Has anyone cut their hood and added ie; a cowl induction piece or some sort of scoop (not a functional piece) in order to gain hood clearance f/ another intake/spacer/carb? I brought this up in a round about way awhile back and thought at the time I'd look f/ another hood, but after the "bumper topic" got me tripping about how tough it is to get body pieces/panels to line up flush with the rest of the body, I'm thinking of just keeping my original hood and installing something tasteful f/ more clearance. My 'Vette has never been hit and has all the original body panels which line up well and I don't want to open up a can of worms there-by getting into another project, I have little enough time as it is w/o bringing on more. My front bumper material is still in good shape and I am going to take it off and get it painted. An old Army buddy of mine has had a body shop here in Killeen f/ ever and is super talented, and I'll get him to do the work. His prices are sometimes-no, all the time LOL, freakin' high, even when he says he'll "take care of me," but I can trust him to do it right w/ no exceptions.
So how about some suggestions. Are there any sites that have 'Vette hood add-ons? I do want something that looks like it's supposed to be there, somewhat factory-looking, and nothing too radical. Thanks in advance.
Although this site isn't the most active one I frequent, alot of the people on here are "up" on 'Vettes and have alot of quality input to share, and it's well appreciated.

I told myself that I'd wait to get into the engine, but I have to give this thing some guts. IMO, the worst thing that GM did to the 'Vette was to make it "not run" like a 'Vette should. Only in the last few years did the 'Vette come back up to speed enabling it to compete w/ it's foreign equals.

 

Jim,my intentions were somewhat different from yours,but required the same solution. I want a cold air intake on my '79,so I created a bottom air cleaner plate that reaches the hood.I then sat a 3'' air filter element on that and put a regular 14' chrome air cleaner lid on it. This requires a hole in the hood,right? since the air cleaner now is above hood level. I then went and bought a rear opening scoop from Summit(it looks like a Harwood but is much cheaper!) that is the 4" high one(I think they come 2,3,4 and 6) and glassed it on. The shape of this particular scoop is almost identical to the shape of the stock raised portion of the '79 hood. If I had used restraint and went with a thinner element I could have used a 2" scoop and it wood have been difficult to tell it from stock unless there was a stock vette sitting next to it. Even the 4" doesn't mess with the "lines" until you get in the car and quite a bit of the view is obscured. Gotta run right now.if you want pics and maybe a part # let me know and I'll do some research.
Ron