Altered E-Go Fiberglass Hood & Torque Arm

Today on muscle car, you asked for it. You got it more fiberglass. How to Rick lays it out for a weight saving hood. Tommy Fabs a set of tar arms and find out why Max Wedge meant Max power at the strip.

Hey, welcome to muscle car. Our old friend alter ego is back in the shop for one last body mod.

We've cut a lot of steel out of this guy, but there's still one area that could use some lighting up

the hood.

Now, drag racing is all about power to weight ratio and it's a lot easier to shave weight than it is to gain horsepower. One of the ways to do that is by using lighter weight materials. So we're going to be losing the steel hood and replacing it with a fiberglass version and just like most everything else on this car. We're gonna build it ourselves.

We started with a plain Jane 64 Comet. Then got to cutting,

we moved the rear end forward, braced up the frame, made our own roll cage and redesigned the steering and suspension.

We even made our own seats, headers,

mufflers and Lexan

windows

when coming up with the hood design. We gotta include a cut out for the intake stacks. These will be replaced with some taller ones that stick out of the hood, they'll look cool and increase low end torque. Now, in building fiberglass parts, you gotta start with a mold first and we're gonna cast our mold right off the original hood. It's gonna be a lot easier to modify the steel hood before we make the mold rather than have to modify the fiberglass hood later. So that means we got some prep work to do.

I transferred the measurements from the intake onto the hood and laid out exactly where I'm gonna have to cut the hole, but I'm not gonna chop it out yet because I wanna keep this hood as rigid as possible while I build the mold off of it.

Now, we're also gonna add a contoured lip all the way around the outside.

That way, this thing isn't gonna end up looking like a stock hood that we just chopped a hole out of

this hood was sandblasted, then sealed up with epoxy primer. 80 grid will knock down the surface so the filler will stick.

My design calls for deleting the factory trends while smooth off the contours left behind.

Now, what I'm building here is called the plug. It only has to last long enough to pull a mold from.

So that means I don't have to burn all my time hand forming pieces and metal finishing.

I'm using classic filler, but really, and you could use anything from modeling clay to paper machine

just as long as it holds its shape long enough to make your mold

while the plug is disposable. Keep in mind that the mold is going to have the exact same shape. So it does need to be straight.

A little extra time spent here will save a lot of time prepping the final part for paint

with the majority of the hood flattened out. I can start building the lip. Now, leaving the tape on up to this point means I already have a slight edge that will act as a guide.

I used a razor blade and cut a notch out of a plastic spreader. This should act just like a fun factory except with Bondo instead of play doh. So don't eat

it.

It's gonna take several coats to get what I'm after shaping and sanding. As I go.

If you've always heard not to put filler on thicker than a dime,

you can forget it when you're building a plug pack it until it's full. Just make sure to spread it in several thin layers to avoid heat. Build up.

I still got a lot of sanding to do. But once I finish smoothing this all out, I'll get it primed and painted just like any other body panel.

And I know this thing looks a whole lot different than the last time you saw it. You might be asking yourself why on earth do you have to finish this thing out this? Perfect just to use it for a plug? Well, the answer is

this looks exactly how the finished product is gonna look. So if there's any flaws in this, you're gonna have the same exact flaw in your final hood at this stage. We need to get this thing all sealed up with wax. That way we can put the part all on it, get a mold off of it.

I'm using a wax specifically designed for plugs that will seal up any pores in the surface.

The application is the same as any other wax. It's just a little thicker than the stuff you use in your car. So it is harder to polish off. I just have to do this two more times for a total of three coats and we can move back into the booth.

Next comes the release film. It's water based and goes on using conventional spray equipment.

It does just what the name says. It creates a film that will help the mold release from the plug.

Don't lay it on too heavy or will fish eye build it up in four or five light coats

too.

And gel is a gel coat designed to withstand numerous heat cycles. So it's ideal for molds.

Now, it does spray like spark.

So use a primer gun with the biggest fluid tip. You've got three coats will get the thickness I need.

After about an hour, I finally get to stick down some glass. Now, this is standard two ounce matte and I'm using a tooling resin for the mold. It's more stable than production resin. It won't shrink or move.

