SRT-8 Daytona Clone

Well I am at the point where I am going back through the car and tackling all the little projects left to fabricate. The first issue was to build a prop rod for the hood. While the gas shocks lift the hood just fine they were designed to hold up a light weight aluminum hood and even with the inner liner removed this old Charger hood weighs a few pounds more. So just to be safe. I used some 3/8" .049 wall DOM steel tubing to make the rod itself. I made a double sheer bracket to attach the rod to the radiator core support. At the opposite end I modified a rubberized "P" clip to secure the end when stowed. I drilled a hole in the hood latch bracket to catch the rod and welded a washer on it at the same angle as the hood latch bracket.

Another small project was to locate the windshield washer nozzles  in the hood and also locate the lines under the hood.

One of the issues that has had me worried since I first installed it was how I was going to keep rain water from pouring into the trunk around the gas fill I put into the top of  the quarter panel. Since the enclosure was meant to be mounted on the side of the car I had to come up with a way to keep the water from collecting in the enclosure and then leaking in around the rubber gasket that the fill neck comes through. I stared at it for quite a while. The first thing I did was to install a small aluminum drain in the bottom of the enclosure. A bit of plastic tubing will drain water out through the bottom of the quarter panel closure.

Next was the tricky part. Since the rubber gasket around the fill tube is not a water tight seal I had to figure out a way to isolate it from any water that would make it's way into the enclosure. I decided to modify the gas door assembly by first creating a flat ring at the base which later will seal against the bottom of the enclosure around the fill neck. Next I fabricated a vertical ring to act as a dam against the water that might get in. Finally I made a larger overlapping vertical ring which I attached to the door itself. This will hopefully cover the lower ring enough to prevent water from driving in over the lower ring.