Ok, here’s a fun question for you: how much butchery did you perform during your early days messing with cars? We’re talking high-school level stuff here, so if you want to raise your hands for things like hacksawed cats and hastily-affixed glasspacks, very questionable suspension modifications, or the like, have at it. I’ll admit I was god-awful with my choices early on. In pictures of my 1979 Caprice two-door, you can see a cowl induction scoop on the hood. If you could buy a hood like that already in 1998, I sure didn’t know about it. That sucker was removed from a 1975 Mercury Comet, pop-riveted to the Caprice’s hood, and spray-painted primer red. And don’t forget, if you have a scoop you need to have a hole for the air to go into, so yep, the hood was opened up a bit to allow the rarified air off of the cowl into the engine bay. That’s how it worked, right?
What if you were able to go back and right the wrongs you did back in the day? For Forum member MP&C, he got that chance when a former high school classmate asked if he could do some work on his Plymouth Arrow’s hood. The original hood got the exact chop-job you probably pictured in your head back in the day, but nearly forty years later, he wanted a better job done. He managed to find a NOS hood (HOW?!) and brought it in for a better, professional level trimming.
Now, before anyone starts in with the “why are you cutting it?” questions, here’s why: The Mitsubishi Galant Celeste, the car that was imported to the United States as the Plymouth Arrow from 1976 to 1980, is not a big car. It’s a small Japanese two-door that would maybe have 105 horsepower on tap in the Fire Arrow form, but it was also a featherweight and not that underpowered compared to a similar Camaro or Mustang. But shoving a small-block Chrysler in the engine bay of an Arrow requires some cutting and clearancing…not even the Mitsubishi 2.6 compares in size to your typical LA small-block. Even a worked 318 will cause an Arrow to turn into a no-effing-joke E-ticket ride…so why not give the car some due and give it a proper hood? Click the link below to check into the detailed metalwork that’s taking place!
I dunno where he found a NOS hood for that, but if he can find another one, I’d like ot borrow it! I need one to pull a mold off of to make a carbon fiber one for my Arrow pickup!
What an unexpected surprise! Thanks for the article Bryan, spot on!