Anyone know if this is doable? I want a nice clean cut. This picture will tell you what I'm thinking:
If it's not doable maybe I'll take the opportunity to get an aluminum or FG hood skin made...the stock hood weighs well over 50lbs.
Anyone know if this is doable? I want a nice clean cut. This picture will tell you what I'm thinking:
If it's not doable maybe I'll take the opportunity to get an aluminum or FG hood skin made...the stock hood weighs well over 50lbs.
As long as you're not cutting where the frame is, just cut it. Plasma cutter, or drill a pilot hole and use a high speed body saw or air shear or nibbler. Or a wizz wheel if you're good enough.
The problem is that I am cutting over where the frame is, which is pretty much everywhere. Maybe some kind of circular saw with a depth gauge?
GameboyRMH wrote: The problem is that I am cutting over where the frame is, which is pretty much everywhere. Maybe some kind of circular saw with a depth gauge?
hmm - you want to be able to look down through the new hole and see a big piece of hood frame?
We cut our hood through the frames, I am not sure, if keeping the frame beneath the hole, why you would want a hole... or am I missing something?
So you want to cut the skin but not the frame underneath it? Air shear or nibbler where there's no frame, wiz wheel (muffler cut off tool or even a Dremel brand moto tool with a cut off wheel) over the frame parts with a light touch to just go through the skin.
Tin Snips.
Use good ones. Hog out the bulk of the aperture and sneak up on the final dimension. You will be surprised how accurate they can be. Your final cut should be no more than a 1/4" strip.
Assuming the skin is not glued to the framework you should have enough room to sneak the lower jaw over the brace.
How you make the initial bulk cut is up to you; I would use a 4.5" angle grinder with a 1/16" zip wheel.
NOHOME wrote: Tin Snips. Use good ones. Hog out the bulk of the aperture and sneak up on the final dimension. You will be surprised how accurate they can be. Your final cut should be no more than a 1/4" strip. Assuming the skin is not glued to the framework you should have enough room to sneak the lower jaw over the brace. How you make the initial bulk cut is up to you; I would use a 4.5" angle grinder with a 1/16" zip wheel.
Plus eleventy-billion!!!! do the sloppy heavy lifting with the angle grinder, then clean the edges up with snips. That method worked on my grill inserts
tuna55 wrote:GameboyRMH wrote: The problem is that I am cutting over where the frame is, which is pretty much everywhere. Maybe some kind of circular saw with a depth gauge?hmm - you want to be able to look down through the new hole and see a big piece of hood frame?
That's what I'm thinking right now but I'll consider cutting the frame too. I want to make a panel I can remove to expose an extractor vent in the hood.
I actually just came back from buying tin snips at lunch, I think the label said they can do 18 gauge mild steel? Probably not enough for the thick metal on this hood, I think it makes up half the crumple zone of the vehicle.
In reply to GameboyRMH:
What car is it most modern cars going back pre 90s are 19 gaugeish, pretty thin. I think aviation snips are more for aluminum (guessing that is what you got) but you should be able to still do some trimming with them. My most used snips are the largest style like this http://www.tinmantech.com/html/tinner_snips.php I have cut 14 GA with them in a pinch down to stuff like coroplast. Do you have sabre saw or a sawsall they will do a nice job also, just tape up the paint before hand.
It's the AE92 you can see in my Readers' Rides. Yeah the things I got are "aviation snips" and a minority of the stuff they'll be used for cutting will be actual sheet metal 
Sawzall's an option too, but at this point, with the number of mods I'm planning, I'm really thinking about getting a hood fabbed from scratch and just reusing the original latch + hinges.
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