By combining our registry with the registry over at the Ford & Fordson Collector's Assn website I find that there are 60 known surviving tractors in the 9N1 to 9N675 serial number range, which is generally thought to be the correct range for the aluminum hoods. About 80% of these tractors still have the aluminum hood on them.

Actually, this is a higher survival percentage that I thought I would find. I wonder how many are still out there undiscovered? Between Jim (UT), don b and Don Church I have heard about few more that are still working or are stored and not for sale.

My survey also seems to put to rest the idea that the aluminum hoods were flimsy and cracked easily and many were replaced as a warranty repair. Now that I own one I can see that they were absolutely massive and weighed in at about 75 lbs. That's a lot of aluminum and, other than broken off lip areas where the hood wraps around the instrument panel, mine has only one slight stress crack. They were most definitely sand castings and not injection molded. You can see the impressions of the sand on the underside. The top of the hood must have been polished smooth by Ford prior to painting.

I guess it still puzzles me that the folks at Rosewood Machine will pour exact replacement grilles, battery box doors and doglege, but not the hood. I know that it's a philosophy thing and not a manufacturing problem because that's what I was told. I also worked summers in a foundry when I was going through college and we poured a fair amount of aluminum so I know how it is done. Frankly, it would not be that much of a problem to pour hoods.

I saw Emstrom's and Church's aluminum hoods at the FFCA 2009 show and as I recall they are castings about 1/4" thick. Then I saw the photos of the aluminum hood on that 9N that was For Sale in Gainesville, TX a few months ago and it appeared to be a thin sheet aluminum stamping. As I recall it even had a patch riveted across a crack.
So what was the aluminum hood- a thick casting or a thin stamping? Or both?

I had a friend in Texas make a trip to evaluate that tractor and I even bid on it (unsuccessfully). It was really in bad shape. The hood may have looked like a stamping but it was not. My guess is that the hood cracked back toward the battery box opening because the flange around the instrument panel broke out and it wasn't supported correctly anymore.

The hoods are at least 1/4 inch thick - maybe more like 5/16. The edges and any mounting points (like for the gas tank) are thicker - up to 1/2 inch. I have a hood and two broken doglegs. All three are sand mold castings. You can see the impression of the sand on the backs of all three.

Talked to a collector with an aluminum hoodmat the show in western MO a couple of years ago. He showed me where his hood had been cracked and repaired. He stated that most of them were cracked on the back where they fit the dash. I have two tractors where the dash was cracked. My impression is that the aluminum is brittle. The battery trays are nice though - they don't rust like the steel ones.