What this does is works all the air bubbles out

and pushes the mat and the resin down into that gel coat.

Now, make sure to keep the roller clean by dipping it in lack of thinner now and then, or it'll start to grab the mat and tear it up.

That's it. That is the first of four layers that I need to put down on this thing. I'll tell you what

thing is looking good.

Now, at this point, we have all the fiberglass laid down and I've got some bracing put on there. Now, the bracing, I just use some little plywood because as I said earlier, this stuff wants to shrink and move as it cures. This will help keep it in position. Now, we're ready to pop this thing apart and see what our mold is gonna look like.

That snap. That snap is a pumpkin

and there it goes. Ha.

Well, guys, good news. The hardest part here is done. We've got our plug done and our mold is now almost ready to rock. All I have to do is get it cleaned up, get the parting film off, wax it, then we can start building our actual hood.

Hey, guys. Welcome back. I got the mold. They all finished out, been trimmed, waxed, spread, cleaned and we're ready to lay down the gel coat. It's gonna form the actual face of our brand new hood.

This is standard gel coat. Unlike the tooling jelly used on the mold, it's not designed to withstand numerous heat cycles. It's for making a single part, but it is a lot cheaper.

This is the same two ounce mat I used for the mold. I'm building up two layers allowing it to dry in between a

street hood would normally be three or four layers thick, but we're trying to keep it as light as possible. I'll go back and add an aluminum reinforcement later.

Now, a lot of the time when you're building fiberglass parts, a part number tag goes underneath the final layer of fiberglass that way as it's going through the

production and being warehoused and shipped out and all kind of stuff. You know, the part number. Well, this thing

is a one off muscle car piece, so

we need to tag it.

Perfect

one of a kind baby. One of a kind.

All right, man. Moment of truth.

Well, there it goes

not too bad.

There's a new comet hood. All we got to do is trim off the edges,

set it back in the car. Hopefully it fits

sand down the edges, square it up a little bit. We'll see if it fits.

And the main reason why you use fiberglass in the car is to save weight.

So, just out of curiosity,

let's see how much weight we're really gonna be saving by using a fiberglass instead of our steel part.

All right. Doughboy Plus Hood.

258.

Let me set it over there.

It's heavy.

Yeah,

I

bet this new one. Yeah, it's quite a bit lighter.

Let's try this one on

now. We're at

220

man. That's quite a bit lighter. So 38 pounds. Imagine if you'd lost some weight,

see if it fits. I make this dude faster. I still gotta build some extensions and pins but

see how it looks

and a little trimming I think be in good shape. That looks pretty darn good. That's one step closer to driving this thing, man. I can't hardly wait. Oh heck yeah, I'll try my hand at that torque arm. We'll be in business

coming up. Meet alter ego's bigger meaner cousin.

Today's flashback. A 1963 Plymouth Savoy Max Wedge.

If you want to take down your enemies, they say one of the best ways is driving a wedge between you

in the early sixties. The best way to take down your enemies on the strip was actually driving a wedge and make that a max wedge

Mopar ruled the strips in 62 with its 413 max Wedge engine setting over 100 records in 63. They upped the ante to 426 cubic engines.

You could get it in any full size dodge or Plymouth from a top of the line. Fury down to this car. The no frill Savoy

Nader bought the car brand new and campaigned it for 11 years under the name Nader's Raiders. A dig at Ralph Nader. No relation.

Ralph would probably declare this car unsafe at any speed. And hey,

they got horrible gas mileage too,

but

he was too busy running mid seven s on the eighth mile to care.

We raised our kids pretty much at the racetrack. My wife was always there. It was like a picnic. Every like you're going to a picnic every weekend.

The car is plain Jane all the way, no badge stripes or hood scoop with the pipes court. You might think this was your grandma's Sunday driver.

