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Pat has it right with the Z34 vents. I picked up a complete set. Only problem is the drip pans are a no go. If you squint you can see them in my not so good dark garage picture. You'd need to be a bit creative to modify them.

The side mount vents just are not sexy enough.

Here's the best spot and I'm sure Pat agrees. My body guy can mount and paint for $500.00. A good value for an extractor hood that should really work.

 

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Double post. Ooops.

 

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I still have my set of vents, just haven't had a chance to do anything with them. I'd like to be able to find a used hood to butcher. And I'd need to find someone I trust to do the work, as this isn't something I'd want to give to any old body shop.

I got lucky and found a guy that's done quite a few. This is a popular mod with the off road guys and he's been doing Land Rovers and Jeeps. He's even done one on an STS.

 

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Bringing it to the shop tomorrow for the Z34 extractor vents. I'll report back in about a week.

 

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The real challenge may be trying to work with all the structural bracing in the hood. I spoke to my body guy today when I dropped off the car and he said that sometimes areas of the hood need to be reinforced since it's a double panel and the thickness is variable. If you peek under the felt hood mat you can see that the V's brace panel looks a bit different than the BMW in AAIIICs picture. My guy has done it before several times but he says sometimes it involves more than just cutting out the holes. I'll try to get as many pictures of the process. The results will be interesting. I'll probably do some hood pins as well since the hood waves like a piece of paper at speeds above 130. My last track outing is October 13-14th at Road America so I can see if any of these changes work.

 

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Cool hood on that Challenger, but in this case we're looking to take hot air out not let cool air in.

 

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I stopped by the shop to see how they were making out. Holes are cut and vents are in place. So far it looks great. Next is to fasten the vents in so they stay put at speed. I may have some work in progress pics next week. Hopefully completely done by next Friday.

 

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I know I didn't bring the camera or my phone damnit. On another note the felt pad under the hood is off and I was considering leaving it off. Now those nasty sewing machine sounds will really be loud!

 

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Photos yet??? haha can't wait to see it!

Tomorrow (Friday) I should have some pictures.

 

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Here are the legendary Z34 Lumina hood vents. They are big and they should get the job done.
The hood is still in the R&D phase. The vents are a little bit raised in the rear. The flanges may have to be tweaked since they have a design feautre that makes them stick up a tiny bit. Before we address that I'm going to run the car at Road Am. to see how the vents function. I'll provide the fab details once we know what the exact mounting is going to be.

 

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The aero hood pins would have been tough. We had to make brackets to hold the threaded rod.

 

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Looks pretty damn good, and once the shop figures out getting them level they should look great! Whoever came up with the idea is a frickin' genius.

I will say that I think my mock-up fitment looked better with the vents moved in a couple/few inches from the character lines on the hood. Does the underhood structure not allow for that placement, or did you just think it would look better with the outer edge of the vents lined up along the hood crease?

The structure did make it hard to move them in much more. It becomes thin like a single skin towards the middle. They sit over the power steering pump and CAI on the driver side and the fuse box and (in my case) the catch can on the passenger side. There is plenty of air space underneath the vents. If we moved them in there would probably still be plenty of room except where the intake manifold would rise up. The flanges have posts that fit through holes in the hood on the Lumina. They are mounted to a rectangular metal pad first then the pad is spot welded to the flange. This causes the flange to stick up. We can fix that we just want to check out the structure of the hood first. Meh, for what I spent it beats 2K for an aftermarket hood. They would look better frenched in but now we're talking $. Funny this post started in the appearance section when it could just as easily been in the performance section as you pointed out........genius.