LAT 79 Hood fitting

0neoffive

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LAT fiber bonnet

Hey Duke: A fiber bonnet Tigger we piloted last season "at speed" demonstrated bonnet flutter and wobble. I'm curious how yours will behave with the inner re-engineering. Perhaps you've stiffened it a bit. keep em' runnin', randy
 

Duke Mk1a

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Hey Duke: A fiber bonnet Tigger we piloted last season "at speed" demonstrated bonnet flutter and wobble. I'm curious how yours will behave with the inner re-engineering. Perhaps you've stiffened it a bit. keep em' runnin', randy

Ran it up to over 100 mph on the way home, no flutter or wobble. The corners do come up a bit but are stable.
 

0neoffive

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Hood flutter

Gee Duke, only 100? Such civilized restraint. . . .One of my all time favorite walk-away lines, " I'm not sure, officer, the speedo quits at 140."
 

Warren

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How I did it.

I ended up with a hood from Dale too.

As with almost any product except Kent Wilcox, they may use different vendors to produce them. A member who sells em on eBay from time to time gets a bulk order from the UK.

Dale had switched fab guys using his molds taken from a original LAT hood and it is far superior to the originals I have seen.

Having a round corner car and since one size is built to fit all there is substantial fitting to be done.

Required and light belt sander and several 120 grit belts if you are not brave like me. Paper Tyvek one piece overalls and face eye and lung protection.

I used some advice from members Defsailor. He suggested a bungee cord hanging system to hang the hood from in the many refits. I also got two longer matching 1/4 28 TPI bolts and made them into studs to not have to find the holes repeatedly. I used four of them and nuts and this made it much easier.

I started on the front leading edge of the hood, all edges were at least 1/2 to 5/8 larger then the hood so be prepared to frost a big area with dust. When sanding, I used blue masking tape to assure a good line and even cut on the area next to the Sunbeam letters "remove them" and protect the paint corners with layers of tape as this will give you fudge factor and the hood will not nick them. Be sure to have a pre fitment in the forward slot of the hinge slotted bolt bracket you can then always move it back later. Getting the curves right and a good feel for how fast the cut happens is the big reason for the 120 grit.

When happy with the front and the curves easier with a colored felt marker then tape do one side at a time and use the blue tape as a cut too line laid on while test fitting. "note protect all paint edges as a fresh 90 degree hood edge is rather sharp" me I always did a quick edge knock down between fitments.

After I got it totally fitted I had my broken arm problem then I became like the one armed wall paper hanger all these projects and I had to ask my wife to open jars etc for me :eek:

A local car guy and long term member Rick J. aka Tootech on forum helped me with the two hands required fiddly hood latch adjustment.
"remove the secondary latch" as getting it stuck is not fun.

Now, I am still in the final stages. The back crown of the hood is subject to change after a bake in the sun in a open position "tougher when black" After baking yesterday for couple hours in the sun its back to the garage. Now she sits with a small wood in the middle and lots of weight trying to get over the memory of the f/g. Suggested was a glue between the liner.

Put some pics up later. Still working on a good grille opening mesh not going with the period slathered in goo method. I worked way to hard at fitment to finish the job like dat:cool:
 

Warren

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Fluttering Fiberglass

So had the hood fitted for some time. Now what annoyed me about the hoods going back to Tiger no. 1 was the incessant flutter and jiggle and lifting at speed, not willing to add hood pins it is a perplexing problem.

My problem was compounded by the crown of the hood, " rear trailing edge which incorporates the round corners"

Apparently the mold or the cars "all being a little different" has a lot to do with the excessive effort involved in fitment. I am still perplexed to believe that metal hoods not having the same problem and are readily moved between cars....... So back to the crown. After fitting it became evident that no matter how I shimmed adjusted and jiggled the hood one round corner assumed the mold position and was lifted a full 3/8" .
My first remedy was to block the center of the hood up 4" then take the kids weight set padded well about 40 lbs per side and leave set for a week or so. Worked great till the car sat in sun and went back to its mold shape. I contacted the maker and got a "well you need to glue it"
Now I've seen and used some of the 3M version of construction adhesive, but there is no way to remover inner bend hood to fit then bead the adhesive in. Now if one slots the inner liner to make access for the glue gun yes. I'm just not willing to drill or plunge router out a slot in underside of liner glue and repair f/g.


So here's the fix, now don't judge me cause my last name isn't Goldberg but close:rolleyes:

I removed the rear rubber hood buffer. Tore up an old one and replaced the rubber with the same diameter super magnets about 4 of them and added a medium washer to the underside of the f/g hood. The magnets are held to the threaded and back nut by my favorite epoxy filler so after final magnet strength can be determined a coat of the spray rubber stuff or black will hide the metal look. As for the hood metal contact a light grind down and thin metal application cover and blend as a long term fix or suggestion to mfg.

When parked now the hood edge fits like a dream, although the crown is a little off still. I am sure it will pop open at speed or after a big pothole but I've seen a couple original LAT hoods and they have their own personality in nice words. I hate hood pins and I hate the flutter a metal hood would be nice except for the weight. Now when parked it isn't lifting at the round corner so that's a big improvement so far.

I am interested to know what other effective fixes are out there, except the English style leather belts, not into the Tiger in bondage look:)
 
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