Even before the engine in the Valiant had been changed to the E85 guzzling, tunnel-rammed stroker, I didn't think it was a big deal to run the Valiant without a hood. Let's face it, a tunnel ram with twin Holley carburetors looks cool, but the men with shiny badges and loaded pistols informed that I needed to put the hood back on the car. But, there was no way that I was going to cut the factory steel hood-what if I needed to put it back on someday (famous last words)? That left me with two options: I could either get another steel hood and cut the opening in it, but to do that, the opening would need to be a lot larger than just around the tunnel ram, because when the hood is hinged open, the hole would need to be larger to clear the tunnel ram as it went up and slightly forward during normal operation. My other option would be to use a fiberglass hood, and make it a lift-off style. This worked for me, but companies that make a hood for a '67 Valiant are few and far between. We were happy when we found out that VFN Fiberglass had what we needed, and for only $399. Even though we would be using hood pins to attach our hood, we got the bolt on style hood, which has more reinforcement around the perimeter, and incorporates the factory hood latch.
The next hurdle to overcome was how to mount the hood. We weren't going to use the factory hood hinges, so we needed to figure out how to mount the hood pins. By securing the hood via pins, you better make sure that the pins are securely mounted, or you will see it (the hood) leave your car at a high rate of speed sometime. Another consideration to overcome-whether using a pin on or hinge style hood, is the required hole for the protruding tunnel ram or whatever.
Neither of these situations is hard to overcome, if you take your time and think before you cut or drill anything.
