Hi fellas, I've recently picked up a hood for my roadster and while i don't have any holes in the front for the latches yet (i may or may not have welded them up years ago.. no matter, redrilling and tapping is easily done..) i've got one latch bolted on the rear brackets straight to the bracket with no shelf, or blocks of any kind. I can JUST get the latch on the passenger side (your driver side) but cannot for the life of me get the latch on the other side.. it's like they are too short. I'm****uming that with the shelf it sits them up a little higher but since i don't have any shelfs i was thinking of getting some i don't know.. 8 / 10mm hard wood and curving the ends and using that as a shelf.. its probably what someone back in the day would of done if they couldn't get any shelfs and i'm not too keen on buying new ones at $70 a pair or thereabouts only to chop them up because i'm not running fenders or aprons.. It's probably easier to use some hard wood and stain it dark to blend in.. I also have a feeling my hood tops may need to be rolled a little more.. they kind of seem a tad flat. I might just pull them apart, give them a little roll and then louvre them while they are apart. Anyway, if anyone can provide some close ups that'd be super appreciated! Heres a picture, because everyone loves pictures..
Yes, the hood shelves, and their little wood blocks hold the latches maybe 5/8" higher than the frame. Since I'm also running fenderless, here's my solution that I came up with on my Tub:
Ah that really helps, thanks @RainierHooker! No one ever seems to focus on this area of the car.. so this is a great help.
Could one of you guys measure exactly how thick that shelf is? And did your frame have holes for the front latch or does that screw into the wood block?
@5280A2 - Thats pretty much what i had in mind, i was thinking of making it from a thin piece of hardwood (as close to original thickness as the shelf) and curving both ends like you've done. Looks great.
The frame has 3 holes for the latch screws to pass through. The holes are not tapped, Henry used nuts to hold the screws. It can be a real****** to get the nuts started inside the frame rail, so drilling and tapping the filled holes sounds like a good idea to me.
They are 18mm where they sit on the valance and 14mm where they are cut out over the guard on my sports coupe. My thoughts would be if you used 19mm thick which is a readily available timber thickness it would be about right height without the valance and guard.
Toss the shelves out. Cut the springs in the hood latch enough for the latches to reach the extra distance when mounted directly to the frame, and not the wood block/hood shelves.
@Dean Lowe - I thought it'd be an easy way to drill and tap the top of the frame rails to accept some nice*****on head screws for the latches, and as my frame is boxed i wouldn't of been able to put screws on the inside anyway.. well unless i had done that prior to boxing but at that stage i wasn't planning on running a hood.. @Manager - Thanks mate, 19mm will be the go if i end up making a "shelf" of sorts. PM me your details if you'd like, i'd love to come and check out that coupe of yours! @a****** - The only reason for wanting a shelf of sorts was simply to fill the gap between the chassis and hood. However that does sound like a good idea of pulling the latches apart. I've already had one apart and they aren't too tricky so i may need to give that a go! Thanks for the idea, i hadn't thought of that.
I bolted a right angle piece of steel to the frame the length of the hood and bolted the latches to it.. Click on pic to enlarge...
I think hood shelves give 28/29's a nice finishing touch. I like the abbreviated shelves above finished with a radius. A real clean look. Here's a modification for the full fender guys. I always thought Henry stopped short with the hood shelves. I wrapped mine on around the frame for a finished look.
One feature of the original hood shelves is the little bracket that holds a rubber bumper on the inside of the hood. Latching the hood pushes the side panel against that bumper and holds it securely; if you make up shelves from wood or other material like angle iron it would be good to include that feature. Filling the gap between the frame and hood is the most important function of the hood shelf as far as I am concerned; I like what scrap metal 48 came up with too.
You could Boyd it, and weld a piece to extend the hood sides down. Or leave a gap, if it's just an old hot rod. Personally I coundn't bring myself to put a piece of wood, and sharp edged tin on top of my freshly painted front fenders and splash aprons.
The gap doesn't bother me hugely to be honest, so i may try the shorter springs trick first and see how that goes!
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