BUILD THREAD “The Juggernaut”

[Rktpwrd]

Update time again on the old girl! Sorry in advance on the length of the next few posts...


I had the best of intentions to post this update shortly after covering the fabrication on the hood, but as luck would have it, life and work quickly got in the way, so here it is albeit a couple weeks late. Apologies for that too...

As I stated earlier, after the bulk of the fabrication was done on the hood, it got set aside for almost 3 years as the focus shifted to different areas of the car.
During that time, the hood found its way on and off the car several times for different reasons, giving me the opportunity to become more accustomed to seeing it as a "part of the car", rather than merely another "part" of the car.

Slowly during this time, I began to notice small things about the hood that just didn't seem right. It actually took me quite a while to hone in on what these things were, but finally one day this summer I was able to put my finger on what they were. This first instalment is going to cover what I found, and how I went about fixing them.

In my "lightbulb" moment when I finally figured out what wasn't quite right, I realized I actually had two separate issues that were going to require attention:

1) The first (and the most obvious to me) is perhaps the most critical part that makes the hood look like it belongs on the car.
The body lines that make up the raised center section have to "grow" out of where they start on the header panel.
Eyeballing the lines of the header to the hood with a critical eye, I found the curvature to smoothly transition between the two wasn't right. I tried taking several pics to illustrate what I was seeing in person, but it was extremely hard to capture it with the camera.
This pic is about the best I could get, it's a closeup of the center body line across the hood and header. It drops at the edge of the hood and leaves a dip where it meets the header.
Not cool!

The decision (however painful) was made that I would have to go back in, cut out the hood skin and tube structure in these areas, bend up new tubing and redo them.

2) The second area that needed attention was a section on both sides where the "flat" areas transitioned into the raised sides of the cowl. I say "flat", but that was actually the problem. They were too flat. They should actually have a slight graceful curve to them.
When we stood up the sides of the original hood at the cut points, it's really hard to make a curved bend, so the bend points flattened out creating really low flat points.

So, armed with a half assed plan to rectify the first issue, I drug home some cardboard from work, and made templates of the "proper" curvature I felt it needed to have and got down to business. Here is the template with the proper shape it SHOULD have.

Having this template to work towards was crucial, and by using the same one for both sides, it would ensure both sides would be symmetrical.
I ground off all the filler from the front half of the hood, and marked out the areas that would have to be cut out in Sharpie. Then, the surgery began. The hood skin, and the tubing below it were both cut out.

Using the template of the desired shape, I bent up two new tubes to match. In the next pic, you can see the tube matched up to the template. In the pic after that, you can see it matched up to a template I made of the original curvature it previously had. Big difference!

Before the new tubing could be welded in tho, the hood skin I cut out needed to be replaced.

Welded in, and ground down:

Then it was time to position and orient the new tube, and tack it in place. You may notice I had to make a relief cut across the front edge of the hood as well, this was necessary for the hood skin to move enough to accept the shape of the new tubing.

Next up was to cut and tack in a new piece of sheetmetal to replace the side that was trimmed out.

Continued >>>

 

[Rktpwrd]

Welded in and ground down:

Then it was time to finish it off. The last of the welding was done to tie in the top and sides to the tube, then metal finished out.

Looking WAY better!

Especially in comparison to the template of before the repair.

You can see the new line of the hood has considerably more curvature to it, and lines up much better with the header panel.
I know it's still not there 100% yet, but I have plans to rework the header panel more yet by adding some height to it, and making the transition into the hood absolutely perfect. In fact, this was taken into consideration and the curvature of the tube planned that way on purpose.

Almost done the passenger side, now just had to weld up my relief cut on the front edge.

Continued >>>

 

[Rktpwrd]

I love this next pic. I think the proof is in the pudding so to speak. This pic makes me feel the additional work and effort was well worth it.

That completed one side. I've said it before, the only downside to doing heavy fab stuff like this, is that there's usually two of everything! On the plus side, the second side usually goes quicker once you've perfected the first. The same procedure was repeated on the driver's side next.

Once the driver's side was done tho, it was time to tackle the second major issue I found: the "flatness" of the sides where it should be more curved. To illustrate this issue, and give me a goal to aim for, I went back to my trusty cardboard and made a template of the curvature of the hood at the hood side where I knew the curvature was correct.

Using a square, I made indexing marks on the hood edge and the cardboard, then transferred them to the inside of the hood where the problem area was.

Here's the same template aligned with the indexing marks, only positioned up against the edge of the scoop.

Doesn't look that bad, right? Look a bit closer yet...

Still not convinced it's THAT bad? Check this out...

Yep, you're reading that right. The hood lost its curvature there, and at its worst point, was 9/16" low! That's over half an inch. THAT would have been a nightmare to bodywork, and would have required waaaaay too much filler to correct. The driver's side was no better, it measured at 7/16" low as well.

Here's a decent side profile pic that shows the issue pretty clearly:

So, time for more surgery...
Continued >>>

 

[Rktpwrd]

Ok, now, this is going to get a bit complicated to try and explain, but bear with me, I'll do my best.
A line was laid out with masking tape on the hood where the reshaping needed to occur, and to give me a consistent spot to align my template.

Once that was done, the new curvature was traced from the underside of the template onto the side of the scoop. Then a cut was very carefully made along that line.

I can tell you, I've done a lot of fabrication and cut a lot of stuff up, but this was SERIOUSLY the scariest cut I've ever had to make! The cut literally extended the entire length of the hood from front to back, minus about an inch and a half or so at each end!
Took me quite a while to get up the courage to cut my custom scratch built hood with all those hours in it that severely I can tell you!

