Best company for quality 69 lift off A12 hood

[rjbsj]

Good evening. I’m about a month away from sending my car out for body work and paint. Doing an A12 tribute so I want a fiberglass lift off hood (it will be pinned of course). Anyone ordered one recently and what company offers good quality ones?

Thanks, Ryan

 

[Bird 426]

I do not have a preference, but there are probably 2 hoods offered, do not get a race weight hood. They need to have a good supporting structure. Gel coat used in layups loves to fracture from flexing.

 

[440beep]

Check out Glasstek in Naperville IL. They make one that looks good.

 

[Bird 426]

Just know this, molds warp over time, and so the parts are seldom perfect. Just know that you are probably going to have to do some work on it. It's too bad that we can't get molded fiberglass parts, same every time.

 

[Air grabbler]

Are you building a Super Bee or RR clone? I bought one of the RR hoods that are in white gelcoat and sold on eBay. The hood looked really nice, but the underside requires a fair amount of work to fit on the car.

The first issue is that the fiberglass is too thick around the rear hood pin holes and needs to be removed and the resultant holes re-glassed.

The second issue is that the hood doesn’t have enough arch, and therefore doesn’t match the fender lines. My plan for this was to grind away the gelcoat and cut slits in the hood, get the arch I need, and then re-glass the hood.

A lot of work.

I also have an older AAR hood. It was a big disappointment. It has no air box underneath and the bracing was inadequate, causing the center part of the hood to bow down over time. This also caused the corners to raise up.

Fortunately, I found a factory hood that only needed minor repairs and refinishing.

So that is my experience with two of the aftermarket hoods that are/were recently on the market

 

[rjbsj]

Are you building a Super Bee or RR clone? I bought one of the RR hoods that are in white gelcoat and sold on eBay. The hood looked really nice, but the underside requires a fair amount of work to fit on the car.

The first issue is that the fiberglass is too thick around the rear hood pin holes and needs to be removed and the resultant holes re-glassed.

The second issue is that the hood doesn’t have enough arch, and therefore doesn’t match the fender lines. My plan for this was to grind away the gelcoat and cut slits in the hood, get the arch I need, and then re-glass the hood.

A lot of work.

I also have an older AAR hood. It was a big disappointment. It has no air box underneath and the bracing was inadequate, causing the center part of the hood to bow down over time. This also caused the corners to raise up.

Fortunately, I found a factory hood that only needed minor repairs and refinishing.

So that is my experience with two of the aftermarket hoods that are/were recently on the market

Good information. Thanks. It is a 69 coronet

 

[Bird 426]

For what it's worth, I have a plain fiberglass hood on my '69 Dart. Got it from Glasstek. The bow in the hood is warped up in the center, side to side. Hood latch was way off, emergency release, same thing. I just went with hood pins. I can live with it. I have done a little fiberglass work, I built an airplane with a fair amount of fiberglass work, even though the plane itself was made of aluminum. Unless you have or know someone who has fiberglass skills, just be forewarned. Not saying not to do this or that any of the afore mentioned will happen to you.
Good luck in your decision!

 

[rjbsj]

For what it's worth, I have a plain fiberglass hood on my '69 Dart. Got it from Glasstek. The bow in the hood is warped up in the center, side to side. Hood latch was way off, emergency release, same thing. I just went with hood pins. I can live with it. I have done a little fiberglass work, I built an airplane with a fair amount of fiberglass work, even though the plane itself was made of aluminum. Unless you have or know someone who has fiberglass skills, just be forewarned. Not saying not to do this or that any of the afore mentioned will happen to you.
Good luck in your decision!

I really appreciate the advice. I’m definitely planning on using 4 pins