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I was thinking that you could just clean up the cut edge of the hood. Maybe fold it over or whatever to hide the actual cut metal. I'm sure they sell molding for such things, like the chrome molding around wheel wells. Anyways, just make the cut edge pretty, and preferably parallel to the marching surface.
For the lower grill, I was thinking you could section whatever other vehicle's bumper, taking the middle third. I was thinking that you would want the plastic bumper cover, or at least part of it, for the "depth" it would provide. This would allow you to contour it to the front of the beetle, to be flush with the nose of the hood.
Hi,
Yes. I think it would look best if maintaining the outer border of the hood, as long as you get enough airflow.
Or could you vent the air up into the radiator and out the back of the hood and lay the radiator flat with a sucker fan on top and put a scoop below to take air up and through? Kind of like the GT3 911s.
In short, I like the look of the original hood, so whatever you can do to minimize visual impact to that design would be great.
I cut down one of the plastic 911 engine covers (1975 to 1989) to fit an air inlet on a 911 air dam for an oil cooler. They are very shape-able if I remember correctly.
And not too expensive (at they used to not be).
Doug - All the duct work for the radiator is done. I don't want to redo it. If you look back at previous pictures, the radiator already lays down and is venting the hot air out the hood. To make a bottom feeder scoop, all the bottom ducting will need to be redone. I would rather live with some ugly then redo it.
As far as trying to make it like the above picture, I don't know if the outside hood frame would limit air flow. Off the top of my head, I think I cut off about 6 inches of the hood and only 4 inches of that would be usable for a grille.
Ya round bar is what I was thinking if I do go this route. I mean its not that flimsy without it but it would probably look better with a tube frame. Again this was my 5 minute mock up so it is very rough. The final product would be a lot smoother looking. Also, not sure if I am going to keep the lower grille black or paint it the same color as the car. Painting it the same color might help it look better.
The mock up you have there isn't bad. I do agree that it would be better with the frame.
Also, I would paint the lower grill body color.
It surprises me how caught up we all are over the grill. At the end of the day, form follows function. I don't need something to be pretty if it serves a purpose... because racecar.
Could you just get a stock hood and drill it full of 1/4" holes? I did this on a minibike chain guard and it turned out nice. I realize I didn't have near the surface you do but if you lay out the pattern and take your time it should look very nice.
"lil indian"...?!?! That's racist. Who am I kidding? I'm definitely not the guy pissing and moaning about political correctness. Lol. The chain guard turned out nice.
As for drilling holes in the nose of the hood... I think louvers would be both more effective and more appealing to the eye. Have the opening of the louver facing forward like a bunch of little hood scoops.
All things considered, you could probably get away with a full nose hood, with no holes, louvers, or mesh. As long as you have the heat extraction vent and a belly pan, the air inside should be a lower pressure than the air smashing into the front of your car, so it's almost going to suck air into the radiator. For idling in traffic, just make sure you have a big sucker fan.
Alwhite00 - I could do that but I don't think it would look right. And that would be a ton of holes to drill and keep in a perfect line. Knowing me, there would be a few holes not sitting right....
David - Use my last picture as a reference. The mesh I added is pretty close in size and shape to the piece I originally cut off. Now imagine it there with no holes or anything like a stock hood would be. It would block 60% of the air flow. Even IF I could put a scoop under the car, I don't think its going to get enough air flow. Then we go back to your louvers idea. There is only about 4 inches of a louver friendly area. I still think with them, its going to block about 30-40% of the air. Who knows...
BTW - This is going to be a daily driver! Race car on the side....
The opening to a properly proportioned diverging-converging radiator duct system is miniscule. And given the dimensions of your radiator, it would appear to only require minor trimming and reshaping of a full hood.
The heat extraction vent and belly pan are crucial for this to be effective. But you will still have a puller fan for low speed traffic, and the diverging duct uses pressure differential to maximize cooling at any sort of speed.
Even a modest 1 to 1.5 inch chin splitter would almost make a ram air effect for your radiator, and still provide decent downforce for your lightweight chassis.
I may be a little insane for throwing this one out there. What about mounting a small projector HID in the center of the headlight bucket and building ducting from the headlight bucket to the radiator.
David - I will have to do some research on diverging-converging ducting. I can't say I know much about it. I will also pop my grill off and post a picture of the lower ducting. The thing that worries me is the distance from the grille to core support. That would be the only area I could open up for a bottom duct.
Cwylie - I am not going to say you are crazy but you might just be haha. I already have some LED headlights and I am not switching them out. Stupid things were more expensive then HIDs but should be super bright!
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