My Harwood 4" C/I hood was delivered yesterday. I'm not sure how many fiberglass hoods my body shop has installed. I'm most concerned with how they will trim the rolled edges. Don't want frayed edges on the thing.

Any advice?

edit: seems like I saw a post somewhere regarding this. Can't seem to find it though. Something about scoring the hood first.

There is no "Basics of Basics" on it but I can give you a tip. You may not like this tip, at first glance is seems sorta hacky. But if you think about it, it is a quality way to do it. It was taught to me by the local Vette specialist.

You need to find the point on the hood that is the most "too high." Let's say that you have a decent fit but along the top of the fender it is too high at the front and too low everywhere else back. You want to sand the high spot down until you are happy that you have cut it as much as possible without jeopardizing the integrity by thinning it too much. Then you align the hood so that highest point is just shy of being perfect to the fender, just a tad low. You then shave the sides of the hood until you have a perfect gap around. You do the same thing as the top. Find the widest point and shave it until you are happy that you have went as far as you can without cutting it too thin.

You will probably have a few areas that the gap is too big for your liking. You want to sand that edge with 80 grit so the gel coat is good and roughed up.

Now, sand the hood on top where it is low, sand REAL good out into the hood with 80 or even 36. I don't like to go out too far with the 36 because you are going to be feathering it out and you don't want to have those scratches to deal with.

You should have the hood fitting as good as you can with the highest points on the top just shy of the top of the fenders and the edges so that the narrowest gap is "livable." The edges need to be sanded well and the top is ready for filler in the low areas and in from the edge maybe as much as a foot towards the center of the hood.

Now before you read on, think about this. The hood is fiberglass, right? It is polyester resin with fiberglass strands that make give the resin strength, that is ALL it is. The gel coat is simply a polyester resin with some talc and pigment for color. So now that we have that straight, you are going to fill the low spots with Evercoats "Everglass," a fine cut fiberglass strand reinforced polyester filler.

Get some cardboard and stick it down into the gaps between the hood and the fenders. This is going to be your "levy" for the Everglass. Spread the Everglass on the hood up to this cardboard and press it down into any gaps in the cardboard.

After the Everglass hardens, break out the cardboard and sand the Everglass flat to the tops of the fenders. On the edges do the same.

Remember, you are only talking a little bit on the edges, so don't freak out thinking that you have "bondoed" the edge of the hood. It IS the same material remember. In fact, if you ever sanded a part good around the edges you many times will find that the gel coat is VERY thick. I have seen gel coat on the edges an eighth of an inch or more!

So just block the Everglass out, feathering it out onto the hood and get it a little low to the fenders. Now, skim coat the whole area with a polyester putty and finish sand it blocking with 120 or 180.

There is no reason why your fiberglass hood shouldn't fit PERFECT. I just did a Pontiac Gran Prix "hot rod" hood with a bunch of scoops and things on it. It was very high cost hood and it fit like CRAP. I did exactly as I have outlined above. It is black, it looks absolutely beautiful and he blew away all his Gran Prix club buddies. Their cars hoods look like crap now when he parks with them, the darn thing looks like a factory steel GM hood, maybe even fits better!

If you ever saw a Vette with perfect panel gaps, this is how they did it. You don't really think they fit that well from the factory did you?

Hey, now there is a "Basics of Basics" on fitting a fiberglass hood! graemlins/hurray.gif

As always, sage advice from our resident expert. Much thanks graemlins/thumbsup.gif

I have changed the title of the thread to: "Basics of Basics: Fiberglass hood installation" to make it easier for others to find it.

Thanks again.

can I use the everglass to repair a broken corner on a hood? I have a fiberglass hood that is actually missing a rear corner, it looks like someone dropped the hood and broke it off. I was hoping I could make the shape out of a thin piece of plywood and then cover with filler and blend into the hood. My only concern was after it was done would the repaired section expand at a different rate than the rest of the hood and crack. Any better ways to fix this?

Originally posted by TimC:
As always, sage advice from our resident expert. Much thanks graemlins/thumbsup.gif

I have changed the title of the thread to: "Basics of Basics: Fiberglass hood installation" to make it easier for others to find it.

Thanks again. Cool Tim, thanks smile.gif


Dave, depending on how big the missing piece is. If it is something like an eigth inch or something, sure you could do it like this. If it is more than that, I'd say your best bet is with some fiberglass mat and resin. You could "cheat" and try some Evercoat "Kitty hair" which is a long strand fiberglass reinforced filler. They also have even a longer strand "Tiger hair" but I think it would be of no use to you on this project.

What ever you use, this is a run down on doing it.

Grind the top and bottom of the panel at the missing part. You want to use 36 grit or so so you have a good surface for the resin or Kitty hair to bite to. Just "thin" the edge down a little, may be so you cut a half of the original thickness down. That would be an eighth of the thickness on top and an eighth on the bottom. This thinning should taper off in an inch or two. Turn the hood upside down and make a "mold" out of masking tape "under" the hood. You need to make sure that the tape isn't hanging "down" (it really is up because the hood is upside down, just wanted to make that clear) because if the "mold" is hanging down, then the glass or filler will be hanging down too.

So mix up some resin, it is not rocket science so don't be too concerned with the amount of hardener you add. Just get it close to the directions.

One side note here, be sure that your hardener is FRESH. If is is old hardener, it will not harden. I learned this the hard way. Evercoats MEKP (Methel Ethel Ketone Peroxide, toss that out at a party) fiberglass hardener has a date stamp where the tube is vulcanized.

Cut some pieces of mat (there is "Mat" and "Cloth", mat is the one with fibers going in all different directions, cloth is a perfect crisscross pattern) in the shape you need to fill the missing part. (actually you want these cut BEFORE you mix the resin) Make these pieces bigger than you need because you can grind them down to any size, that is the cool thing about fiberglass.

Brush (use the throw away cheapie brushes, 1" wide would well for most projects) the resin onto the area covering all the grinded area. Place the mat onto the wet resin and brush some more resin into the mat until it is wet and will look transparent. Do this with a few more pieces of mat and let it cure.
Fiberglass curing is like the pot of water boiling only worse. Just leave the darn thing until the next day, it is not like "bondo".

The next day you can turn the hood back over and grind the area into shape. Then if it seems solid, just apply some Everglass or Kitty hair to the top and feather it out with a skim coat of polyester putty just like any "dent".

You can shape and smooth the back as best as you can just like a metal part, put some filler on the stuff that you are unable to smooth out perfect.

You can finish this off to perfection with polyester putty.

If you want to try it without the resin and mat, use the Kitty hair the same way as I have discribed the resin and mat. Grind the edge, make the "mold" from tape and apply the Kitty hair. Let it cure and sand it so shape.

graemlins/waving.gif

Hey Guys!
Sorry to Dig up this post, but I saw no point in starting a new one.

I got the same hood. A Harwood 4" cowl induction pin-on hood. I have never done one of these and I'm in the process of trying to convince my car club that at our next meeting, to do a demo on this.....not likely. Anyhow, I first thought I was going to get out the old Dremel tool and cut out notches around the hood bumpers to lower the hood down to fender height, then drill 4 holes for the pins....but thats not going to work. Or is it?

bump

Originally posted by LXXVI:
I was going to get out the old Dremel tool and cut out notches around the hood bumpers to lower the hood down to fender height, then drill 4 holes for the pins....but thats not going to work. Or is it? The body shop fit my hood so I can't tell you what tool they used, but the lip of the hood was trimmed as you describe.

T