I have finally finished and installed my hood!
It has taken me about a couple months of an hour here and a couple there to get the vents laid out, cut, and sculpted. I made block-off plates as well which were kind of a challenge with the close tolerances under the hood. I'm planning on doing a write up of the project when I get some time....just suffice to say that anyone with a Dremel, steady hand and some patience can cut a hood and make it look good. I will say that the most important part of the whole project is to get the vents laid out proper....as I have seen some hoods cut by "professionals" that in my opinion do not look good at all.....why pay someone a ton of cash when they are not going to sweat the details and make it perfect like you would!
Here's some pics....I'll post some more in daylight later as I just finished up and took the pics.

 

A few more

 

Thats some great ****ing work! Did you have to repaint after dremeling?

 

I am so jealous. I have a spare hood laying around and I think it will be vented soon enough. I look forward to reading your write up on this How to. Great job!

 

Dude do you ever work. LOL

 

Im in the Army bro.. I dont need sleep.. lol

 

Thanks!

Yes...the hood was originally white. Although, if you are very careful you could get away without doing a total repaint....just touch up the edges of the vents.

 

look great, cant wait for the write up

 

Give me a couple weeks, I'm in the process of packing for a move.

 

Very nice. Do those covers you made actually completely close off the vents, or do they just prevent as much water from coming in?

Also, for anyone who is thinking about doing this yourself, you shouldn't have to repaint if you use a high speed tool and mask off the area you are cutting beforehand.

 

nice job on the cutting for sure! definitely would like to do this after your write-up. =)

 

I haven't water tested them yet...but they should keep out the majority of the water and dust as they have a rubber seal that mates up to the under side of the hood.

 

Very nice! Subscribed for write-up!

What do you think of the rigidity of the hood and the slats in particular after the job was done? Does the hood feel flimsier and do the slats themselves feel as if they might gets bent or warped very easily if extreme care is not taken?

 

Pure Sex I cant wait for the write up

 

very nice work, if i had a spare CF hood laying around i'd def do this.

 

nice

 

sweet. Feel like attaching the template you used?

 

Outstanding!

 

The overall rigidity of the hood really has not been effected. The slats are somewhat flimsey...but once you put the mesh under them they are plenty strong enough...I don't forsee any problems with it unless you lean on them while washing or something. I was originally concerned about it and had made some bracing to go on the underside of the slats to add strength but was concerned about clearance....once I got the mesh on there I felt much better about the strength of it.

 

Sure....I got this off the motoring site I think.
You will want to cut this template out of a transparancy sheet and you will not want to use the whole template just one slat and lay them out one at a time. If you try to use the entire template you can't get the angles right......plus the slats actually get shorter as you move towards the back of the hood. This is necessary so the outer edges of the slats all fall in a straight line.