Thanks for your reply
I like the width of your cowl, the proportion with the rest of the hood look great.
I have an extra hood and I am thinking of giving it a try.
Thanks again, have a great Christmas.

 

Update!

Finally have all the top work done on the hood. The only thing left is to metal bond the bottom of the hood to cover the welds and then find a time to get it painted.

 

looks awesome!!

 

Update, pretty much done with the cowl hood. We test mounted the hood on the XJ to check for final fitment and to see how it would shut with all the bondo and filler. Then I went ahead and measured out for the hood shocks and marked the location. After that we took the hood off and I took the rest flat plate I used to fill the back of the cowl to make an angle to fill in the low spot on the driver side of the hood so I wouldn't have a problem mounting the shock brackets like I did on the hood I have now.

Here is the metal plate all welded in place, covering the low spot.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/11936687864/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/11937061706/
Then I decided since I was already welding, why not just weld the brackets to the hood too... I would rather have them welded then some self tapping screws any day. So I welded them on. After that, my friend used "Panel Bond" (metal bond), to not only cover all the welds on the underside of the hood to make it look better, but also bond the pieces of metal too, to strengthen the welds.

Here are the welded brackets with metal bond on them. (2 of the original 4 I bought from NAPA when I was originally making the shocks, worked out in the end I guess.)
Driver side with the welded plate.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/11937002726/
Passenger side.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/11936188205/
Then here is all the places that were sealed and smoothed with the metal bond, looks a whole lot better then it did (look back to older pictures.), he also filled the lip that was created when I welded the sides of the hood with the metal bond so water wouldn't run down and sit on the lip and rust.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/11937052166/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/11936451473/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/11936597774/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/11936415183/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/11936960816/
So glad to finally see the hood at this point after 6-7 months after starting on it. Not much longer to go til it'll finally be painted an on the Jeep... I hope. But I have waited this long, so I can wait longer if need be.

 

Were you able to get the dimensions that I asked about in my earler post to you.

 

Hey, sorry, I kinda forgot about it, but I got your reply email while I was over at his house tonight so I did measure them. Sorry it took so long.

The back of the wedge shaped pieces I cut was 3".

The top of the cowl is roughly 28" wide.

 

Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it. I hope that I can come close to the job that you are doing on yours. This is the best thread that I have seen on a Cowl Hood build. Keep up the good work.
Thanks again

 

Not bad! The only thing that I would have done different. I wouldn't have given it so much of a rise. It's a little to high for me. That's just for my liking. I know that some would like to go even higher. Everyone has there own taste. It also looks like that you don't have much welding experience. We all have to learn some how and what better way then to tackle a big job. I want to see how it comes out when it's all done and painted. Good job.

 

Thanks! Yeah, looking back I wish I would of dropped it about half an inch to a full inch... when I was mocking everything up, the 3" rise didn't look as big as it turned out to be. But, it definitely give the Jeep an aggressive look so it's a lose/win situation. It's actually grown on me over the months, but if I did do it again, I'd go 2 1/2" to 2"... not the full 3".


I actually have about two and a half years of welding experience... but never something this thin. I'm used to welding 1/8" to over 1/4" thick metals, like bumpers and whatnot. The first major thing I welded was my Rock Sliders, I had some not so good welds on that at first, but by the end I was doing pretty good, especially doing it with 120v flux core welder I have (what I used on the hood). I do a lot better when I use my friends 220V gas mig, I really want to get gas for my 120... I hate the way flux core splatters and also cleaning all the flux off. But I've built about 3 bumpers, a set of rock sliders, welded exhaust, light tabs, grill guards/hoops, gussets, etc. and I've done really well on them, great in fact. I have a friend's dad that's a professional welder and he compliments my welds... I'm no where near the best at welding though, I'll admit. Especially when the metal is thin like body panels are. But also the metal I bought was way too thin to be welding, I was on the lowest setting and if I touched it for more than about 2 seconds, it'd burn a hole through it... which made most my welds look like crap ... even the welder at my friends body shop was burning through on the lowest setting. That's another thing I'd do different if I did it again, pay the extra $20+ and get the thicker sheet of steel.

I do agree with you at the end though, you have to start somewhere welding... you can't be afraid to tackle something you've never done before because you won't learn it if you don't start somewhere. Like I was going to get my friend to weld it since he's the one that's used to doing all the thin stuff (and it's too good at the thick stuff) but in the end I wanted to do it myself and try something I hadn't done before.

Yeah, I'm hoping I can get it painted in the next couple of weeks and get this project over with so I can see the finished product. It's always nice to see something that you've built finally done.

 

Update.

I should finally be getting it painted and installed this weekend. It'll be nice to finally see the finished product after 8 months, and also test the functionality of it.

 

Can't wait to see it finished...you know what to do once it's installed, LOL

 

Here's a couple of teaser pictures my friend just sent me of the top of the hood primed. I'll be going down there later tonight and tomorrow to actually have it painted and blended into my fenders and also get a spot on my driver side front fender fixed that I messed up while doing a test fit when I first made it.

I think it turned out well with just the primer on it. Can't wait to actually go down there tonight, see it in person, and start to finish everything up.




I was supposed to be there now, but my friend had some things come up that he has to do when he gets off before we can actually get the ball rolling to finish it. Should (if everything goes right) be there later tonight though.

 

You inspired me so I started my cowl hood about 3 days ago. I am going 2 ½” high and with 16 or 14 gage steel on the sides. What would be your take on the gage?

 

Lol.... Still not on there!?!?! Looks good though!

 

Wow, awesome.