NEEDforSPEED

Here's some useful information i typed up...

For those getting a fiber glass hood, not every hood will be exactly the same, but as the old saying goes " you get what you paid for"

This info may vary, this may also be used for other fiber glass prep and paint applications...


Most hoods will come coated with a gelcoat that is sandable
1) Take a dual action sander to the surface of the hood, use 150 grit paper, prepare the gelcoat for a sandable primer make sure you get it all sanded,

2) Now using a fiber glass body filler "such as marglass" fix the minor low spots that you know will be visible after its painted,
Before the surface is primed, mark the hood areas that where low by circling them with a greaseless pencil. This way when you prime it you know which areas require more primer.

3) Prime the entire hood with a sandable polyester primer. 3 or 4 coats will allow for adequate build up then guide coat the entire surface for the purposes of showing the texture. Like low and high spots of the primer, "guide coating is typically applied with a spray can of black lacquer paint, it wont look to pretty but it works.

4) Now after that is all done and dry, the primer surface must be wet sanded with a rigid block to keep the surface smooth. 220 grit wet or dry can be used for the first cut, I would recommend wet... after the entire surface has been cut with 220, it can be re-guide coated and then hand sanded with 400 or 500 grit paper. Be sure to use mild pressure, too much force can actually put waves into the fresh surface.

5) Now with the hood completely sanded, hang it where there's no dirt or particles, better yet a painting booth and de-grease the surface with a wax or grease remover.

6) Now its time for your paint base coat you can apply it in 3 medium coats on both the inside and outside of the hood, depending on what hood you have
you may or may not be able to do this...
the clear coat is the last step in the paint application , now its up too you how many coats you want. I would go with 4 medium wet coats of clear, in preparation for color sanding.

7) After the clear has cured, wet sand the surface with 2000 grit sandpaper to remove imperfections .

8) Now put the color sanded hood in to the sun for a process whereby the solvents evaporate from the paint after 2 or 3 hours of the hood being in the sun, the clear can be polished to a shine.

GTA4ME

Sticky...

jpk91rs

I have always been told that you should put an unpainted fiberglass hood on your car for awhile before you paint it so it can cure and weather. I am not sure of the source, but I do remember the tip.

x_wolf

I just bought a harwood outlaw Z 4 inch cowl hood (comes friday). I won't be able to paint it right away, and it comes black, so your saying theres gonna be lots of spots where its hangin down or looks not flat?

thanks this is an interesting read....hope it comes in good shape...

NEEDforSPEED

I believe harwoods good, Im sure you can just paint it as is, depending on your purpose for the hood, drag car? Appearance?... if your willing to put forth the effort seriously i would go ahead and spend the time its going to look 110% better in the long run ... forking out $400 or more for hood it should be just a shot of paint, bolt on and away you go! But that isn't the case with most fiber glass parts ... at any rate no matter who manufactures it,
its going to have imperfections ... its fiber glass...
it comes from a mold that can be used numerous times before a new mold is used so imperfections are the norm...

x_wolf

mmkmay....so how much would this sorta thing usually cost? money is a major issue to me. I have none

cheers!

GarageToys

iTrader: (6)

Some brands of fiberglass hoods come with about a 1" lip all the way around the hood (so the hood looks like it's 1" thick). Every Harwood I've ever seen had this lip, as did mine. I don't know what its purpose was, but it looks bad.

I bought a roll of 1/4" wide pinstriping tape and aligned the top of the tape with the top plane of the hood, so the bottom of the tape was exactly 1/4" down on all sides. Then I took a pneumatic cutoff wheel and trimmed the hood at the bottom of the pinstripe tape to leave all the edges at 1/4" all the way around.

Here's a pic after I trimmed it, but before I sanded the edges smooth. You can also see where I fixed the corner that was damaged in shipping:

GarageToys

iTrader: (6)

Here is the front by the headlight door (after I trimmed it). With the big lip on the hood, the headlight used to hit the hood when flipping-up. (The hood isn't shut all the way in this pic so you can see the edges.)

x_wolf

k the edges might look bad, but what about dips in the actual hood? How much does that type of thing usually cost to repair/make not noticeable nice guide, oh and nice firebird!

GarageToys

iTrader: (6)

I haven't block-sanded the hood yet, but it looks really straight under my fluorescent garage lights. I don't think it'll take much work at all on the topside.

Underneath, I've probably got 20-30 hours in it. After I trimmed the edges down to 1/4", I decided to glass-in the gap between the edge of the hood and where the inner structure is bonded. It looks smoooooth under there now. I also re-radiused the rear scoop a little bit. You wouldn't have to do any of that. I'm just kind of a perfectionist. Of course, that's why my car isn't done.

x_wolf

lol right on, so whats with the underside? I wish I had my hood here so I knew what you were talking about and had a better idea. Is it pretty clean on the underside? not chopped up or shoddy fiberglass work? I really like that newer T/A wing on the car. It looks cool.

NEEDforSPEED

i hate that, i want to grind down the lip but dunno if i should...

x_wolf

Welp, got my harwood and I must say they do an AWSOME job with their hoods. We looked at it in even and uneven light to see if there were any bumps or shallow areas and there isn't a single one on it! The underside is nice and smooth and made just right. There is sort of a lip around the edge but its nowhere near 1". Its more like a quarter of an inch. Thanks for the info and take it easy!

