Lightened stock hood?

[K5 rockcrawler]

I need to know if anyone has lightened up their stock hood and how they did it. I did a search and can't find any info. I bought a fiberglass light weight hood with the step down in the middle, but it hits on the firewall and the radiator support. It just wont work. I was going to have that pinned and lift it off. Now I am looking for other ideas.

 

[uberbeans]

Sorry to hear that your hood didn't work. What company is it from? Are you saying it had supports across the hood that hit the firewall and radiator support? Is it a cowl hood?

I'm not sure that there is anything you can do about lightening your stock hood. Do you know how much it weighs?

 

[K5 rockcrawler]

The hood is from US Body. The hood has reinforcing strips at the front and back of the hood. I could have lived with the radiator support hitting as I would just cut it down. But the firewall hitting was another matter.

 

[zeroz400]

What do you mean it hits on the firewall? When you put the hood up do the corners hit? Can't you shim it?

And how is it hitting the rad support? Do you have the knob thingies there?

Dont really undertsand your problem, can you get some pics?

 

[Smokin'Joe]

You could cut out some of the bracing from the underside, leaving the visable skin. This could take off a noticeable amount of wieght. Problem is you take away strength, as it would become very flimsy if you take too much bracing away. Just a thought.

 

[beater_k20]

You could cut out some of the bracing from the underside, leaving the visable skin. This could take off a noticeable amount of wieght. Problem is you take away strength, as it would become very flimsy if you take too much bracing away. Just a thought.

he cant take anything out. the hood is glass, and needs every bit of the support it has.

if notching the core support isnt a big deal, why is notching the cowl? personally i'd notch the cowl before i even considered the core support.

 

[K5 rockcrawler]

Here are some pictures for you to look at. As you can see, the hood needs to come down quite a bit. I would have to seriously mod the upper firewall.

 

[big dan]

dont know about your hood but my god that truck is beautiful. I wish mine was still that straight.

 

[ryoken]

Why not just mod the glass hood?

Glass work is relatively easy.... Cutoff wheel or sawzall out the bad sections and mod to fit...

 

[BulldogK5]

I think that is the same hood one of the writers for fourwheeler or petersen's used on his blazer a year or two ago. The one they tried to get the 6.0 into. I can't remeber what model it was though.

 

[Chevy305]

That is a nice looking truck!!! Also the cut fenders look really clean too!!

 

[K5 rockcrawler]

Maybe I will try to mod the hood and see if that works. It is no use to me now so if I do screw it up, I always have the stock hood to fall back on. I don't know how they could build this hood and be that far off on it fitting correctly. Must have been built on a monday.

 

[beater_k20]

dont mod the hood. mod the firewall. there is absolutely nothing under there, just a big empty space. remove your wiper arms and the cowl cover and you'll see what i'm talking about. if you mod that hood, you may as well lay newspaper over the engine, US Body hoods are flimsy to begin with dont need to make it any worse.

 

[skidpan]

I agree with beeter ... mod the firewall.. just pull off the hood and fenders. get a BFH and maybe a torch and just beat the edge of the firewall in and down...

 

[fireplug]

I'm really interested in how this works out. That hood is in my future. Well it was...I'm assuming you've called them and asked about it? I'd definitely make contact with them before dinking around with either truck or hood. No point of screwing anything if there was a mistake in the mold or something. Please let us know how it works out.

 

[beater_k20]

why pull the fenders? his problem is obviously with the drop down section of the hood. you can clearly see a gap between the "stock" portion of the hood and the top of the cowl.

 

[beater_k20]

I'm really interested in how this works out. That hood is in my future. Well it was...I'm assuming you've could them and asked about it? I'd definitely make contact with them before dinking around with either truck or hood. No point of screwing anything if there was a mistake in the mold or something. Please let us know how it works out.

good luck in getting them to do anything about it...

 

[fireplug]

Somebody here has one. That's where I first saw it. Anyone know who so they can help out?

 

[ryoken]

dont mod the hood. mod the firewall. there is absolutely nothing under there, just a big empty space. remove your wiper arms and the cowl cover and you'll see what i'm talking about. if you mod that hood, you may as well lay newspaper over the engine, US Body hoods are flimsy to begin with dont need to make it any worse.

Might be flimsy if you did the glasswork....

 

[K5 rockcrawler]

If you look the way the hood is built, I think I could cut the raised part off and move it back on the front part of the hood and forward on the rear of the hood. Then I could just glass it back in and it should'nt affect the strength alot. It would be nice to know if anyone else has had these same problems with this hood or if I am just lucky. I can try to contact US Body but the problem is I bought this hood a couple years ago and I am just getting around to putting it on.