captn442

Hey Guys! I ran across a guy at my local cruise night,he has a 72 SX.He swears a high school buddy bought new and still owns a 70 442 with a steel OAI hood not just the frame underneath but the whole hood.I've been fooling with oldsmobile for many years and have never even heard of anything like this. Personally I think he is full of sh*t but he said he would get me over to his friends garage to see it. Can anybody out there confirm this hoods existence if so it has to be super rare I'm thinking prototype.

stevengerard

I'd guess if it was a prototype it be on a 70 not a 72. He probably saw the metal frame underneath and thought wow its metal

captn442

That is what I said and showed him the bottom of mineand he went to the scoops on top and said they were steel on his friends hood

rocketraider

Dollar to a dime says it's a glass hood, or a steel hood that's had 'glass scoops moulded onto it. I can only imagine the stamping problems you'd encounter trying to make a W25 hood in metal.

Dollar to a grand says his car's not a 1972 SX, since those were made only in 70-71.

joe_padavano

Where's Kurt's BS meter when you need it...

Now, my 68 W-30 has a metal O.A.I. hood. Of course, the O.A.I. is under the bumper.

wmachine

svnt442

I love that.

WOOOT!! First post on the new computer. My old one (9 years to be exact) finally died on thrusday.

Bobac455

If you get a chance to go over and look at it, take a magnet along and let us know what you find.

66ninetyeightls

crazy.gif

phillip smith

He is full of it if he has a 72 sx,,,, they didnt make such a thing. not sure about the hood though.

bobb

I'm with Rocketraider on this one.......it would be impossible to stamp the top of the hood from one piece of metal. There would be no way to make a provision in the stamping for the rectangular scoop inlets. Although it would probably be lighter than the "lightweight" fiberglass hoods we all have, if it could be done.

bob

Bluevista

They hydroform body panels now, a lot more can be done. The panels can have much more complex shapes and recesses, sharp bends and curves that would normally be too thin or break through with conventional stamping.
I don't think the scoop inlets would be a problem but I'm no engineer, never owned a slide rule or holster for one.
The coolest geeks in my high school packed holstered slide rules on each hip and had pockets on both sides of their shirts with fully stocked pen protectors in them.

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting if it is possible to make that hood all metal. They won't even do original type colored rubber floor mats for the most popular Oldsmobile models.


http://www.thefabricator.com/article.../liquid-curves

66ninetyeightls

Come on. The Chinese can make anything now!!!!! Nice lightweight Chinesium sitting on your hood would make any man proud.

wmachine

For sure! ....................til it blows off........

66ninetyeightls

Kurt you and I both know it would rust away to nothing long before it blew off!!!

joe_padavano

Why do folks think it would be so difficult to stamp the contours of an O.A.I.hood out of metal? Heck, GM was able to stamp the very contoured fenders on my 52 Chevy truck. I do find it both amusing and depressing, however, that when GM first built the SSR, which was loosely based on the styling of the 1948-54 Chevy pickups, they were unable to form the fenders and had to go offshore. How far the mighty have fallen...

70 cutlass s

The frame plant that I work at. We stamp all our own parts. It wouldn't be hard at all to stamp a O.A.I. hood. G.M. could have if they wanted. They could have used the same tool that ran the stock hood and changed out a few die blocks or build another tool for it.

bil

I think it is a matter of material-fender and other parts are folded and bent in the stamping process.To make the scoops into the hood in one piece would require a lot of stretching of the metal in the center.I don't think there is enough material.As it stretches,it gets thinner.It can only stretch so much before it is way too thin. Even louver punches thin the metal.Look at it as square inches-where would the extra come from? ---bil

442much

See my car in the sig? It's all original. Oh, the hood? The car is the love child of a 72 W30 and a 73 442.

joe_padavano

The sheet metal used in stamping a hood (or any other body panel) is significantly larger than the finished part. When a feature is formed (like a scoop or a fender flare, or whatever) the metal is drawn inward, shrinking the outer perimeter. Once the panel is formed to the final shape (which may take several hits with different dies) THEN the outer shape is trimmed.

Louvers are typically pressed on finished parts. THAT'S the difference.

BlackGold

GM shut down the Fisher Body plant in my town about a year ago. It took them a lot longer to shut it down than they expected. Every time they tried to move production of a particular stamping to another plant, that plant struggled with quality problems. So they kept moving production back here until they got it right. It's closed now though. Big empty shell. Thousands of jobs lost.