Killinit86

I had a few requests to post a walkthrough of how I vented my hood, so I figured I'd do a quick write up. Here's a quick list of everything you'll need.

1. air saw. (20$ saw from eBay worked fine)
2. Drill with rat tail bit
3. Sheet of perforated steel from Lowe's
4. Weather stripping (12$ at AutoZone)
5. A grinder and cutoff wheel
6. Sharpie marker with some sort of spacer
7. Assortment of small to large drill bits.
8. Tools to remove hood.

Okay so first things first, I started by removing the hood. Be sure to undo all of the windshield washer lines before trying to take the hood off. (Yes I made that mistake) after removing the hood place it upside on some form of supports. Saw horses would probably be best here but I used two chairs and the seemed to work lol. After that your going to want to take your sharpie with about a 3/8 spacer attached to it and draw a few test lines to make sure the marker will show up. It is recommended to clean the surface before trying to make the lines.

Anyway, after you've chosen the vents you want. Make slow deliberate outlines with your spaced sharper. The spacer allows you to smooth out the line with a rat tail later on.


Once you have all the vents marked your ready for the scariest part. Drilling the first pilot holes into your perfectly good hood. It is heartbreaking lol. Your going to want to take a small starter bit and then graduate to a larger bit being careful not to push to hard because after you break through the metal you could dent the hood with the drill. Now in the pictures it shows to holes however later we decided that on centric hole was a much easier and quicker option.


After the pilot holes have been drilled you can begin to cut the vents with the air saw. I chose to stay in front of the marker line so I had a little cushion to make corrections and smooth it out.

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After you have cut all the holes out it is now time to correct all those crooked lines. This is where the rat tail drill bit comes into play. I went along the edge of each vent and worked the back to the back side of the marker line to ensure straightness. Some may suggest a die grinder at this point however the become way to hot and the paint begins to peel and that's not good for anybody. So even with the rat tail let the bit cool every minute or so.

After you have the vents cut out and smoothed, now your ready to make the inserts. You can use a multitude of things here but I chose heavier duty perforated steel from Lowe's. I used the pieces of cutouts from the hood as a stencil and made the vents about a half inch larger. Again allowing room for them to be grinded down. I also left them slightly big to ensure a tight fitment.

Now after the inserts are done you can paint them whatever color you like. I went with black engine paint in case they got hot which really haven't yet.

After I had painted them it was time to put them in. I left them slightly larger and got one side in at a time, twisting and turning as need actually shoving them inside the infrastructure itself. They stayed tight that way and have not moved to this day. I didn't use any sealer, or tape, or glue, etc.

After your chosen inserts have been placed, the finishing touches are yours to decide. I decided to put weather strip around the edges to hide any slight imperfections that there may have been, and it also made them pop a little more. With the black stripping I started by cutting them to long and then cut them down until they were about a quarter inch short then cut very small pieces to make it look like a continuous, solid, sealed shape.

Only thing left to do after that was to clean the hood off of any metal shavings that may be laying around hiding. I used a magnet and air hose.

I then put the hood back on and proceeded to take many pictures. It was a time consuming process but overall very easy and great looking!!