Adding Capri Nostril Vents to my Nice new Cowl Hood...

[edman1000]

So, Always liked the look of the (reasonable 2"-3") cowl hoods but noone makes it with the capri nostrils in them. Since the vents are a Capri Trademark, I want them in there....

Nice brand new hood.... (edit: It's an HO fibertrends hood)





Homade template measured up and secured...



First hole cut....



Both holes cut.....



Now I'm in the process of fabbing up two brackets to mount the vents to. They are going to be about 11" long by 1" wide and I plan on fiberglassing them to the underside of the hood. More pics to come.....

[edman1000]

Oh yeah, Lessons learned....
Alway cut the hole smaller than what you need and open it up a bit as you go. I cut both of them a hair too big and will have to get creative to make them look right. I plan on getting the brackets mounted up and drilling the hole for the vents and massaging the hole as I go....

I'm not a body man and have very limited exp with fiberglass so wish me luck.

[wraithracing]

Sorry to hear about your misfortune.

I will tell you that the vent location is a great area to vent the under hood heat from behind the radiator.

If you have to do some fiberglass work, if you put a bit of a raised lip or ridge at the front of the vents that will help to create more of a low pressure area that will pull heat out of the engine bay. The road racing guys have been doing this same trick on the Fox body cars for many years.

This is a bit more extreme than what you are doing, but same idea.







Good Luck!

Trey

[edman1000]

Nah, It really isnt that much of a misfortune, I'll fix it. Just a bit more work thats all. The hardest part is over.... putting the body saw into my brand new $400 hood!

[n20capri]

AWESOME! I looked around for someone to make me a custom hood with the vents like this and no one wanted to do it. Very curious to see how it turns out. Nice work!

[Mr. Squirrel]

Same here cant wait to see it finished and on the car

[SVT Rob]

Cannot wait to see the finished product. I'm in the same boat, I love the trademark Capri hood vents, and I couldn't go to a cowl hood that was missing them.

[jovibuilt]

I will be watching this since I have two capri cowl hoods.

[edman1000]

Ok, Little update here. I've decided instead of having a gap all the way around the vents, I'm going to use the 'glass that I cut out to make a "ledge" from the underneath to set the vents on (as well as the aluminum brackets). That way I can use a little filler to get the gap to look right all the way around and sort of mimick the stock stamped hood openings. I'll get a pic to show what I mean. Hopefully I'll get a chance to work on it a bit tomorrow and get more pics.

...Thanks for your support, this will hopefully be my contribution to all the great writeups on here.

[plumkrazy]

Great Idea!

[n20capri]

Ok, Little update here. I've decided instead of having a gap all the way around the vents, I'm going to use the 'glass that I cut out to make a "ledge" from the underneath to set the vents on (as well as the aluminum brackets). That way I can use a little filler to get the gap to look right all the way around and sort of mimick the stock stamped hood openings. I'll get a pic to show what I mean. Hopefully I'll get a chance to work on it a bit tomorrow and get more pics.

...Thanks for your support, this will hopefully be my contribution to all the great writeups on here.

Make sure to perfect it because we're all gonna want you to make us hoods! haha

[edman1000]

Alright, worked on it a little bit the last two days. I used the two cut outs to make 1 1/2" strips that I am going to glue to the under side and Cloth & resin into place. Here's an example of what I mean, you can see the vent sitting on it:



My plans is to make those go all the way around the cutouts and smooth them out with some good ol' fashioned Bondo.

And like I said earlier I made the holes too big, not up top but going down the side. This is where I'll need to get artistic. Again you can see the strips in this pic under the vent (excuse the sloppy fit, this is before I worked the straightness on the edges of the holes):



Once I glue the strips underneath it will be nearly impossible to work the opening lip so I'm trying to make it as perfect as I can. A nice long straight file works good here, just watch not to hit the corner:



And heres a teaser with the scraps in place and the vents sitting on them:



So between a file, a die grinder and a pneumatic body saw, I'm getting there. All the glass work has made me itchier than that time I caught crabs on spring break!

Hoping to be 'glassing this weekend but I have to go get 'er outta storage sunday.