But it went well, and after the cut was made, I needed to give the hood skin a way to flex back up into it's correct position. That meant making a series of several relief cuts thru the curved area. The relief cuts were laid out and made at every inch (just cause it was a nice round number). The next pic shows the relief cut marks laid out, and the long cut from one end to the other. It's a bit hard to see, but it's there.

With the relief cuts made, the skin was able to be flexed and pushed up into place. At first, the two edges were overlapped and tacked into place. This was done by placing a tack, then checking it against the template and repeating until it was right. Time consuming, but effective.

Checking it against the template... looking good!

Once I was happy with the curvature, the sheetmetal underlapped was cut inbetween the tacks, and then finally through the tacks themselves. This is the sheetmetal (minus the curfs of the cuts) that was removed from the side of the scoop:

With the excess material removed and the tacks cut, I was left with a big nasty gap:

No biggie tho, the tough part was done, figuring out how to achieve the result I wanted. The rest from here was just to reattach everything in place.

And there you have it! Once everything was welded back together and ground down, it was as if nothing ever happened!
Lol
So, how'd I do? Let's compare it to the template...

Seriously tho, it looks MUCH better, and I couldn't be happier with the results.

And once again, the same procedure was repeated on the other side, only I had a 1/16th less to remove from that side. Still just as much work tho.

As visible in the pics of the template on the hood, there are small gaps under the template indicating the sheetmetal isn't perfectly flat. There will still be a little bit of hammer and dolly work that will need to be done to perfect everything. But that's pretty much to be expected.

It's not too often you can work a single panel this extensively, and not have some serious issues, but so far, everything is looking really good.


Continued >>>

 

[Rktpwrd]

Ok. Enough about the repairs. Let's cover something a lil more interesting, shall we?

After a weekend trip to my local metal supplier, I came home with these lil babies. I don't think he even charged me for them. Lol

After spending some time deburring them and making sure they were perfectly round, I cut out some heavier gauge sheetmetal disks and welded them together.

After locating true center, a couple holes were drilled in them, and some nuts were welded on the backsides.

Confused as to what these could possibly be for? This might give you a clue:

I've been sitting on these for a few years now, and it's finally time to get them installed. In case it's not clear, these are the plates for the hood pins I plan to use. These are what will be visible from the outside, on top of the hood.

While they're nice pieces in and of themselves, there were a few things that I felt could be improved upon.

First of all, I didn't want to be like everyone else and just mount them to the surface of the hood. It lacks imagination, and anyone can do it. Plus, I really didn't care for how high they sat up, they looked out of place, and didn't flow with the smooth lines of the car. In fact, they took away from it, big time.
So I made the decision to recess them slightly, to keep the profile lower and sleeker. And when I say slightly, I mean ever so slight. They're only recessed 3/16 of an inch, but it made a huge difference in appearance.

Second of all, I didn't care for the cheesy little chrome plated sheetmetal screws you're expected to hold them on with. I was going to use stainless Allen button head machine screws, hence the nuts welded to the backsides.

The decision to use Allen button head screws will be one of those tiny little details that will help tie into the theme of the rest of the car, as all my fasteners on the engine and various other parts of the car are all polished stainless button head as well.

Cheesy screws on the left, machine screws on the right:

I had a bit of an issue with switching to the machine screws tho, while the diameter of the threaded portion was perfect, the heads were a bit too big to fit into their recesses.

So what to do? Poor man's lathe!

I carefully chucked them up in my drill, and turned the heads down on a fine file until they were a perfect fit. Hey, it worked, so why not?

Once I had them mounted up and everything playing together nicely, I laid out the location for them, which I carefully planned to be directly above where the hood bumpers sit in their stock location. The hood bumpers will be replaced with polished stainless ones, and relocated slightly inboard.

The holes were drilled slightly undesize, and filed close to the right size to provide a slight interference fit for the cups to drop into.

Continued >>>

 

[Rktpwrd]

Happy with the placement and fit, the backsides were given a liberal coating of weld thru zinc primer and tacked into place.

A couple of spare machine screws with the same thread made for easy tweaking into place as it was tacked.
From there, you know the rest of the story: Burn 'em in, and finish 'em out.

I'll let the pics do the rest of the talking.

Admittedly, it's a subtle touch, but in a way, isn't that the point? It should be purposeful, but not overwhelming and out of place.

I'm already onto the next area of attention, but that's for another time.

So anyways, that's it for now, what's everybody think?
As always, your thoughts, comments, and opinions are always welcomed, from any and every one.

Thanks guys, till next time,
Drive angry my friends!
Donovan

 

[Injectedcutty]

Once again my friend, the level of attention, detail, and patience is outstanding to say the least! However, I think you officially lost your damn mind filing those screw heads down to fit....but the devil is in the details!!!!
When it comes to fit and finish, the juggernaut is up there with ridler builds a day that's just being honest.
Oh btw, sanding grilles sucks lol!!!
As most will agree, I'm anxious to see the next custom touch to embrace the Naut.

Well done sir (loud audible applause)!!!!!

 

[Texas82GP]

Donovan,
Your skill, imagination, craftsmanship and attention to detail are admirable. Fantastic work. Thanks for the update. I really enjoyed it laying in this hospital bed recovering.

 

[O. D. Showtime]

Awesome work as usual Donovan!

 

[liquidh8]

Donovan, outstanding work as always. I had similar issues with the fiberglass hood, with the peak and the curvature at the front 12" or so of the hood. Looks fantastic!

And I absolutely love the recessed hood pins. I wanted to do the same, mimicking the a-body old's. I just changed my mind with the color scheme I am using. Nd, replacing the hood bumpers is what I did also, nice touch my friend, we think alike on a lot of things.

On thing I found, I had to oblong the back side of the billet hood pin plate just to keep from binding when the hood shut, since the plate is so thick. It can't be seen from the surface, but it was necessary to keep from marrying up the black agonizing.