Not the same person you’re asking, but how my team did it was we put standoffs running from the base of the flip-out part of the hood to the end of the hood. These were attached to 2-wide c-channels on either end.
Edit: Added images of my team’s bracing.
The standoffs on the right are the braces. You can ignore the standoffs on the left, they were used to connect to our backboard.
I recommend you can make the hood flip out by putting it under the flywheel rubber bands so when the flywheel spins, the hood flips up. In terms of bracing, you can have rubber bands pulling the hood back and the hood stopping at a certain point. I can post a picture of my hood later.
That’s what we had before. I think I’ve got a video.
By the way, how does your hood fold down so that the curve does not go above spec? I have been having trouble with that.
A lot of teams tuck the hood into the top indexer, but my team’s hood is too long for that. The way we did it was to directly connect our hood to our backboard so that they fold in and out together. The whole thing is folded down and then the dangling rubber bands you see in the picture are hooked onto the lowest indexer to hold everything in place until the indexer spins.
Al right guys, I solved it! I took @RandomKidOnAVexTeam 's advice and slowed it down. I saw that the edge guards were stopping the ball, and by looking at other reveals that used c channel as the hood, I saw that most of them were using it flat side down. So I basically just listened to your advice… then went off and did my own thing, and found the right angle with a flat hood. Here it is!
