My S/C-style hood rivet pattern

[Gumball]

UPDATED 5/23/16 - This is an easy one for those of you looking to add a bit of S/C or race car appearance to your build. The original race cars had this row of reinforcing rivets added to hold the leading edge of the hood skin to the inner hoop / tubing that formed the hood structure.

Original post follows.......


Drilled my hood for the leading edge ring of rivets this weekend using a pattern that is similar to a couple of the S/C cars I've photographed in the past few years.

All are 2.5" from the hood opening, so about 2.25" in from the edge of the hood. The front row is nine across, evenly spaced, with the ones on each end set 3/4" further back on the hood. I wanted to use the same spacing for the sides, so I only did six on each side instead of the typical seven.

One thing my research turned-up is that there are quite a few "correct" ways to do these... I just did what was asthetically pleasing to my eyes.

[2FAST4U]

Looks great to me!

[CraigS]

Looks good to me too and I doubt anyone at Shelby was counting rivets.

[SCFFR]

Looks great Chris!

[Gumball]

Today's TTT for an old how-to. This is one of those easy mods that will give your car a period correct S/C or race car look. The original race cars used this row of rivets to provide extra strength to the thin aluminum skin that formed the hood. The rivets on those cars went into the tubing hoop that formed the perimeter of the hood. For my car, the holes were drilled so that they are blind - they go into the strengthening rib that is on the inside of the hood and are invisible from that side. Instead of pulling them, though, which can result in deformation or cracks in the fiberglass and/or paint, I removed the mandrels from the rivets, added a little body adhesive to the holes, then pushed the rivets in and seated them using a very small wooden dowel. You have to be careful not to use too much adhesive - just enough to hold them in place and help with waterproofing - so that you don't get any spreading out from under the rivet head. I added a small bit of clear seam seal to the center of the rivets to seal those holes, too.

Here are a couple of "after" pics showing the final product.....





And for comparison, here's an original big-block race car from the Shelby American museum in Boulder, CO......



And this is CSX3049, one of the original S/C cars......