While removing some components and trim from the original hood to my 71 Cuda I found some interesting points and wanted to share them.

Car is a 71 340 Cuda convertible with SPD 3/31/71.

As best I can tell this hood has not been repainted.

The point of interest is how I think the diecast scoops were painted at the factory.

If you look closely you can see (4) dots of paint.

Other side

Scoop nuts

Paint under nuts

Backside Scoop

Scoop and gasket

Scoop with insert removed

Based on what I see here I beleive the scoop was set on the hood prior to paint without attaching hardware and without the well nuts for attaching the black insert. Possibly the scoop was spaced up from the hood a little bit on one end. After paint the scoop was lifted off, gasket installed and attached to hood.

I find this interesting becasue prior to this I thought the scoops were attached to the hood prior to paint.

I'm curious what others have found.

Mike Afflerbach

also here you can see that there was very little paint on the back underside of the hood

Mike,
Concerning the hood scoops:
I have found similar findings on my 1970 `cuda340 convertible. SPD 421.


BTW: Does your car have H6XW H51?

Ola

I noticed this also many years ago pulling a hood apart.
A couple of other observations that hopefully will be clarified/confirmed/denied by others.
These are old memories, a bit faded.

The nuts had no paint. They were not used to hold the scoop up from the hood during painting.

There was not a distinct line on the studs to indicate the height they were held up from the hood. No shadow around the holes on the underside from the studs blocking paint.

There was no distinct pattern under the scoop showing an outline of something used to hold it away from the hood.

The paint on the scoop ended very close to the outside edge. No attempt to cover the underside.