[edman1000]

Make sure to perfect it because we're all gonna want you to make us hoods! haha

I'll tell you what, you better have some hottie lined up for me 'cause this is a PITA!

[edman1000]

Oh, and I just noticed that they look like they are too far back on the hood, but I measured the stock hood and transferred all the dimensions so...... IDK.

[wraithracing]

All the glass work has made me itchier than that time I caught crabs on spring break!

Looks like you are making good progress!

If you are working with fiberglass or more to the point sanding fiberglass there are two things that will help with the itchyness!

Either wear a long sleeve shirt and nitrile gloves. If you don't want to wear long sleeves, then cover all your exposed skin with baby powder before you start working with the fiberglass.

The baby powder is small enough that is helps to clog up the pores in your skin and then the glass fibers can't get into the pores and cause the itchy feeling. Not only will you not be itchy, but you will smell like a fresh clean baby!

Trey

[mongos82ttop]

Looks like you are making good progress!

If you are working with fiberglass or more to the point sanding fiberglass there are two things that will help with the itchyness!

Either wear a long sleeve shirt and nitrile gloves. If you don't want to wear long sleeves, then cover all your exposed skin with baby powder before you start working with the fiberglass.

The baby powder is small enough that is helps to clog up the pores in your skin and then the glass fibers can't get into the pores and cause the itchy feeling. Not only will you not be itchy, but you will smell like a fresh clean baby!

Trey

That's a great tip, THANKS!!

[Duey782]

Oh, and I just noticed that they look like they are too far back on the hood, but I measured the stock hood and transferred all the dimensions so...... IDK.

It's decieving.. They may look like they are too far back because the stock Capri body line on the hood ends about 6 inches back from the lip where as the cowl hood continues right to the lip. You can see the shadow on the left side of my spare hood where the body line cuts accross horizontally.

[edman1000]

Yeah, and it's also the angle I took the pic too...

Oh and trey, you are by far the biggest wealth of obscure info I have seen in a long time! Haha love it! I got the Powder ready! ...wonder if it'll work on the crabs too?

[wraithracing]

Oh and trey, you are by far the biggest wealth of obscure info I have seen in a long time! Haha love it! I got the Powder ready! ...wonder if it'll work on the crabs too?

Uh . . . Thanks I think!

Never had crabs, so I can't help you there.

Trey

[bkoons85gt]

Cool fab work, it is going to look great

[edman1000]

Uh . . . Thanks I think!

Never had crabs, so I can't help you there.

Trey

Umm... Me niether, I'm um just saying uh...you know. I'll tell my buddy that did, yeah, thats it!


Haha - It was a compliment, you know alot of stuff man!

[Chris Wood]

Realy interested in how this turns out, I have been eyeing the HO Fibertrends hood for some time, should have done it when I had her painted back during the winter but that repaint was due to a fender bender so there was virtually NO budget for it. However, I do have some paint that the body shop gave me, and the paint on the car is new, so.....hurry up and finish.
LOL
Good work, it should not be that hard at all to do.
If you thing fiberglass makes you itch, you should try working on carbon fiber wearing shorts and a t-shirt like my dumb ass did--thought I was going to DIE for like a week.

[wraithracing]

If you thing fiberglass makes you itch, you should try working on carbon fiber wearing shorts and a t-shirt like my dumb ass did--thought I was going to DIE for like a week.

That is quite painful, but truly extruciating pain is burning your eyeballs, spot welding all day and not using a shield or helmet.

The constant tears and the inability to get the pain to stop in your eyeballs for an entire night is unbelievable.

Of course, I would never do anything that dumb and unsafe . . .

Trey

[Chris Wood]

That is quite painful, but truly extruciating pain is burning your eyeballs, spot welding all day and not using a shield or helmet.

The constant tears and the inability to get the pain to stop in your eyeballs for an entire night is unbelievable.

Of course, I would never do anything that dumb and unsafe . . .

Trey

True that, I was a welder for 20 years, happened to me twice--it is not always you that burns your eyeballs.

Tetracaine eye drops are your friend--although they are only available by prescription....

[richstang]

Very nice to see a creative approach for adding Capri vents to a cowl hood. Keep us posted with progress pics.