I was off yesterday and decided to remove all useable parts from a parts hood that I had laying around. The hood was in bad condition to ever use or repair. The only good parts left on it was all the trim, latch/spring and air deflector.

I felt bad about throwing away the entire hood. When my brother-in-law saw it, he said that I should cut the front of the hood off and use it as hanging art. So, I busted out my Sawzall and went to town.

I cut the front off. Then decided to cut the hood in half so that it would be easier to transport to the dump. Once I cut the hood in half, it reminded me of the Model A hoods, hinge in the center of the hood.

So then I thought that this would be a cool custom look. I haven't seen it done before. Just imagine... welding the front section of the hood to the front clip... hingeing the two halves together and now have them flip to open sideways. I think that it would work very well.

I, of course, wouldn't be the one to try it on one of my own trucks, but if someone was really "ratting" or customizing one of these trucks, I think that it would look cool.

What do you think?





This will actually hang on a wall. I'm going to have a body shop fix the ding, cut the rear straight, paint and chrome the front trim. Then I'm planning to install a light (or not) underneath and hang it over a large picture of my truck.




Anyone have a bad hood from a '48-50 and '51 that they'd want to cut the front section off and sell to me? I want to finish off the "collection".

Ilya

 

I think that the hood front will make some great wall art! I recently found the front fenders and grillf rom a 55 GMC COE that I 'm going to use as wall art, the fenders are approx 12" long.

Your idea for hinging the hood is interesting, like you said it might be a neat touch on a rat rod style of truck.

It might be hard to find hood fronts for the rest of your collection, usually when these hood take damage its to the nose of them, but who knows....you might get lucky.

Make sure and post a pic of the wall art when you get it finished. I'd love to see it
Bobby

 

Pertty Cool!!

You could put "speakers" in there for a "stero" and make it a "working" piece of art!!

You may be on to something.

 

I'll definately post pictures of the completed wall art. If I ever find a better front clip for my '51 Panel, I plan to use the old clip to make into a table or a chair.

A few months ago, I scrapped a '49 Panel truck body that had a hood that was cracked along the center. The front of it was decent and still had all the trim. The "wall art" idea didn't strike me then. Oh, well...

Ilya

 

2 things, first, there is a guy here in Tucson who has been asking me about building a trailer using an f-100 hood, hinged in the center. the idea is that it will look like a flatbed trailer on its way home from a swap meet with a hood strapped to it. It sounded stupid the first time I heard it but now I am intrigued. Maybe it's just the first stage of dimentia. Secondly, I have been thinking about a couch for the shop made from the back end of a pu bed, using the (still foldable) tailgate as the seat area. GOMD says it is definitely the first stage of dimentia. By the way, I really like the wall art.

 

If I ever find a better front clip for my '51 Panel, I'd use the existing (decent condition) front clip and convert it either into a desk for my computer or a chair.

I think that the desk would be more appropriate, because the front of it would be facing a person and I would sit behind it (firewall side). I would be able to put my legs into the engine compartment. I'm envisioning a thick glass top with support braces running underneath the glass width wise across the engine bay. Something like this, but minus the actual desk inside...





The seat idea would hide the front of the clip. You would sit in the engine bay with your back to the front of the clip. Would work if the seat was positioned in an open area of the room. Same idea, just the seat positioning would be reversed backwards...


Ah, some many ideas, so little time and money...

Ilya

 

Boy Ilya, you really got the creative juices flowing with the guys here!

I have always wanted to make a wall hanging using the front part of a front clip, just from the very front back about 10" or so. I would like to find a defective or damaged fiberglass clip to do this to. It would be easier to work with and lighter than a steel clip.

fatfenders56,
There was a Model AA flatbed in an issue of Vintage Truck that the guy had a stack of 2x4s strapped down in the back. He actually only had full boards on the outside and stubs on the ends. He had the top boards attached together and hinged to make a door on top. The straps holding down the bundle hid the seam of the door. He was able to store his chairs, cooler and anything else he wanted to take to car shows. He could remove it when he wanted to use the flatbead. I am thinking of doing something like that for my F-4.

 

In that same vein, I saw a Model A pickup at the SRN a few years ago that had a ''tarp'' made out of corn. This genius put a 30'' 2x2 straight up in the center of the bed then draped a piece of burlap over it and attached to the corners of the bed, he then sprayed the whole thing with some type of resin and covered it with corn kernels. when it hardened it was hinged in the front and when closed it looked like a bed full of corn kernels. It was from Iowa by the way. He told me that Iowa stands for ''Idiots Outside Wandering Around'' It sure is a good thing we can laugh at ourselves.

 

Hmmm, maybe I'll try the same thing here in New Mexico but instead of corn kernels I'll cover the burlap with Chili or tortillas.........

 

Any one know the proper color scheme? I'm thinking about painting the hood red (so it stands out). What color should the front emblem be? Red, black or ivory? If ivory, then what is the correct ivory color?

I've done a google search for '52 ford pictures and found a few pictures with the front hood emblem the same color as the truck and some pictures where the front hood emblem is ivory. What was correct?

Lastly, what is the proper color of the hood air dam? Is it flat black, black, grey, body color, etc? Inquiring minds want to know.

Thanks, Ilya

 

I like the corn idea. I live on a farm and it's harvesting season, I could buy a load of corn from father-in-law. He would make out better selling it to me than driving all the way to the mill. With price of fuel it costs almost as much to drive it up there as what he would get paid for it.

I could make one of each, the lumber and corn, and switch between the two to be different. This opens up a whole bunch of ideas

 

Man, you guys are smoking tonight!

I have been bidding on any battered Model A tailgates that come up on eBay - I want one all rusted and beat that I can use as a backboard for some shelves I want to build for my collection of Diecast Ford Trucks.

 

*****,
Thats a cool idea! Hope you dont mind but I might just have to plagarise it as I have an old tailgate laying about that I have pulled out of the weeds. It would make a nice addition to the wall art in my geek room

I love stopping at old abandoned farm houses on my travels and kicking around the weeds. Thats how I found the tailgate, and one of the old evaporative coolers that hang on the passenger window

Bobby

 

fake 2x4's, corn, chilis, tortillas, smoking, geek rooms. Where else can you get this much entertainment for this little $$ ???

 

All we need now is copious amounts of frosty beverages, perferrably something in the malt/hops/barley variety

woohoo!