Procharged94Lt1

With the motor half under the cowl on the 4th gens it makes it hard to fit a roots style under there- it is possible, but will take a decent amount of work to fit...even then you have to deal with hood clearance issues.

You don't have to use stainless on a turbo setup- even then with all the extreme heat cycles its not necessarily going to keep its nice even color. Black hot-side piping looks just as good IMO.

A centrifugal blower isn't going to rob a bunch of power from you opposed to a turbo- once you are running high boost, the motor is working to turn the turbo so it isn't exactly 'free' power so to speak.

lymlyt96

I've seen a couple threads with lt1's and the roots style blower. I think with your skill and access to fabrication tools that wouldn't be too hard to do with a lil research, and for hood clearance all you would have to do is take the hood cowl you're workin on now and make it functional.

SumTingWong

Well, clearly I'm not afraid to cut and weld, so that's what I was thinking.. I sorta think I might be able to stuff one under there.
*Off to search threads..*

TD95Z

On the subject of heat cycling, try to minimize the amount of body filler you use on the hood. Something I like to do is put the parts/car in primer and let them/it sit in the sun for a few weeks. Fillers and poly primers tend to shrink a bit, so I like to let them do so before final sanding. I realize the average production bodyshop doesn't do this, but I've seen plenty of cars that looked perfect coming out of the booth, only to appear wavy a few months down the road. I've actually got a guy out driving his TA in primer right now, and it has already shown some signs of shrinkage after a month of August heat. Yes, I said shrinkage. Slow Saturday night- figured I'd bring the lame attempt at comic relief. Nice work you're doing, by the way.

SumTingWong

Thank you! Any experienced advice is most welcome.. BTW- That's actually JB weld laid in over the welds just for reinforcement. Finishing them on an angle makes them thinner than I'd like.

TD95Z

I put in a few years at various shops a while back, and I still do some body/paint work for friends and my own projects, so I like to help out on here whenever I can, considering this type of work tends to be the one thing alot of hotrodders steer clear of. I'm not sure how JB Weld will fare on your hood, but being an epoxy (durable by nature,) it might just do the trick. I know of a guy who used it to fill a rot hole in his Mustang's decklid (yeah, he's a hillbilly- dude used tire wet on his entire car to make the crusty old paint shiny ) and it has actually held up quite well in the 7 years since he did it. When it comes time for filler, try something like All-Metal or Dura-Glas for the bulk of your work. These fillers are reinforced with metal and fiberglass, respectively, and are a bit more durable than straight polyester products.

Injuneer

Surprising what you can fit under the stock hood:

http://www.corneltechweb.com/superchargerweb.htm

SumTingWong

^^ Holy Crap! Look at his phase II pics. This guy spent 10 grand on the motor, easily.

BTW, I'm not worried about the hood. It's the cowl clearance that may cause some issues. Worst case scenario involves moving the wiper arms.

xxteenobesexx

_drools_

lymlyt96

still waiting on updates...any progress?

SumTingWong

Well, right now I'm unemployed, and at the inconvenient stage of having to spend actual money on the go-fast parts.

I've also in line to get one of the hybrid nose peices from 6LiterEater. It has the "catfish mouth" but still keeps the 94-97 headlights.

The hood has turned out to be quite a project. The original peice I made just never looked right. It looked awkward, and I learned a lot about lines and visual aspects of making things flow. I cut it off, and after several attempts, I have a new peice formed, welded and mostly installed.

(I was playing with the hue and saturation on this pic)

Two things are going on here. One- Even though it doesn't really stand out in this pic, the lines of the new piece run paralell with the factory indents going down the length of the hood on either side of the new peice.





Second, I moved the vent's inside edge foward 3/4 of an inch. Originally, they were almost straight, but now they're slanted foward. This makes the hood appear to be longer. I'll have to bond extensions onto the factory vent peices because it lengthens them about an inch or so.

If you look at the image below, the plastic vent inserts used to run paralell with the top of the hood line. You can see that it's now slanted. The original line is still there for you to see, because until I was completely sold on the idea, I wasn't goint to pie cut and weld the upper side as well. It's subtle, but I like how it makes the hood look ten feet long.
(Only one side is done, though)



Close up- The upper edge of the vent is uncut and has it's original direction. I'm going to pie cut it and insert a small peice of steel like I did for the lower forward edge. You can also see how I had to insert an extension on the plastic peice to make it work. I'll have to make a junkyard run and cannabalize some plastic inserts, epoxy them together and sand them smooth.

lymlyt96

MAAAANNN that has turned into one heck of a project what happened to the quarter panels did you ever get those finished or are they on the back burner til you make more progress on the hood? On another note with all the fabrication I'm surprised you didnt just make your own custom front bumper. You are definitely committed to that LT

SumTingWong

I did think about fabricating a front fascia out of aluminum, but my Mig welder isn't set up for a spool trigger, and I set aside a few weeks to learn to gas weld aluminum, but it was ugleeee. Gas welding aluminum with a Dillon/Henrob torch takes years of practice, or so it seems.

Mostly, I just keep finding goofy s%^& to make until I get the money for the block, rotating assembly and heads. Then, It's a T-56 ehaust, front rims and tires.
I really hate cars that have no *****- All bodywork, flash, and no "go" to back it up. I have my heart set on an LSX bowtie block and forged internals. My wallet says otherwise at the moment, at least until money starts coming in again. Unemployment is nice, but it's not for blowing on car parts.

The hood has turned into a major project, but it's not something you can screw up, because it's a huge focal point. Not only that- I'm in no huge hurry. I'd like to get it done soon, but- Life is what it is. The rear quarters are largely done, save a few small touches.

lymlyt96

I used to gas weld aluminum for 8 years it did take a while before my welds started lookin good the trick is to pre heat the surface right before melting the rod. Under the circumstances it looks like you're makin good progress Im excited about seeing those quarters complete with that wheel setup. Have you figured out what kinda blower you wanted to go with yet?

SumTingWong

No specific blower in mind yet.

I can weld two flat pieces together and dress it out somewhat nice, but buttwelding anything with a curve results in holes...