Tamra Summers restored a 1984 Mustang hood for her senior project. She chose this project because she has a passion for cars that she shares with her father. Restoring the hood involved sanding off the old paint, applying filler to smooth imperfections, drilling holes for mounting the hood scoop, and installing vinyl decals. Tamra encountered problems like holes that were too big and getting the scoop to sit level, which required welding and additional filler. After completing the restoration, Tamra hopes to pursue a career in the automotive industry.

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TamraSummers
Mrs.Tillery
4th period
08 March, 2012
Senior Paper: Restoring a Hood
In the automotive repair industry only about 20.48% are women. Hello my name is
Tamra Summers. I chose to restore a 1984 Fox Body Mustang hood for my senior project. I
chose to restore a hood because I have grown up learning about cars with my dad. It’s a passion
that I love and creates a strong bond with my dad and me.
I knew I wanted to do my project about cars. Once I got the idea of restoring a old hood
for my dad’s car, I immediately became excited. The first step was sanding. I had to sand off the
old red paint and try to get the surface to be smooth as possible. Then I applied bondo known as
body filler, to fill in uneven spots. This process was repeated several times as well as sanding.
The surface had to be perfect and smooth. After the surface showed no imperfections I sanded
the hood scoop too. Then I had to drill holes for the scoop to bolt on. The final step was placing
the venal sticker on and installing the hood on the car.
The process for restoring the mustang hood sounds very simple and easy, but in reality it
wasn’t. I encountered many problems. My first problem was the hole in the hood was too big for
the scoop. I had to get some scrap metal and learn how to weld. Welding was a fun but
dangerous task. Another problem I faced was the hood scoop didn’t sit level on the hood. I had to
use bondo to make it stretch down to the hood. It took a little while to get it to fit correctly

2. Summers 2
without any gaps. After I got everything to level up and look right I was ready for paint. Then I
found out to be able to paint it has to be 70 degrees or hotter. The hot weather makes the paint
stick. It was very frustrating facing problems with my project. I fixed the gap using body filler
and because I couldn’t paint the hood, I decided to wrap it. I wrapped it with venal. Venal is a
type of sticker that goes on cars. Placing the sticker on was very challenging.
My project facilitator who helped me with restoring the hood was Mark Frady. I met him
through my dad. Mark has grown up with cars his whole life. His father would rebuild cars from
ground up and still has many till this day. Mark said he always helped his dad. He gained much
of his knowledge from his dad. Today Mark owns his own business in construction building
homes. Mark till this day has a passion for muscle cars and was very happy to help me with my
senior project.
My research paper really helped me to prepare for all the work needed to restore the
hood. While I was researching I learned the steps to sanding. Also I learned all the safety tips
while welding. When I chose my senior project I knew what I was getting myself into. I learned
basic knowledge over the years from helping my dad. My research paper got into depth on how
to restore the hood. It really helped me a lot. I was eager to learn and work hands on with my
senior project.
After I graduate I plan to go on with a career in the automotive industry. I was thinking
about attending Chattahoochee Tech. I enjoy working around vehicles. It’s a passion that I love
very much.
I want to take the time to thank you for attention and coming out tonight to help grade
senior projects here at Creekview.