The repro hood blankets are very bluntly and honestly described on the WCCC website, so much so that I pushed back on Dave (my friend and restorer who is doing the restoration work on B3Cat) when he suggested I get one. But it turns out there actually is a good reason to use one of those.
The hood on B3Cat was the best of three hoods I had available but it still needed a fair amount of body work along the center dome to look good once painted. There was a shallow depression that couldn’t really be seen with the hood in the dark primer that was already on it when I got it.
Dave recommended the blanket because it will protect the body work (which required some filler for smoothing) from the heat of the 390. According to Dave, heat and filler don’t mix well and Dave was concerned that the hood would not stand up to the heat and cold cycles over a period of years.
That might be a circumstance in which the repro blanket would be an appropriate choice, especially given how hard it’s getting to find good hoods.
I have been wondering if it would be possible to make a mold out of MDF to compress and shape the repro hood blanket. Maybe load up the back side with adhesive and then put a sheet of plastic or aluminum foil over it to keep it from sticking the the mold.
The repro hood blankets are garbage. They will scratch the chrome/paint on your air cleaner. Try to find a good one local to you.
I have one that I decided not to use on another car, that is pretty darn nice, but it may be quite cost prohibitive to ship properly.
I had the same idea and will be doong this with my original hood blanket. A sheet of MDF with the indentations cut out, then trim 3/4" off the edge of the cutouts, router the edges and use the cutout pieces to press the blanket through the holes. My blanket has many loose threads - any suggestions on what chemical/coating/adhesive can be used to tame all those loose threads and re-stiffen the blanket?
Will take the chrome or paint off any air cleaner in a couple thousand miles… Thats the biggest problem I have with them.