MCas7

The reason for the lip around the edge is to give it strength. I have a Harwood 2-1/2" lift off and it had the edge. They say in the directions to leave at LEAST a quarter inch.

jpk91rs

I have a Harwood cowl hood on my 72 PU. I will never own another one. I will just add 50 horsepower to makeup the speed. The outer and innner sections have started coming apart, (debonding), and as soon as I get the Goodmark steel hood for my truck the Harwood will go up in a Blaze of Glory. Just my $.02.

War_Eagle

There was an interesting question brought up. I also have heard that you should leave a fiberglass hood unfinished for awhile for it to finish curing, Is that true? How long? Thanks........

NEEDforSPEED

Iv never heard of that..."or maybe i have" but it doesnt seem like it would hurt anything...
id say 3 days to a week? that would be mine guess...

where did you hear that by the way?

XJOSHX

I have a harwood 4" bolt on hood. My car is fully apart and I had the hood in a shelf. I went in the garage one day and somehow it was on the ground. I walked opver to it and the passengers corner near the widow was busted. I guess thats where it landed when it fell. Now the hood is seperating. I am too cheap to go out and buy another one so I want to re join the top to the bottom. Do you guys have any idea on how I should do this? http://www.fforce.newbedfordwebs.com/project1.php there are a few pics of the car right there with the hood not painted. I know they are dark but I should have some better pics up soon.

EvilCartman

iTrader: (1)

It said right in the directions that came with my harwood to put it on the car and the sunlight and engine heat will help cure the hood.

NEEDforSPEED

ya i herad all that, but i was thinking more like off the car leting it sit... o'well

topless89rs

the instructions that came with my cervini hood said to let it cure in the sun for either a few hours or a few days i can't remember. or it said you could bake it in an oven at 150 degrees for 4 hours to cure it.

NEEDforSPEED

not a house oven im sure

robsgta

well i took on the task of dusting off my paint gun and painting my own hood wich I had to buy after my girl friend rear ended our next door neighbor getting on the freeway .. wich ended up being a 2 1/2 inch cowl hood from Harwood.
the hood was in immaculant shape no low spots or dips.I wet sanded the hood with 800 grit very lightly then let it dry and cleaned with a solvent (paint thinner i think) 2 thick primer sealer coats, 2 thick base coats and 4 shotts of clear and then i let it dry outs side over night.
well for the last two years the clear coat had slowly been cracking on my fiberglass notch bac wich I painted also.

some one was wanting to know the cost.
you need a compressor of course and a dryer inline to keep water out of the line when you paint.
-paint gun cost me 165.00 but there are plenty out there cheaper.
-(1) 11/2 pints of metallic flame red paint cost me 90 bucks
-(1) qrt paint activator 25 bucks mix 4 to 1 with paint base coat
-(1) gal thinner 5 bucks to clean gun and wipe surfaces clean b4 you paint them
- primer sealer 1 qrt 15 bucks and hardening additive 1 qrt12bux
-clear paint 45 bucks a quart with one quart activator 25 bucks
-(1) harwood hood 325 from summit or jegs

I got sevarl estimates to have it done professioanly they were all over 1 grand to do bothe so i did it my self with just paint materials around 300 bucks for paint & supplies
-

robsgta

nice job grasshopper:lala:

NEEDforSPEED

wax on - wax off...

good job grasshopper

Gumby

Mothers say you should wait a min of 3 months before you wax.

robsgta

Well if you shoot your last shot of clear and dont touch the surface after the last shot 3 months should be fine.

But if you wet sand or buff the cured surface to take out any orange peal or imperfections you should then protect the surface with wax because you be leaving your freshly pollished surface open to contamination.

NEEDforSPEED

has anyone used this info?
or found this to be helpful?

Dr.NickRiviera

I will use this info when i replace my hood. Thou if anyone knows of a way to reshape" fiberglass, I'm all ears. I have a RA II hood and the drivers front lip next to the head light seems like it is warping up.

NEEDforSPEED

it could be the car it self, have you been in any accadents?
the front might be the bad part, let me know if you'v looked into that...

Dr.NickRiviera

no accidents. I know it's just that lip of the hood as it lines up ok on top of the drivers headlight.

I've thought about doing hood pins and getting rid of the conventional latch as the cable needs readjusting because it doesn't let go every time, and the hood pin could force that side down.

robsgta

Looks like two hood pins.. or the flush style hood locks that you lock with a penny..One on each side of the headlight would solve the problem.. It might be too much trouble or cost too much to go about doing it any other way...
I would also make sure that your hood adjustment on that corner is all the way down as well..

x_wolf

my camaros hood lip is tooh igh in the center. Either it won't latch, or it sticks up too high. Its a harwood 4 inch cowl latch type.

Anyone else run into that issue?

cheers!

robsgta

A buddy of mine ran across the same deal with his car and it turned out that he had gotten his bumber support bent or pushed down from a fender bender he was in a few years bac.
We got a 5 foot pry bar and pulled it back up a 1" or so untill it lined up to match perfect.

nick418

thanks TONY i found this INFO very useful for my purchase on A SS hood

megaracerx

:werd:...ok ok....i'll stop....

nick418

:werd: :werd: :werd: :werd: i think you get the picture?