Half Hoods, Boot Covers and Hood Sticks

[Jig]

I'm not using the CC hood or standard boot cover on my build, but have bought a half hood and matching low profile boot cover from SBFS. I have a couple of questions that I wanted to check with the combined wisdom of BC:

There should be a popper base on the side of the car at the front of the boot cover below the hood stick mounting plate (between the rollover bar base and the rear wing). There are none fitted to mine, so I have to drill them in myself. Is this common and is there anything to be careful of?

The vertical plates used to mount the hood sticks are surplus to requirements and are going to get in the way of the boot cover leading edge. On the SBFS website, the pictures show people slitting the cover to poke it through. I'm sorely tempted to grind the plate off and stick the front corner of the boot cover down (this will hide the area, so I can simply touch up with any paint I like). This is obviously irreversible - anyone else done this on a road car? Do the IVA guys ever moan about the edge of this plate sticking up?

Keen to hear thoughts & opinions.

Cheers

Jig

[simon_h]

For iva you could put some edging on the hood stick mount.

A lot of people run without hoods anyway so it won't make any difference you would think, that is until sale time and all the buyers will ask how they put a hood on!

[DJ.]

The front popper base is fitted when finalizing the full hood fitting. It is important to make sure this is positioned so the screw goes into the chassis tube which is round, it can be difficult to drill a pilot hole into the curved tube. This popper will take a lot of load from the half hood straps, remermber to fit the special SBFS popper base.

I have the hood sticks on my car, so won't comment on the boot cover.

[Jim 123]

On the Softbits website, interestingly they show the popper base for the half hood fixing strap fitted to the hood stick holes in the vertical mount. This is combined with slits being cut in the boot cover which, although a minor detail, does not look very professional.

This treatment negates having to drill the body for the standard hood popper which doubles as the half hood strap fixing. Removing the vertical mount might be a one way trip that would preclude hood sticks being used in future, and if you drill the body for the half hood fixing it will not be in the correct position for any future hood fitment.

Is there any mileage in cutting slits in the boot cover, but trim the vertical mounts in duck hooding material for visual appearance and then fix your popper bases to the vertical mounts?

[Grim Reaper]

You can get a version of the ​press-stud that goes on the boot cover that has a further base on the outside, I have these on the forward most popper and the half hood snaps onto this point.

I did change the forward most studs to 'lift the dot' versions and oriented the part on the boot cover so the additional pressure from the half hood straps  would not pull the boot cover off its base on the car.

labelled as 'stud with integral eyelet' on this web page 

http://www.jetpress.com/Products.aspx/14054/DurableDotSnapFasteners/

 

[Jig]

Thanks Jim, yes that is my dilema. Covering the mount could be an option. I've just looked at whether I would be able to reinstate the mount with a bracket riveted to the top and it looks feasible, so I could cut it off and then replace it as and when I come to sell. Once the boot cover is set over it, you would not be able to see the riveted plate.

Just a thought!

[Jim 123]

You may want to try fitting the factory hood as proof of concept before you get the grinder fired up.  

Your idea of reinstating the brackets sounds an elegant solution.  However you need to factor in 2 considerations.  Firstly, the alignment of any reinstalled hood stick bracket holes will need to be bang on to the originals.  This is because of the shape of the hood which is dependent on the hood sticks sitting in the correct position (the hood material is not very elastic).  Secondly, when you eventually get the factory hood erected properly, you might be surprised how much mechanical stress the hood sticks and the mounts are subject to, which could have some bearing on your spec and placement of rivets.

Best of luck.  It sounds like your build is going to be a masterpiece of detail.