I apologize in advance as Im sure this is asked often but whats the best method to replace my RS hood with a iroc hood?

I did some research and found one on summit without louvers for 215 and some with for 500+. Ive seen the louvers for sale locally for 200ish.

I know a junkyard that should still have some original hoods as I remember them having a almost 10 3rd gens including a few irocs. They said 125 but theyre never open when Im off work and I dont remember the condition of any of them.

So I was wondering some info from the experts on my best route if I buy a new one. I also read a description of a louver claiming it could be installed on a standard hood. Any insight is appreciated.

Chris

 

Without a doubt your best bet is to buy an original hood. -at least for fit and finish. ...and factory louvers would need a factory Iroc/z28 hood. As for aftermarket louvers, ya never what someone may have produced, -but i'd go with original stuff.

 

The only add-on's I've seen for a flat hood are the 1991-92 Z28 style blisters, and you have to drill 20+ holes in the hood to fit them.

 

 

I picked up a repro "Goodmark" Iroc hood about a year ago for under $200 shipped. Goodmark stopped carrying them, so a bunch of places have liquidated the inventory in the last couple years. Mine came from Keystone off Ebay. The actual hood is an offshore stamping, with a Goodmark sticker slapped on the box. The stamping itself is pretty damn nice. No issues that I can see. I haven't gotten much further than slipping it out of the box to make sure it hadn't been curb-stomped by a forklift, so I can't comment on how it fits the car. If it fits like sour Owl excrement I'm only out $200. I still might be able to save my OE hood (hail), so it's mostly just there to hedge my bets.

It's worth mentioning I'd been keeping an eye open for a good used Z28/Iroc hood for nearly twenty years, and most of what I found were too far away, overpriced, or in worse condition than the golfball lunar surface hood I already had on the car. Hoods are kind of hard to come by in the junkyard since at least 50% of the irocs I've seen in junkyards have been smashed in front. Then you've got all the flat hood folks that want an Iroc hood for their Franken-Cam-bird-IroT/A-Z buying up anything decent... Pretty soon the options are slim pickens.

 

Interesting I had no idea they were rare.

I had an iroc in the early 00's but ive been out of the f-body scene since. In January of this year I took a day off work and went on a junkyard binge. I wasnt looking for Irocs but I remember noticing them.

The first junkyard I remember was a good 90-120 min away. I recall seeing about 10 3rd gens and I want to say 2-3 irocs. I wish I could remember better. The second was maybe an hour away I remember having a white Iroc hood. I made a mental note because I thought about getting somebody to weld the louvers on my 88 monte carlo ss that was totalled since then and I replaced with my RS camaro. I think the corner was bent and it was otherwise in pretty good shape to the best of my memory.

I also checked a really amazing yard last week. They had a good 20 3rd gens (mostly pretty bad condition). I need to go back as I had 20 minutes before closing time. The owner didnt think they had any iroc hoods but I wouldnt be surprised if Id run across one searching the yard. They had an early 80's z28 hood.

So the predicament Im in is both yards are only open M-F the hours I work. I dont have a truck either so I would also need to arrange with my friend and mechanic a time he could go which hes typically working then also.

Im definitely leaning towards salvage yard route. The guy quoted me at 125. Sounds like a better investment too.

 

Around here, most thirdgens in salvage yards look like a turkey carcass the day after Thanksgiving. They're not rare, just not easy to come by.

 

Im a big Monte Carlo SS/gbody guy and its pretty remarkable to me how much better condition the average of those is then the average third gen. I would expect thered be lots of sunday driver regals but Ive always thought of SS as having somewhat of a cultural similarity to 3rd gens.