Listers,
I finally obtained an LAT reproduction hood from Kent Wilcox. YEEEHAAAAA! It
is an outstanding piece.
Kent is really a great guy even though he is a little frustrating to reach
by phone. He even met me in Carlsbad to deliver the hood so that I could
take it home with my carry on luggage. Picture some gearhead walking through
LAX (and then Calgary) with a BIG BIG BIG box. You should have seen the
airline check in girl when I said I wanted to carry it on as it was FAR too
valuable to ride with the common luggage. I thought she was going to come
over the counter and choke the life out of me....no sense of humor! Kent
packaged it up and it probably would have been destroyed if I had shipped it
ground as his packing skills are not his best quality. If anyone else orders
a hood and needs to have it shipped I have some tips.
1 Get Kent to put foam edging all the way around the hood and tape it on
(the kind for water piping)
2 get Kent to put some of his stiff foam in the lower corners of the box for
the corners of the hood to rest on.
3 put something on top of the scoop like a towel or something to minimize
buffing by the box.
4 go get 2 bags of Styrofoam chips from Office Depot at $16.99 each and fill
the box chock full.
5 Mark the box so that the hood is shipped with one of the sides upright
such that the hood is shipped sideways standing up.
6 Go get it yourself and do all of the above and it will arrive undamaged.
You should have seen the Canada Customs guys in Calgary after I unwrapped
the hood and started to walk out of the baggage area with this hood on my
luggage cart. Exiting the baggage area was hilarious as I bumped into no
less than 3 friends who all said "when I saw some guy coming with a hood I
figured it just had to be you Tim". Tried to get on the elevator and whacked
the 2 lower corners on the doorframe for the elevator. No damage thank
heavens but I sure felt stupid with about 200 people watching.
Then it wouldn't fit in the car "D'OOH" (I thought for sure it would fit in
a Gran Prix but it was 1" too wide) so I had to leave it with the valet
against my better judgement (It pays to be a GOOD customer). I showed up at
the airport early the next morning with a hood-less Tiger. The valet guy (MG
Enthusiast) helped me stick it on with 2 bolts. I couldn't close it though
as Kent left it a little long for me to trim it and that is the way I would
recommend everyone order one. Propped it up with a chunk of shipping foam
and packing tape and off I went home to Cochrane, about 50 KM. Once home it
was a simple matter to fit it and just had to shift the hinges over 1/8 of
an inch and slot 2 holes. After I had it fitting side to side I used some
masking tape to mark out the rear edge cutoff point and cut it off with a
cut off saw. I then used a body file to smooth it out and it looks and fits
"BITCHEN" . To those who want to get Kent to make one I paid in advance and
that seemed to get him fired up to make one. It is an excellent quality item
and was definitely worth the hoops to attain.
Besides the story is worth about 2 hours of B.S.ing (read Bragging) the next
time I meet up with the local Tiger guys.
Best regards,
Tim Ronak ....... Stylin with a new hood in Canada.
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