Body / Glass: Avanti Cowl Induction Hood Opening With Gas Lifts

[sweetolbob]

My brother was in town today so we installed the Cowl Induction Hood and air lifts on the 74 Avanti.

You would think that putting a hood back on an Avanti would be straight forward and quick but not so much as it took about and hour to get it right.

The only thing left to do on the cowl induction is install the Olds W-30 foam gasket to seal the hood to the carb air box.

I've finished the paint on the hood, roof and sail panels to 3000 grit but am leaving the rest of the body "as Painted" as I'll now start on the interior.

There will probably be some satin black accents on the finished hood and body but I'm undecided at this point. Suggestions are welcome.

I'll let the pictures describe the final install.



Bob

[Mike Van Veghten]

And I thought my cowl scoop was large..!
Looks good.

Mike

[SN-60]

VERY nice workmanship!......This is going to be a HIGH IMPACT Avanti!

[grobb284]

Bob,
Looking good.

[Rerun]

The gas spring set-up looks far better than the OEM prop. Can you provide information about the components that you used?

[sweetolbob]

The gas spring set-up looks far better than the OEM prop. Can you provide information about the components that you used?

Happy to Jim.

A word of caution - My hood, obviously, weighs a lot more than the OEM hood so the struts for one will be a bit weaker.

An offer - When I initiated the project I made a few WAG's about the force/length I needed and ordered a set of struts that proved to be less force than I needed but length was about right. They are probably close for the normal hood so if someone wants to install them for starters on a standard hood I'll send them to you for the cost of shipping.

I purchased the parts from liftsupportsdepot.com and used four of these brackets. http://www.liftsupportsdepot.com/ep-...ack-h00180rbw/

The struts I finally settled on are SE244P60 and the ball mounts are 10mm.

I'll eventually make the setup prettier but for starters it works well. I haven't installed the hood locks yet and that won't happen until a lot further into the build.

Because it is an Avanti II I used the strut mount location the passengers side of the hood for starters and duplicated the mount on the drivers side by slotting the inside portion of the hood enough to install a 1/2" predrilled and threaded plate. That duplicated the passenger side mount and I then just reglassed and finished the cut.

Bracket were mounted on the fender wells with 3/16 large headed pop rivets in the location I determined looked like the best position.

If anyone would like exact dimensions, I will post same.

I'll probably build new one-piece brackets for the hood mounts and clean up the fender well attachments later but for now my plate is full.



Bob

[Hawklover]

You mean like Clint Eastwoods Sudden Impact??????

VERY nice workmanship!......This is going to be a HIGH IMPACT Avanti!

[RQB1820]

An offer - When I initiated the project I made a few WAG's about the force/length I needed and ordered a set of struts that proved to be less force than I needed but length was about right. They are probably close for the normal hood so if someone wants to install them for starters on a standard hood I'll send them to you for the cost of shipping.

I was thinking about this very mod... I'd like to be the recipient of those struts. PM Sent.