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Thanks Kev. I'll check back in in the AM. Gotta get some sleep now.

It does appear just stamped and no hood prop on mine but parts says there was a prop on 5588s. Interesting they would go to expense of new stamping dies for such a limited model.

I wonder why the 5588 needed the support rod, and the '56s didn't, interesting.

As an experiment when I get back from Atlanta I may try to use a couple pieces of paint stick wedged in the corner like Carl's padding to see if it makes any difference in the flex. If it does, then I will try to fashion some of the padding shims similar to Carls. Carl, did your new and old hood both have the corner padding? Just curious if all the 51-54 hoods came this way, so were they just shimmed by owners or dealers at some point.

The 5588 hood was hand-made like the 53 and 54 Caribbean hoods. The "scoops" were leaded in and all the lead defeated the springs so they had to install a prop rod. The 56 hoods were stamped out of sheet metal and did not have all the lead so they didn't need the prop rod. It is surprising they came up with a die for that limited hood, but that may be encompassed by the term "plastic tooling" which I still do not understand.

Thanks for the hood update Randy. i'm learning new things today about the Caribs.

does the 55 Carib hood have the centre support brace running the length of the hood like the 56 Carib hood?????

HH56. I doubt that they made new dies for the 56 carib hood. Probably just modified an existing die.

Probably right about all new die but still a considerable expense. Guess it must have been cheaper to make whatever changes to die rather than pay hand labor to do the mods.

Kevin-

Just the 1951 hood had the padding, not my 52. I'll try to get a more accurate thickness for you tomorrow.

-Carl

The "plastic tooling" refers to a new type of die they were try'n. insted of being made of metal, the new dies were made of a reinforced plastic resin. I know i have made several refrences before, but here is another one. Good friend jeff Of m.a.p. brought this up at our regional meet when he did the presentation on the patents. he asked bob aller about them at the time. bob's response, best as i can remember, was that he had heard rumors about the process. however he stated that he had never seen any hard-copy info about it. this is another reason why i can't wait to see jeff at branson, i want to catch up on what he learned on this stuff since i got to see him last!

BY the way kev. none of my cars (52-56) had the bracing welded. they were just like all the others shown so far. i have however had a few that had the sides of the hood reinforced. and it looked factory. i don't remember if i still have on of those. most of them were eaten up with rust.