Ladies (there were one or two of them hanging around here a while back I recall) and gentlemen,
I’m looking for photographs of Eighth Army soft skins with their engine cowl/hood/bonnet missing. A friend is building some of the Thundermodel softskins and he hates cover up those nice engines, but he does not want to keep the hood off without photographic evidence that was done. I can’t find any in my brief search.
I figure if anybody can bring up such photos, you guys can.
Thanks, FB
Why would the hood be left off? What purpose would it serve?
Opening up the grille to allow more air to flow past the engine for cooling is one thing but with a water cooled engine you want the air through the radiator, air bypassing the radiator doesn’t cool the engine much.
Remove grille slats (LRDG) to allow a little more air into the radiator but keep the shroud around the radiator to direct the incoming air through the radiator.
Removing the sides but keeping the lid is one option,
Removing the hood/bonnet lid would remove the shade from the engine, instead of being protected from sunlight the engine would get exposed to the heating sunrays.
Remember those photos of tankers showing that they can fry eggs on the armour of their tanks, heated by sunlight? Why would a mechanic remove the hood to allow the sun to heat the engine to egg-frying temperature? Boiling batteries, boiling radiator before even starting the engine …
Open the sides, if the model being built allows it but leave the hood/bonnet lid in place.
With some tools and a mechanic poking around in the engine the hood/bonnet lid would HAVE to be open, a repair or maintenance diorama requires this. Even a simple task such as checking the oil (guy with dipstick), topping up the radiator (if radiator cap isn’t outside already, depends on the truck, some have it under the hood/bonnet, others don’t), checking the battery et.c would obviously require the hood/bonnet to be open.
Edit: Added a link to Wikipedia which explains a difficult word
This may be a modern answer to a WWII issue (or no answer at all). In the late 1970’s to early 80’s we (US Army) had vehicles with fixed windshields. For a while SOP was to open the hoods of these vehicles in tactical operations during daylight hours to reduce possible reflections which could be observed by OPFOR air assets. Not sure how effective this was/was not, but it was done.
Reflections in glass surfaces need to be prevented on stationary objects, leaving the hood open might be quicker than covering the windshield with a tarp/blanket/whatever.
Obviously non natural shapes, like circles (wheels), also need to be covered/obscured.
That bushy looking bush among all the other bushes shouldn’t have two visible circles or a whole row of circles (wheels).
Yeah, it was a solution for vehicle that was going to be used again in a short time. If parked for any length of time, a cammo tarp was used.
Maintenance?
Toyotas where not used by the 8th Army in those days.
I edited my previous post …
Maintenance is not a difficult word for me at least. Difficult for many to actually perform based on the issues a lot of people have with their cars. No, my one word response was to the OP, as a justification for removing the hood.
Oh my. Are those AMPV’s in the background?
Is that the equivalent of heart surgery for vehicles?
I can only think of Scammell trucks to have the sides removed but not even then all of them…
The inside of those hoses surely looks better than the inside of my arteries. Hotel breakfasts are notorious for having endless supplies of pork products. The engine even has a particulate filter for removing rust from the coolant. It’s barely outside the frame. I don’t even think my Triumph has that.
