ATTN: Cowl hood owners!

M

MIKE 38sc

Registered User
I'm looking to buy a new cowl hood soon and I was wondering if you guy's that have them could give me some info on your hood.
I'm wondering about fit and finnish. I realize there will be some prep work to get to the painting stage but I really dont want to have to rebuild the thing in order for it to fit the car.
I'd appreciate it if you could tell me about your hood and how satisfied or dissatisfied you've been with it.
Did you have issues with hinge bolts not lining up? Do the gas strut hood props work with the hood? etc..etc..etc.
Thanks.:)
 
I think it would be great if we had a section totally devoted to hoods..As in pictures brand names years ect..Im thinking I;ll need one soon..You know..get that hot air out;IO)
 
Well the TCCOA has several hoods in there most wanted parts section but not alot of info. I went to the manufacturers sites and again not much info. Thats slightly aggravating!
I'm not too concerned about heat, I need clearance!:D
 
Who to and who NOT to buy....

The best hood for space is the "cobra "R" " hood design. The people NOT to buy from is Lendgenary {not sure on the speelling}. These hoods are junk, as can be seen by looking at any of them that are out there. It took two before I got one that was not too bad. Fit is for shi# and after many hours of goofing around we were able to get it to close. Now before anyone jumps up here, that was with a 25 year body man helping, and on a car that has never been crashed either. There were four or five of them at the last shoot out and everyone had a story about fit and finish....You all have been told about this company before. Someone else must make this hood for these cars, and if not maybe it is time for someone "GOOD" to step up.....Rich
 
I think everyone has a war story about their hood, except maybe Cervini. Mine is from American Sports car design and I am happy with it now. If I knew how difficult it was going to be up front I would not have been so fustrated putting it on. The first one I got had hinge holes drilled wrong and were to thick around the same area, Ron from ASCD apologized and sent me another. The next one was alot better. I would voice your concerns before ordering and you should get a good product.

Godd Luck Gary
 
Deep breath...............................

Ok, I can say that my Age Classic Design hood was a PITA to get working. Here are my impressions.......the good and the bad.

First off, I got a killer deal on the hood. It was only $269 which meant that even with the astronomical charges for shipping, it was still under $400 to my door. Which last I checked, Cervini's are $400 starting. So I can't complain about the price.

The shippers they use suck. The hood came from Texas, on an Overnite Freight truck to Springfield, IL. They broke the first hood.....so I declined it. Then they broke the corner off of my second hood. I had to take it and have some work done to contruct that piece again. Luckily Overnite ate the $100 for fab work.

On the complaint side...........this hood is FRIGGEN HEAVY. Do not get a Age Classic "R" hood for weight savings......cause there ain't much.

First thing I had to do was counter sink the bolt holes on the side of the hood so that the heads of the bolt wouldn't hit the fenders. Then, I discoverd the bolt holes were spaced too far apart for my hinges. If you put one bolt in, the next one wouldn't line up. So I had to shave the bosses off the back of my hinges, then drill new holes, then buy new bolts with poli lock nuts, etc...

Then my hood was WAY too far toward the windshield, but the hinges wouldn't let me move it far enough forward. Again, major hinge mods and all new bolts/fender washers to mount them down. In the end, the hinges had to go about 1 full inch forward.

Then the drivers side edge of the hood had a "bow" in the middle, so I had to raise that fender with 4 washers each on two bolts. But the other fender was fine.

Then the nice fancy billet hood latch plate was too high for the latch. I had to remove the latch, remove the guide pins, cut it up, get all new hardware...............and in the end it was a full inch higher than stock position but STILL wouldn't reach the hood plate.

So I ditched the latch and have hood pins again.

Finally, when I shut the hood, it crushes the plastic cowling just a little bit.

I think the finish is fine of the hood is fine........it certainly looks good, but it did have the "bow" on one side. And the fit was horrible, but after enough work it now looks good. The hood struts do line up and work too.

It sounds like you'll be in for a lot of work with any brand Cobra R hood.

Micah
 
I used one legendary hood in all my year sand it fit fine..I;v ealso used a cervini hood that didnt fit so fine...FG hoods just suck as** in my opinion:O)
 
Hmmmm........Its starting to sound like picking the lesser of 3-4 very bad evils. LOL!.....You know...I expect to have to do a little work but Micah's story scares the hell out of me. I'm starting to think it would be less trouble(or amount to the same) to make my own out of the stock hood. I dont really care about a weight savings but I sure do need clearance for my goody's and it does'nt look like the Cervini will make the cut.....hmmm.....:(
The thing that gets me is paying 400-500$$$ for a part and then having to totaly reengineer and rebuild it, Thats just not right!
I know darn good well that if let one of the rads I'm getting made up go to a customer in that condition that would be the last one anybody bought.
Well I appreciate you guy's comments thanks much.
Anybody else? Please let me hear your war story's so I can gather as much info as possable before making up my mind.
 
Mike it really is sad...From what I know Cervini does make a good hood..But I hear horror stories all over the dam place.And yes..for 400 you should get a dam bolton hood needing no work
 
What if you just used 2 sets of hood pins, one at the front and one at the back? Then you wouldn't have to worry about stock hood struts stressing and cracking the FG, which I hear can happen, and you wouldn't have to worry about the damn hinges. Plus, from what I have heard they are less hassle to move around than the stock hoods, hell, I move 2 stock cougar hoods around all the time, if I can do that then messin with FG hoods wouldn't be a problem at all.
 
Thanks guys I appreciate the honesty on the matter, at least whatever I end up doing I wont be walking into a mine field.

Damon I dont mind having to take care of some small things but after hearing some of the problems I have to wonder if they have ever tried to install one of there own hoods on a car at all.

CougLS I entertained that idea.....but pins and a lift off hood are not an option.
 
Yeah, there is no way you are gonna lift this hood off by yourself. My old Motion Performance hood you could lift by yourself, but was still very awkward to do. If you were at a gas station and wanted to check the oil.........it would have been a huge chore to get the hood off by yourself and not destroy it.

YOu can get any Cervini hood in a lift off for $199 though....and that would probably be light enought to lift around since it probably isn't much more than a skin. But I'm sure it would flop around a lot while driving........so you might need more than just 4 pins.

NO easy way around it.

Micah
 
Micah,Would it be a help if a pair of aluminum hinges could be machined for these hoods.

Or do you think that like your hood ,they would be different every time.

Could a universal aluminum billet hinge be machined, with wider or longer slots.Would this help.

RANDY
 
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Randy, actually I was thinking about this already. I know Wynn "Tbird88" already made a set of aluminum hinges.

I think the best way to ensure a good fit would be to make them blank. Then you can drill where you want the hinge to mount at the hood and the body. And of course, if you could make the body mounting plate a lot bigger (so it can be polished) it would help to cover up the nastiness under the stock hinges and add some bling to the engine bay.

My only major concern would be durability. The stockers have not worn or become sloppy over the years. I imagine aluminum would not hold up as good.

But yeah, I would entertain it. Are you getting the mill fired up?

Micah
 
Micah..I been thinking about this alot. Can you post some pics up close showing me the mounting area around the hinges. I'd really like to see how the glass hoods are mounted.
Maybe I can talk Randy into making me something if I can figure out what I want.
Thanks.:)
 
Mike no problem,You tell me how you want some custom hinges and plates
and I will see if I can widdle you a pair out.When you get some info from Micah.

randy
 
Well Micah maybe you wont have to find a digi cam because I got a look at a Cervini hood. Do you know if they mount the same as yours?
 
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