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Daytona Coupe, 289 and 427 Cobras
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Daytona Coupe Cobra -
Radiator outlet air deflector & Engine oil door
First things first.
Finalizing the hood bubble was critical to the completing the following two tasks; the radiator outlet duct air deflector and the engine oil inspection door. Although both of these parts had been roughed out much earlier in the project, they needed to fit with the major element of the hood; the Weber carburetor bubble. Now that the bubble was finalized, these components could be finished and installed.
Radiator air outlet duct air deflector
This element of the hood was used to direct the air coming over the hood upward slightly to make it easier for the the hot radiator air discharge (from the large opening in the front top section of the hood) to escape.
Again (and boy am I tired of saying this) all of the origihnal cars had a slightly different design foir the air deflector. The summary version is that it the deflector is simply an angled piece of .060" aluminum placed in front of the radiator discharge opening and follows it's "swept back" contour.
The following photo shows the installation of the deflector.
Engine oil door
It was very important for the Weber bubble to be finalized before installing this componet because there is not much space between them.
This small hatch in the hood simply allowed the pit crew to check the engine oil level (and add oil if necessary) during a race without having to pivot the entire hood to the open position.
The part was a very interesting piece of fabrication borrowed from the aircraft industry. I even found a YouTube video describing the entire fabrication and installation procedure for a very comparable door installed on the wing of an aircraft. For me, it was a new adventure in learning more about different fabrication techniques. It also further demonstrated the Shelby crew's familiarity with aircraft fabrication techniques and how they were applied to the Cobras.
The engine oil door being fabricated is shown below.
