Fiberglass hood mods... crazy?
On newer cars the have a belly pan that causes the air to be channeled out from the underside. When a car is in motion air builds up in the bay and is swirling around, what this pan does is eliminate the air from the bottom so just the air from the grill is coming in. The pan has vents towards the back so that air is forced to flow over the engine then out the back. Thats how new cars can have a smaller grill, more efficient cooling, it also adds MPG. (less drag from swirling air, same idea as a tunno cover on a truck bed) High speed salt flat cars have very smooth bottoms, and airplanes are round for a reason. It's all about less drag. I don't know if something like this would work for you but it might be a viable alternative.
Not sure if anyone had noticed but i mentioned earlier on the use of a belly pan do drop engine bay pressures.
it would be fairly simple to make your own and you could do it without having to vent the hood.
Just make a :belly" pan for it and on the firewall side of the pan you fab up, take and put a 45 degree flap on it.
So as your driving the car,wind that would normally rush under the chassis and swirl up into the engine bay and hold the car back will now hit the belly pan avoiding the engine bay all together and instead of passing the belly pan and swinging up over it and rushing back into the engine bay anyhow, the 45 degree flap will alot the air to pass over the belly pan then hit the 45 degree flap and deflect the wind towards the ground completely avoiding the engine bay, then the only wind entering the engine bay will be that of the fan which will not cause drag because it is stationary on the vehicle as it is in motion and not a force of opposing energy to create drag.
And then the only wind to contend with that would be slowing you down and creating any drag would be what pass's though your grill, which could also be remedied.
You could pop the grill out and sheet metal behind it and build your own "ducting system" to route the air coming in through the grill to deflect under the car just before your "belly pan" you fab up and it would avoid the enine bay as well!.
And to maintain cooling, you could cut a few elongated strips in the sheet metal behind the grill to allow some air to pass through for cooling purposes.
I don't know, I don't mean to knock your idea,it is cool and I get your reasoning behind it...But I personally as well as I am sure alot of other guys don't agree with chopping a perfectly good hood when there is an alternative route that can be taken to accomplish the same goals and maintain factory styling all the while.
And even after you do make the mod, I don't think you will be looking at a hugely noticeable difference in your 1/4 et.
It would not cost a hole lot of money or time for that matter to go about it the way I had mentioned and your going to achieve the same goal.
Rather it be that you leave the undercarriage open and vent the hood...allowing pressure to build and escape....or that you go the route I mentioned and avoid the air pressure from building in the first place .
Either way you go about modding it...It will be an interesting thread none the less and will grab people attention and spark ideas in the thoughts of others and would be cool to see pictures.
Good luck
P.S. Not sure if anyone is aware of this but the tonneua cover gas mileage thing is a miyth, It has been proven that you get better gas milage with out the cover on a truck because the wind that goes over the cab of the truck then drops down inside of the bed of the truck and creates a whirl wind effect that actually once over the cab and into the bed push's the truck forward and creating less drag....with the cover on the wind came over the cab and push on the back of the truck and rolling over the tail gat and grabbing the undercarriage and pulling it backwards ...slowing it down.
Not sure if anyone was aware of that or not lol...look it up on myth busters lol