Of course, under the hood, it's a different story. 426 cubes of raw power, everything was beefed up forged aluminum pistons, hard and crank shaft, extra large two inch valves, solid lifters with heavy duty rockers and three inch

long branch exhaust outlets. The heads had larger ports and wedge shaped combustion chambers. Hence the name,

dual quad carves sit in a caddy corner on top of the aluminum short ram manifold. This setup created longer intake

PCH which increased horsepower at higher RPM. S

the design had its roots in the Ram Chargers Car club for in the late fifties, cars like the high and mighty suspended carbs over the engine with extra long intake tubes.

Mopar

engineers basically flattened that design to fit under the hood and wound up with long ram and short ram intakes. The engine came in two flavors 13.5 to 1

7 to 1 compression like this one capable of pounding out 415 horsepower at 5600 RPM.

It clocked mid 12 on a quarter mile in stock to

the max wedge package added 545 bucks on top of the 2300 base price and a sticker on the windshield told you it wasn't made for the street.

It came pretty much stock from the factory except the wheelbase was shortened by an inch and the dual exhaust had lakes cut outs. The drive shaft and rear springs were beefed up and a sure grip dip with 391 gears came standard. Most folks order theirs with a push button automatic, but Ray just took what was on the lot and his is one of the few that has a three speed

heavy

duty floor shift after retiring the car in 74

Ray held on to it and later had it restored. It still got the original motor and sheet metal

with all those years of racing. What's his favorite memory?

I guess beating a Chrysler dealer I competed against all the time with the automatics anytime I could beat him.

I was, I was Happy

up next. Professor Tommy gives a physics lesson

because of

Newton's

law.

You're watching Muscle Car for a DVD copy of this episode. Just go to Power Block tv.com and order your copy for just 595 plus shipping and handling. Start your own muscle car collection delivered right to your door from the power block.

Hey, welcome back the comments. Getting down to the last few final details before it gets body work and paint.

One of those details is the torque arms. You might know them as torque bars or traction bars, but either way they all do the same thing help reduce axle wrap. So what exactly is axle wrap? Anyways? Well, when you get on the gas, the wheels are trying to push the car forward and because of Newton's law,

axle housing wants to twist in the opposite direction, causing the lease springs to flex in a way they're not intended to

torque arm braces the rear axle to the frame rail preventing that twisting motion. When planning our design, I need to make sure to clear the exhaust and the driver side shock. So we're running close to the dry shaft. I need a place to mount the front shackle. So I'm gonna tie into the existing floor braces with a piece of tubing right across here.

I'm measuring eight inches out from the frame rails to mark where the first bar will go. One inch square tubing will form these braces with one on each side of the drive shaft.

I made the rear mounts by notching some two by three box tubing to fit the rear end houses.

It needs to be square and level. So I'll check it before and after I tack it in

plan to make the arm five inches tall at the rear. So I'll measure up and mark where the top mounting point will be.

These don't have to be any particular link. So I'll just mark the first arm where it looks good

with the bar clamped in place at the rear.

I can check the drop for my five inch shackle and make sure it's level.

I'm building ladder style arms at an inch and a quarter dom tubing. This design is not only strong but it's gonna look cool hanging up under the car. I borrowed extremes tubing bender to make this piece. But if you want, you could use a piece of straight.

It just won't have the same style

since all my pieces are already cut. I can go ahead and burn them all together.

This is my first time using our new Miller welding table and I gotta say it's definitely a valuable tool to have in the shop

when you're fitting together, a whole bunch of pieces of the adjustable clamps, keep everything right where you want it

since shackle mouse will hold the front in place a sleeve for the bushing goes on next

for added strength a plate goes on each side of the arm. These will also dress up the joint for a more finished. Look

after a few minutes to cool. It's ready for the Shackle Mountain.

All that's left is to mount it.

I'm setting the angle at zero to make it easier to duplicate. When I make the other arm

with the finish welding done. I can line up the rear mount for a couple of 38 bolts.

Right on. Boss. That was good. How to keep that rerun from doing flip flops. Yeah,

they don't look too bad. Plus, man, they'll make you look like you mean business. Yeah, I dig it. But, uh, what about the other side over here? Don't worry, your pretty little self. I just need a little time, but we're all out of time this week. So, until next week y'all keep between the ditches.