I love the car ... the alloy wheels, side skirts, foglights, window trim pieces (what do you call those?!), black color, etc ... man, this is making it hard to let go of my own SE ...

but gotta say, that hood scoop doesn't look like a scoop at all. I'd highly recommend getting something molded to the hood, or buying an aftermarket with a scoop, or whatnot ... that just looks out of place. And is that insulation on the front (what with the nasty misplaced words)?

lol The insulation is in there because I have chipmunk/squirrel that has taken residence in my engine bay... Leaving the scoop open provides easier access for the bugger. Also there is no screen yet so leaves and such can blow in. It a work in progress.

Does the scoop really look that out of place? I thought it looked decent and its functional.

I built the scoop to the hood which is hard because where I would have wanted the scoop there is a bracket underneath. I didn't want to put one lower on the hood because I felt that was awkard placement. the only spot was offset or high up on the hood where it is.

The Ray charles comment was low, really low. I'm gonna go ice my balls now.

Bah for me not reading your original post ...

Props that it's functional, but it just looks like said above ... a phone book or tissue box, basically a box glued to the hood. It might look fine with a Subaru or boxy car, but the Contour has too many aerodynamic curves that make this stand out awkwardly.

One example of a hood with a scoop that (IMHO, of course) flow better with the Contour: link (Mondy)

Okay .. I couldn't find any that are actually on a Contour .. but there you go

Of course .. you get what you pay for too, custom fab hoods are expensive ...

Its probably hard to tell from the pictures but the scoop is actually curved to match the hood. Its just that the top of the hood has such a subtle curve its hard to see in the pick. It all honesty the difference is probably around 1/4-3/8 of an inch. Not to mention I have no access to an english wheel. It was all hand/hammer formed. The corners are hammered on a forging head and the one has solder filling in the small dent. The scoop is bolt on as well. Its not glued. The duct will be glued on because I didn't want to run bolts through the hood. Not sure of any other ways to attach the duct. My scoop is seriously a oddity. It was in the most basic of ways and I'm proud of what I could do considering this is the first project of metal working I've done.

and between cost of a hood, sheet metal, paint, fiberglass to make the duct The cost is right around 200 now. The biggest was 145 for the hood.

I'll have to take some better pictures of it. That one I think probably makes it look worse then it is. Plus the foam block is not cut to the true shape and probably is what throwing alot of it off. I know the scoop is high I made it that way. lol Probably If I would do it again the scoop would be shorter. Its hard to tell ahead of time what the final product will look like.