HOOD MOD: need help, or suggestion
 

other than dropping weight from the hood, i've prepared it to be able to receive vent mods in the future.

so my current hood is in this state: bottom support cut out mostly the second half on the passenger side area around the immediate area above the exhaust manifold. and windshield washer bottle removed. airpump will stay intact and in use if vent are to be placed in.

where i need the help is this: what tool to use that will guarantee a "CLEAN" cut on the hood. i bought a trimmer from sears, its similar but not a rotozip. and not sure if rotozip is even the right tool to do the job.

i need some advice/tip from someone with known body work experience and metal forming skill. i know paint ain't "necessary" on the exposed metal area after the cut, mainly because aluminum doesn't rust. but am looking to get some help from an expert who knows just what tool and equipment to gain a uniformly cut, and ease of cutting.

thanks.

^^o, and also i will not be inserting a pre-cut metal sheet with vents in them, but rather make the cuts on the hood and incorporating vent design from the original hood.

this time of year in so-cal is rather cold, so doing this mod is not time restricted as i will take some time figuring out where to best place the vent where flow will most likely occur with speed, and if at best, dissipate heat at idle.

actual tuft testing will be pretty pointless at this rate as it will need the hole there regardless to determine the flow rate...

but any rate... the expertise in how to go about making the cleanest cut is my main concern... thanks alot for any help and input.

there's a thread around here about hood mods, and inside it is a link to a s2k forum that had a bunch of people do exactly this. They detailed how they went about it - so that would be a good place to start. Unfortunately I don't have the link but if you search you should be able to find it.

mysq: i have searched and searched again over the last 2 days again. and those vent MODS that you speak of is mainly "lifted" hoods with spacers/washers inserted by the hinges, which i've done in my miata. and something i am not willing to do to this car...i've already taken the step to cut out the undersides of the stock aluminum hood in preparation to incorporate a DIY hood VENT much like the ones the vented CF hoods are sold and cut out.

so...the hard part for me now is "how do i go about getting a clean cut on the top side of the hood, and what kind of cutters to use?".

i like to keep the stock alum hood and not bother repainting it. and getting a vented CF hood and repainting it is the lazy-man's approach. i'm a DIYer, so getting a CF hood and painting it is like feeling the hit of blowing money...2x.

so if anyone else can chime in or enlighten me...pls do.

bump

the idea i have here are like putting slits alongside the rotor shape of the hood.

need some cutting advices here guys...

I've always liked this M3 hood and thought about something similar...

http://www.vividracing.com/catalog/w...orsteiner1.jpg

Here's the S2K thread:
http://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php...pic=324009&hl=

I'm thinking of doing this also, I was going to use a cutoff tool and make the rough shapes into the hood. Then fabricate some fiberglass trim pieces to hide the rough cut. It will make it look kind of cheesy, but damn its going to be vented and cheap.

I know what your trying to do, and the answer is that you can't do it with the aluminum hood, its too fragile to give it a clean cut and then roll the edge.

wow, looks good, i stand corrected

I've been mulling this over in my head for quite some time. I've got the tools for it, and the patience. I just need to figure out where the holes will go.

I've seen it on a turbo'd miata, looked wonderful.

He cut 3 sides of a rectangle a foot and a half from the posterior edge of the hood, and rolled down toward the engine.

Wow... looks really nice. I'm down to do this on my 8.... as soon as I take another look on the underside of the hood.

But what I'm a little confused about, is how he was able to keep paint on the edges where he cut.

me too, looks like he spent a ton of time with a dremel getting it perfect.

It actually doesnt look half bad!

or you could just be lame and copy somebody elses work like me!



Theirs:
http://images.rotarynews.com/images/...s/dsc01564.jpg


Mine:
https://www.rx8club.com/attachment.p...8&d=1186894833

He cut 3 sides of a rectangle a foot and a half from the posterior edge of the hood, and rolled down toward the engine.[/QUOTE]

thats what i had in mind for the design... and that was also the method i had had too. i've done it on my older honda but i took out the whole hole. with this, it'll look ugly with two drill marks on the part i'm gonna roll towards the engine.

i think in the link he mentioned smoothing it out on a drum sander then using touch-up paint...i'm guessing in the case of aluminum there's no need to use some primer adhesive since aluminum don't rust, but couldn't hurt if he did though.

and thanks for the poster who sent the link...may be able to gather up some nerve and try to do it right.

I'm gonna try this on a hood of a wrecked car at my friends shop first. I'm a little nervous to try this on my hood.

^^do it...let me know how it goes.

DrewMan, looks good. Where did you get the piece? Also, are you a cop?

wow this is an interesting idea...never thought of doing it but atm im considering it. Anyone have a pic of the underside of our hoods without the fiberglass fire-puter-outer thing...just so we can see the structural integrity of our hoods. I.E. what we'd be cutting into

What about the hood from the FEED Rx-8? I think it was custom built by adding and evo bonnet. By the way it looks awesome.

http://www.nihoncar.com/en/news_pics/243/news.jpg

^^i personally don't think that is a good place to have the vent. i dunno why. but, first its not an EVO, so we don't have anything important up in front to take heat from. thats the only reason why i think its a stupid place...besides, our engine sits way far back.

if anything, i think thats only a "show" piece and meant to only look cool.
the EVO on the other hand...rightfully deserves that spot for a vent.

its called the radiator... and thats the best spot to have a vent for several reasons (like air flow)

wow im gonna have to look into this that rx8 with the evo bonnett looks sweet!!!

