-sway bars front and read. Runs great and goes around corners swell, and it talks to you. ;-)

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You should start your own thread for your nice car

Potomus Pete said:

You should start your own thread for your nice car

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Nah. The Ranger is my daily driver beater. I've owned it 21 years, not much I haven't done to it maintenance wise. I use it as a guinea pig. Did the hood vents on it first, just to see if I could do it. A friend with a shop is going to change the axle gears from 3.73 to 4.1 here soon. If I like it, I will be doing the Mustang and Lightning with the same gears as well.

Are you referring to the Mustang? Sure have done a lot to it since I bought it in November 2019. Still have a few items left to get and install. The lower aerodynamic skirts that go between the front and rear wheels and the ones that go behind the rear wheels. They will be carbon fiber, from the same company that made the rear diffuser and the hood vents, APR Performance. They very closely resemble the parts that are on current Mustangs. Once I finish those, maybe I'll do a thread on the thing, from start to finish. Believe me, so far, the hood vents were the most labor intensive. Took me over five hours from start to driving it. Cutting giant holes in the bodywork is not for the faint-of-heart. LMAO. But, I am a Sheet Metal Mechanic, work on U.S. Navy E-6 aircraft. So I know what I am doing. The parts that I cut out of the hood, with the underside reinforcement, they are mirror image. Flipped upside down on my workbench, all the reinforcement lines up on both. Tuned out great.

The Lightning is a whole nother story. Owned it a long time, and not much of it is stock anymore. For instance, the rims may look stock, but they are much modified. Stock they are 9.5 inches wide with 295/45-18 tires. I sent four rims to Weldcraft Wheels in Michigan. Had them, cut three inches out of one set, and put that three inches back into the other set. Final result being I now have 12.5 inch rims in the back with 345/35-18 tires, and 6.5 inch rims in the front with 215/60-18 tires. It has a Mag-Hytec differential cover and transmission pan. Both hold significantly more fluid than stock. JLP Long Bars, and a custom made panhard bar. Drive shaft safety loop and a custom made chrome-moly tubular transmission cross member. Stock Eaton blower ditched and replaced with a Magnum Powers blower, with a custom made cog drive and three pulley idler bar arrangement, with a manually adjustable tensioner. I could go on-and-on. But I'll stop here. LMAO!!