The inside of my hood is bare also, never had any issue with heat affecting the paint. Personally I think the hood sees more heat from a hot sun in the summer than from the engine, (dark colors mostly).

Dave, I'm with you 100%

The biggest issue with paint damage from under the hood is chemicals wicking up thru the bottom side of the hood, mainly A/C compressor oil, but also fuel and oil vapors. The hood insulation was really more of an attempt to quieten down some of the fan and engine noise than to protect the hood, tho it does a fine job of doing that. Some '69s had a short insulation piece over the radiator area to keep heat from soaking into the hood in that area, and from there, the insulation just grew. The composition of the hood panels also changed over the years(as did the quality of the paint used), so some years dint ever have the insulation panels.
I have seen MANY hoods with paint damage from wicking chemicals, and 90% of that damage is directly above the A/C compressor clutch. The compressor oil just slowly seeps into the bottom of the hood, and migrates to the top side, under the paint, and then causing the paint to bubble, or flake.

Lots of guys do use a towel, or a special cover to put over their air filter tops when showing with the hood up. The sun reflecting off of a shiny chrome filter lid CAN definitely burn the paint on the hood....think of using a magnifying glass on ants when you was a kid(you know you did!).....same thing. I use a towel on mine, cause I'm too cheap to buy one of the purdy ones like this....


http://www.parts123.com/parts123/yb.dll?parta~dyndetail~Z5Z5Z50000050g~Z5Z5Z520992~P54.95~~~~S3ND0RDK6H71123117970a~Z5Z5Z5~Z5Z5Z50000050G



|UPDATED|11/20/2012 10:56:07 AM (AZT)|/UPDATED|