^ What he said

Thats one of the best places to vent the radiator. Just relocate the battery and replace the intake with a turbo or a CAI and its perfect!

Looking at the pic it does have a turbo, so the other stuff is probably already relocated on that rx8.

so here is my question, after reading the s2k forumn and seeing that they cut the hood to make it look like that, do i take the chance and cut my hood to vent it, or do i dish out the extra money for a new hood? also, should i cut the hood or just buy some inserts, let me know, not tryin to jack the thread either just thought this question was along the same lines. and also i will provide pics if i decide to do it.

^-----well buying a stock hood is 516 bucks. an aftermarket 1 is upwards of 600-1000. if i were u i would try and cut up your stock 1 and if u hate it that much and decide u dont want a vented hood at all you should buy a new stock 1 or get an aftermarket 1. dont spend money when u dont need to.

I paid $50, plus shipping from a shop that installed a CF hood for another owner.

I just have to find some suitable vents, then the cutting will begin.......


S

I really want to get the evo bonnet installed on my hood like FEED did on their 8. Does anyone know approximately how much this would cost for the bonnet and to have it installed at a bodyshop?

i hate it when i get ideas of things to do in my mind, cause then you cant stop thinking about them. anyway, i agree with rx8 fanatic that evo bonnett on that rx8 looked sweet, but i dunno if i would like the way it would look on a velocity red. may have to play with photoshop later and see what i can pull off. i was thinking about trying to pull something like the IS style hood (picture attached). i guess i will have to spend some time thinking/drawing up some ideas.

^------i love that hood, i considered buying it for quite some time

Well, I'm going to try it on my hood.. but first I'm going to practice on a junk hood. My friend owns a body shop, and he gave me a hood from a 4Runner that was being totalled. You should do the same.

how about rain is it not a problem

A little rain won't hurt anything... Your engine gets wet all the time when it rains... just the water comes from the bottom and not the top.
The only time I've seen water hurt the engine, was on my Civic back in the day. The plugs sit down into the valve cover and I had my car detailed, and they degreased the engine bay (and engine). Well, water got down in there, and the plugs had a little water in them. The car still ran, it was just misfiring. I don't see this happening with the 8.

romy thats a nice idea, ill have to go talk to my friends at my body shop and see what they can do for me, as for the rain, i have heard arguments on both sides, from what i have heard the main problem with certain cars is when there battery is exposed to rain, however since our 8 has a cover over the battery i dont think it would be much of a problem, or course to much of anything is always asking for trouble

thanks for info

i know where you're trying to get at...i'm just saying that WE have an slant sitting radiator. and it sits under the airbox/battery and out of view. so the hot air wouldn't just purge out at idle like where it would on an evo...

obviously the location is VERY important. so i'm not gonna put in a certain spot for a "cool" factor, and i'm not trying to say that you are either.

where i have in mind of location and size is rather small and only on the exhaust side of the engine...thats it. i don't want it to scream too loud either.

that said, i'm thinking of somewhere above the exhaust manifold and outta harrms way for the air-pump so air can pull engine heat at speed. and if not at speed, at best idle.

remember, i'm not bashing anyone here... but if anyone can test air flow at certain areas and have meter with the best numbers to show for...then any one of our spot that we pick is just as good as the others, unless proven otherwise.

Venting the engine directly doesn't sound as useful as venting the radiator. The engine is cooled by oil and coolant. That's why they are run through the inside of the engine then to air-air coolers.

So relocate the batt, and get rid of the OEM air box.

rotor: now that being said, please don't be quick to judge on anyones understanding of cars here.

i thought with that kinda comment, you'd actually had a point to prove.

not trying to even start an argument here... just saying to be kind, and collaborate. and bring suggestions, ideas, and most importantly-facts.

maybe its useful for that FEED car as it may be FI i'm sure. so underhood items and locations may make it useful in its application, or the most useful shall i state.

but running stock configuration here, and plan to keep things where they are... and i think the hood vents on a aftermarket hood along the sides of the rotor-shaped area is not quite a bad place... is there another more feasible area you had in mind mysq?

may stick to around that area, but still open to some locations. and another thing to bring up...i'm looking at a minor alteration, not a drastically altered one where if the wrong choice of location may/may not greatly affect things.

check back with you guys later2night.

good progress, and extra thanks for those contributing with pics.

i would love to see this done

If i tired that with my car, i have a feeling it wont ever end up looking that good.

i thik the hood on that s2k looks sick
he just better have a garage

arrrgghhh! raining so much beginning of this year in l.a. and i can't get this project thing started in fear of rain damage.

i may have to buy some small metal pieces to glue under the hood. reason being... my friend gave me one of those ricer "beginners" magnet badge because he had one laying arouond. but magnets don't stick to aluminum...nothing except steel. so i'm gonna have to get some metal bits to add to the underside of the hood for weather like this in the future.... don't wanna have water all up in my air pump unit you know?

but yeah guys, i'll definitely get this done around this month once the weather and rain settles down.

please post pics from start to finish

the s2k underhood has straight support braces that you can cut around. The rx-8 has a bunch of cone shaped things that are a real pain in the ass to work with.

I once considered cutting the oem hood, but once I took off the liner, I gave up on the idea.

i'm a fan of this kind of hood venting personally... not impossible to fabricate either

https://www.rx8club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1189371994

I haven't had a chance to get started on this. I have everything, I just dont' have time. But after seeing the FEED RX-8.. I like that idea better. The only problem with that.. is I know that bonnet is probably going to cost a few hundred.
If I spend a few hundred just on that.. why not spend a few hundred more for carbon...