I've been working on the war weary original hood of my GT350 and have a few questions I'd like input on. Its an all fiberglass type hood, with the metal for the springs and latch bonded in. 60% of the underside is covered with flaking off "tin foil" which looks to have been glued to the unpainted fiberglass - then spray painted black. I assume this was a dealer warranty fix, but the SAAC record does not show it. Was this "tin foil" ever added at Shelby American? Also, the hood was obviously off a Brittany Blue car, but was added very early (pre 1973) to my Dark Blue car. Were the hoods ever swapped out under warranty by Shelby American - since there looks to be some old repairs done prior to the Dark Blue paint? Meaning, with all the fiberglass problems did SA repair hood "cores" sent back by dealers and then ship out the repaired hoods to the next dealer with complaining customer? Anyone gone back with the "tin foil" in your restoration? I'm going to skip it and just enjoy the sounds of the 289.
What you have discovered is that your hood has been replaced sometime in the past which was common rather then repair a damaged one .The tin foil was one radio noise suppression technique. Another was porch door screen wire. Both were glued or resined to the underside of the hood . This was more a owner fix then dealer fix back in the day.The warranty wasn't that long. I remember doing it to my 67 GT500 back in 1972. Another owner told me how to do it after he did it to his car. Shelby didn't do this kind of fix . Shelby didn't repair hood cores and send them back out like you speculated. Back when the cars were young it was cheaper to buy a new hood then spend the time to fix a damaged one.I agree with your decision to eliminate the foil .It is hard to make it look good anyway. The radio noise fix is considered not correct in concours competition and would be points deducted. If you drive your car some you probably wouldn't listen to AM much anyway. FM isn't effected near as much as the AM.The best of luck with your project.
Is there any class that would look kindly to the period correct type of noise suppression techniques (i.e. tin foil, screen wire)? Or any other common period type of modifications? To me it would be a plus, showing how cars were slightly modified to be enjoyable daily drivers. robin
67 500 # 1595 an all original surviver car that I sold a little while back had the foil under the hood aroud the outer edgeunder the foil was a bare thin wire braided this went all the way around and came out at the cowl side of the hood and was grounded to the fire wall. this would have to be done to bleed of the static charge build up on the hood. I will try to post some pictures Dominic
Yes there is a class in MCA and SAAC were a period modifacation is not frowned apon. Mustang Culb of America (MCA) has a modiefied class for other then stock equiped cars. It includes cars with custom wheels, engine modifactions like blowers,headersetc. , custom paint ,body modifactions like flared wheel wells etc. . All of those things in some form could be period modifactions. SAAC has a Popular vote class were a modified car can be shown and judged by your peers. DIV I /DIV II is for Factory correct appearing cars and is judged against a standard so more then one car can get the samee award. In SAAC Surviver class which is not judged by a number system but by a yes or no vote criteria by each of the head judges. Even if the modifaction is not looked at " kindly"as you put it, the deduction would not keep a car from getting a good score If the car is excellent original everywhere else. This question comes up all the time . There is nothing wrong with having a modifacation period or otherwise . However if the point of the event or class you are in is how close to factory original you can get the car then the non factory mods would have to be frowned apon in those classes.