wasp

i call my mechanic (ex mechanic at this point), say i want a quote to paint and fit my ram air ws6 replica hood i got from hawks.....i mounted it but i have a griffin rad which sits high so it was hitting the cap and not closing fully, maybe 3/4" above nose piece it was.......first he slips out the back door with his "body guy" and doesnt say ill meet you out there or anything, like he wanted to look at it without me, so i was like wtf right there.............then he proceeds to tell me the hood is a pos and it needs alot of work, his body guy then says , oh were going to have to cut the rad mount and drop the rad to get it to fit.........i says well the fenders are allready flush at this point so what are you gonna do lower them too? i said , nah your not touching the rad, the mech asks me what i payed for it , i said with shipping $500.............he says well you could have gotten it from me for $900 and it would have been sweet not needing much work...............i said look all i wanted was a quote not for you to rip my hood apart...........he says , well its going to cost you more than what you payed for it to look right.................i said you know what , see you later.

i go about 2 miles down the road, another shop, first right off the bat i says to the guy, what do you think of this hood? he says ive seen worse, a little sanding with some 400 grit and some sealer it will be fine, i said how much to fit and paint it? he says $250, i said wow thats cheap.........so i go home and was still steamed, i spent 2 hours working on it , all i had to do was shim the nose piece up, this is a 91 bird , its plastic............theres a bit of a gap but hey , its a fiberglass aftermarket hood................its not a ferrari, it looks fine to me..................and that goon wanted to drop my rad, a body guy even!!!!!!!

Z28ricer

iTrader: (2)

He didnt say he wanted to drop your fenders nor lower the rest of the car, it would be very possible to rework the lower radiator mount downwards to lower a radiator, without altering anything else.

Good that you got it to fit, but put a little thought into what you're told and you might learn a few things.

wasp

if he dropped the rad the hood would have dropped 3/4" making it that much below both fenders, then the fenders would have to be moved.................yeah i should have listened to him , better yet, payed $900 for a gel coated hood..................

TuOrZ

That doesn't sound right

if it's lining up with the fenders, it should be lining up with the nose, if that was the case and the only thing preventing it from closing was the radiator then he was right, the right way would be to drop the radiator a little (actualy I'd say the right way would be to buy a radiator that fits, especially an aftermarket VERY expensive one but whatever).

and for the record, the one hawks hood I've seen really was overpriced and needed a lot of work for being so expensive.

"theres a bit of a gap" aka you took the easy not so perfect way out, but hey what do I know... all my body panels need to be realligned

wasp

well its flush with the nose ,the nose is about 5/8" away from the hood where as the spaces on both sides between the fender and the hood is about 1/4" .................just different size space thats all.........................

tom3

Sounds like the guy just wanted to sell you a hood. Most of the body shops these days are looking for insurance work. Bolt on some new front parts, spray it, collect a $3000 check.