I just had a chance to get into the shop for a little more work on the b-17 Cadillac. I decided to keep on working on the main body so I know what I’m dealing with once it comes time to do the detail and trim work. Sometimes that stuff can be a problem if I don’t get a head start on the planning process. The next hurdle in the body work was the hoods and the new intake and tunnel I’d need to accommodate the Allison motor.
I knew I would have to vac form a piece because the hood will be able to open, no cheating for me this time. I started with the rough dimensions of my scoop, like where the carbs are and the overall size. I then took a piece of ¼ inch Sntra (pvc board) and cut and shaped it to be the new piece. Sintra works great for this stuff, it will handle the vac pressure without distorting and it is easy to shape. After it was done I loaded it into my Mattel Vac former machine and pulled a few shapes. It was a tight fit on the vac bed but I got a few good ones made.
Then to rough the scoop in, I took a pencil and traced a “hull line” around the vac part and proceeded to cut out my new hood scoop. In the top picture you can see a line of blue tape extending to the front of the hood that will be a cut out that flows into the opening giving the scoop a little more “purpose”. You can also see that I cut out the front grill to make it super aggressive, I’ll load a bunch of custom radiators behind the opening…SWEET!