Made An Aluminum Hood For My Hi-Tech Cobra

[Mongoose930]

Hi Greg,

Wray Schelin, the owner of Proshaper, has developed a method of making flexible tape patterns which do not require a buck. It is hard to explain but I have attached a link which explains it better than I could. I worked really well for me:

Making Flexible Shape Patterns

If you can find a way to do it, I would highly recommend coming to the east coast and taking one of Wray's classes - you will not regret it.

As far as the frames are concerned, fortunately my Hi-Tech came with original style tubular frames. My door frames needed to be modified as they were originally designed for fiberglass and Mickmate has helped me with those. Nick can probably make you a tubular hood and trunk frame but the door frames are a lot more complicated and would need to be carefully fitted to the car.

Now that I am about 2/3 of the way through the process, I would say the hood is actually the easiest panel to build and I would start with that one. It is a compound curve but patience on a good English wheel will yield great results.

I hope you have the opportunity to do this for your Cobra. I have attached a picture of my door frames (almost done) and my boot panel which I still need to attach to the frame.