So I made this hood back around 1974 and made it because my original flew open when I forgot to put the hood pins in and it buckled the corners. I bent those back to the original body lines but the metal top and bottom was still too out of shape to reuse. I bondo'd that up so I could make a mold. I also bondo'd the side and back edges so I could have a good lip on the mold and finished product. On the original hood I flipped the inserts over so the flat side was up - molding the fins would have likely been a failure and if I ever wanted I could cut out the glass hood for those inserts. The gaps around the hood inserts were filled with plasticine which won't stick to gelcoat. The hood had any imperfections filled and was wet sanded then given three coats of Johnson's floor wax as a mold release. A local fiberglass guy then sprayed the gelcoat. I layed on two layers of a mat I believe is called valeen which is a very fine mat. Too coarse of a mat and it pulls the gelcoat and you see it in the finished product. I let that set up then layed in 4 layers of mat and a final layer of woven roven I think its called - a VERY heavy cloth. Once that set up I attached a 2x4 wood frame using layers of mat and woven roven in key places to keep the whole mold rigid. You want a rigid mold so the finished product is the proper shape. Once the original hood was pulled from the mold I went over it and sanded out any minor imperfections. Any small spots that needed filling were done with jelcoat. The whole process was then repeated to make the actual hood - 3 coats of wax, spray the gelcoat, lay in the layers of mat and a final layer of the heavy cloth. The cardboard supports were then put in and covered with mat. All the "wet" work after the jelcoat had dried was done continuously with slow curing resin. I probably left it for 3 days before popping the hood out. You want to let it cure in the mold long enough to retain its shape.
Keep in mind the better the mold the better the finished product. If you're going to pop out one item you can use a crappy mold and pretty up the final piece. But if you plan to pop out a few items from the same mold its worth the time and effort to make the mold as perfect as possible.
That '70's scoop is a plastic Harwood unit that was added in afterwards. I still have the hood although no intention to ever use it again. The only issue is cracking bondo in a couple places where the scoop was bondo'd after being glassed in. But considering I used to lift it off by the hole in the scoop its not really surprising !!
I made one more hood from that mold which covered all my expenses. I sold the mold about 8 years ago to a vendor that hits most of the big swapmeets and he
View attachment 572277 View attachment 572278 sells hoods popped from it.
