To look at Bob Sobolewski’s shiny, new 2011 Candy Red GT/CS Mustang right now, you’d never know that its got a secret. Bob has plans to have some airbrush work done on the hood, but displaying that work nicely at a carshow was going to be a problem.
With the hood open, anything on it really isn’t easy to see, tilting back as it does. That just wasn’t going to be good enough for what he had in mind, and so he set out to find someone that could convert this pony’s hood to one that swings forward.
Once that was done, Bob knew that the special work he had in mind would be well presented. Bob’s next challenge was finding someone that could handle the conversion for him.
After one false start, Bob settled on Street Dreams by Ross, a custom solutions builder out of Millerville, MI. This kind of conversion was stock in trade for Ross, who has done several previously.
The process took about three weeks from start to finish, being the first 2010+ Mustang they had done this work on. After deciding on a strategy, which included keeping the original hood as original as possible, the first task was to design a set of hinges for the hood.
These are essentially a custom, four bar linkage that manages the hood’s position while open or closed, and through the path between them. Care was taken to only use factory mounting holes for the hinges and other brackets needed.
Aside from being sturdy enough to hold everything in place, attachment to the hood is also a challenge. Custom mounting panels were developed for the aluminum hood. In our photos, these are still unfinished fiberglass, but you’ll see in the video that they get painted to match the car.
Clearance issues with the stock air box were resolved by installing a cold air kit, but Ross assures us that there are some other solutions as well. In the end, the original front hood latch was retained as is, while guide pins were added at the back of the hood. Some rerouting of the windshield washer plumbing was needed.
With this work complete, Bob is ready to move on to the next phase of his plan. We can’t wait to see just how that turns out. Stay tuned!