Yamanube's lowered hood mod.

[yamanube]

I spent the money I was going to spend on a WDK hood and nosepiece on an Xmetal pole so (after a little inspiration from others builds) I decided to lower a stocker. Instead of just cutting and glassing the voids I decided to fill it with foam first to give myself a filler to contour and give the glass some support for the initial layer.
My original plan was to fill the entire hood full and use it both to contour the top and build a liner off of too (then just dig the foam out and assemble) but I didn't have as much foam as I thought so for now this is just the top section.
It worked pretty well and allowed me to match each side better, Im going to do one or two layers of 9oz on top, dig out the foam then build it up and reinforce it from the inside. I will also add 2 or 4 handholds and build my own nosepiece to match. Enough typing, here are some pics.
This is just the rough in, I need to do more finish sanding, smooth out the contour a bit and add the first layer of glass this weekend.

 

[BruceSki]

looks good so far.

i plan on doing the same thing this winter because i cant justify spending the money on a lowered hood and nosepiece. in my case its really only for looks and water ingestion, since the weight difference really doesnt matter on a surfboat for me. ill keep an eye on this thread.

im interested to see how you build your own nosepiece as well.

 

[INDebtSJ]

That is the exact same thing I did to my hood last year. Looking good,I wish I had taken pics throughout.

 

[tbaer]

i am doing the exact same thing right now! i will be posting pics soon.

 

[stredman]

Looks like that's going to turn out awesome!

 

[yamanube]

I think the one thing I did that will really help the looks is cut out the stock pad that the pole rests on, that really limited how low the hood could get and would make it have to angle up more and add a wierd wedge shape like a SN hood. It will be a little more work but it allowed my pole to sit a couple inches lower in the hood.
For the nose piece I am probably going to put a flat piece of sheetmetal down that is cut to the size of the piece and then glue some of that hard insulation foam to it and shape it with the sander, my hood is a bit higher (I think) in the front than most lowered hoods so the nose piece will have a bit more of a bubble.