Unlike pinball wizards, when truck lovers see the word "tilt," they don't think "game over." Instead, they imagine a new mod to trick out their truck. Installing a forward tilt hood on your Tri-Five Chevy is a sure way to enhance your truck's look and style as well as add some wow factor. Years ago, it was up to the ingenuity of individuals to build hinges and more in order to go full tilt, but nowadays it's as easy as picking up the phone and calling Pizza Hut.
If you were to get a hold of one of No Limit Engineering's catalogs, it's safe to say you would be astonished by their abundance of products. From mechanical to cosmetic, No Limit carries a wide variety of products for classic trucks, and one of those products just happens to be a forward tilt hood kit.
No Limit's Tri-Five tilt kits are designed and engineered to be a simple and hassle-free bolt-in installation. The entire kit is bolt-in besides the four 3/8-inch holes that need to be drilled to help mount the hinge pivots. Other than those few holes, the kit is based around factory mounting positions, which is the key to the kit being more or less a bolt-in system. From there, No Limit designed a simple hinge system around CNC-machined pieces and rod ends with spherical bearings. To guide the truck's hood into position, No Limit also designed a simple guide track that mounts to the firewall. The tracks are paired up with laser-cut stainless stands attached to the hood and equipped with Delron rollers. Even aligning the hood is simple. The tilt hood kit gives users full adjustability from front to back, height and tilt by simply adjusting the height of the Delron rollers and rod ends. Side to side adjusting is accomplished by inserting more or less washers between the rod ends and the hood mounting brace. The only stock item that the kit retains is the original hood latch. Other than that, the factory hinges and bracing are thrown out.
Venable Koncepts in Huntington Beach, California, is knee deep in building a '55 Chevy, and part of the build called for a No Limit forward tilt hood kit. When we here at CCT got word of that, we headed down to Surf City, USA, to see exactly what it takes to install one of the way cool No Limit kits.
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The No Limit Engineering tilt hood kit comes finished in black complete with everything needed, including hardware. |
Venable Koncepts' first step would have been to remove the hood from the truck and then remove the OEM X-brace, hinges, and hood latch, but because the '55 is in the works, there wasn't any disassembly necessary; they simply jumped in and began the install. Their first step was to install the new No Limit crossbrace to the OEM X-brace mounting bosses at the front of the hood. |
With the crossbrace installed, Marcel then began installing the No Limit side braces, which are passenger- and driver-side specific... |
...The front of the side brace mounts to the No Limit crossbrace. |
The side brace's rear mounts to the rear OEM X-brace mounting boss. By the way, there's no need to reinstall the factory X-brace because the No Limit bracing now reinforces the hood. |
Next up, Marcel mounted the No Limit rollers to the hood where the factory hinges mount on the hood. When mounting the roller assembly, make sure the roller faces toward the center of the hood. |
For future reference, the hood's rear height is adjusting by loosening the roller and moving it either up or down. |
With the hood assembled, Marcel moved up to the front of the truck, where his first order of business was to bolt the roller track to the firewall. The roller track bolts to the lower hood hinge hole and the corresponding bolt hole on the fender. |
Next up, Marcel installed the No Limit lower hinge pivots to the front valance. The top of the hinge pivot bolts to the factory holes on the valance. |
As for the other two holes on the hinge pivot, Marcel took a 3/8-inch drill bit and drilled two holes into the valance per hinge pivot. |
When installing the hinge bar, leave one of the hinge pivots bolted to the valance and remove the other. Then slide the hinge bar into the installed hinge pivot... |
...With the hinge bar in position, slide the other hinge pivot on the hinge bar and bolt the hinge pivot to the valance. |
When it comes to mounting the hood to the hinge assembly, the hood mounts to these rod ends with spherical bearings. Marcel began by screwing the rod ends into the hinge bar, leaving roughly 1/2-inch of thread exposed. As for the 1/2-inch bolts that mount the hood to the rod ends, he used three washers on each side of the rod end. |
With everything set up, Marcel installed the hood to the rod ends. |
Here's where the fun starts. It's time to get the hood to fit properly. Venable Koncepts started off by slowly closing the hood to see where the starting point is, then began aligning the hood through trial and error. Aligning the hood with one of No Limit's tilt kits is much easier than one might imagine. To adjust the hood from side to side, add or remove the washers that rest against the rod ends, but remember to move both sides evenly. To move the hood to the front or back, simply screw the rod ends either in or out. Moving the rod ends also adjusts the hood's tilt. The hood's rear height is adjusted by raising or lowering the rollers. |
Vendables' last step was to install the prop rod to the roller track. They placed the pigtailed end under the track, then looped the rod around the track with a turn of the wrist. |