Jazzman’s #8745 "Flip Top" Build

[Jazzman]

Next I had to attach the L channel to the inside of the hood in the right place to hold the outboard half-ear. I began by installing the inboard half ear by attaching it temporarily to the stock FFR location.



I then closed the hood. I found I had to trim the very bottom of the inboard half-ear to match the bottom of the body. That done, I attached the outboard half-ear to the inboard one, lining up and overlapping the 1" extensions on each piece. I held them in place with a c-clamp while I drew a line along the inside of the body to know where the outboard half ear should be attached.



Because of the curves and the distance from any other places that clamps might be attached, I decided the only way to hold the L channel in place to fit it and to ultimately bond it to the hood is to drill more holes in the hood. Oh well, I'm getting pretty good at filling holes with HSRF filler. Whats a few more holes!! I started by attaching the L channel at the top inside of the hood. I then worked my way around until I had attached it one 3" section at a time.



After attaching the L channel all the way down to the bottom, I temporarily installed the outboard half ear to see if I was all going to fit and work. When the hood is closed, it fits perfectly and looks really good. I am thinking of adding a support on the back side of the inboard ear to stabilize it.



The hood even closes smoothly even with the ears installed. However, the ears do scrape against each other and sound a bit rough. I had already thought of that, and after they are powder coated, the edges will be covered with rubber edge molding. They will still have to rub together to close, but they won't sound so bad.