I found an 82 Z28 in a junk yard near Stafford, VA, oh, almost a year and a half ago, (I was with Stevo, a member here, and his girlfriend). It had the SMC (factory GM fiberglass) hood that was in pretty good shape. There was no paint on it, and it was covered in dirt. I asked the guy at the counter how much he wanted for it, and he told me $40. So we strapped it to the roof of my Camaro, drove up route 1 going 30-35 MPH for about 45 min to Manassas, VA. It really must have looked funny seeing a Camaro driving down route 1 with a hood strapped on the roof. We couldn't continue much longer like this. So Stevo's girlfriend called her father who lived closed to where we were. He agreed we shouldn't continue any more and he let me leave it at his house for a couple weeks. Until I could find the time to drive back down in a pickup to get it.

Here are 2 pics from when I got it home and washed it.




Well, I stored it in the hallway leading to my apartment until this March. This guy at work has a friend (who works at a body shop), with a Camaro and he needed a hood for it. So the guy at worked asked me if I could find one for him. I told the guy from work that if his friend prepped and paint my 82 Z28 hood, he could have my current hood for free. All was good until at the last minute, he realized I had a RS flat hood and not a IROC hood. So he called the deal off. Well, I told my good buddy Stevo (whom I met on TGO) what happened and boy did he have the answer. He had just replaced his 92 Z28 hood (identical to the IROC hood) with a fiberglass cowl hood. And he had a buyer for just the blisters and needed to find a home for the hood. So I told the guy at work to tell his friend I found a MINT hood for him, and so the deal was back on. I gave Stevo $75 for his hood, and loaded up both hoods and took them to my buddy at work.

So I dropped the hoods off on March 11th to get painted. It just so happened, that he was painting his car the exact same paint code on my car. I was a little concerned about the paint matching, but it was certainly a cheap answer. So after a couple weeks I asked about my hood to the guy at work. He got back to me the next day saying that since his friend had to do the hood as a side job, it wasn't ready yet. Well, April and May went by with progress reports coming very slowly. I was starting to get a little concerned and I finally get the news it's Finally done. It was 2 or 3 weeks later until I had time to to get the hood. So on June 22nd I went to my work buddies house and we put it on. Even though I had gotten new hood struts a little over a year ago, they were already kinda weak, so I just used them. They are perfect for the lighter hood. Here's a pic of it a day or to after we put it on.



Looks pretty good but it really looks kinda funny, or incomplete. It need the recessed part in black, and it needed the simulated "flaps" installed.

I asked my buddy where they were, and he told me I never gave the "flaps" to him. I had to remind him about the night way back in March when he offered to sandblast the "flaps" for me so I could rattle can them. I kinda knew when I dropped off the hoods that I should keep those pieces, but because he offered to sandblast them, and at that time I wasn't expecting it to take as long as it did, I let him take them. He confessed that in the time between March and June, he had lost them (the "oh, uh, my dad musta thrown them away excuse"). But he had a catalog that had them. It was a catalog for Eckler's Camaro (www.ecklerscamaro.com) and they have reproduction "simulated flaps", which they describe as Now I don't know if I would have called them "Louvers", but they did, and they are exactly like the ones that were on it when I got the hood, texture and all. They are only $33.99 and I needed new under hood insulation anyways, which they had at only $24.95. So I ordered the "Louvers" and the insulation from them.

So since I had ordered the "Louvers", I now was on a mission to get the vinyl for the "scoop" indentations. I did a search on here and somebody had founds this website (http://www.autografics.com) that sold precut vinyl the "scoops of 82-84 Z28s. Ordered the Heavy Duty vinyl option in black for $32.99.

The vinyl actually came in last Sat., but I didn't want to mess them up, so I had to find a place that knew how to work with vinyl to apply them on for me.

Then on Tue. the "louvers" and insulation came in, I just had to put the "louvers" on to see what it looked like, but I didn't want to install the insulation in case the "louvers" needed to be removed to apply the vinyl.

Pic:


Not to shabby, but you can definitely tell something is just not right!

I had actually found a vinyl shop before I ordered the precut pieces from the above website. I called the shop and asked the owner if he could make the vinyl pieces for me and apply them, but I told him I found a website that I could order them for 33 bux. He told me to order them and then call him when they came in. So I had actually called him the day I got the vinyl in the mail and left a message for him. I wanted to set an appointment for Weds., my day off from work, for him to apply the vinyl. He never returned my call, so on Weds. morning I called the shop and he answered, I told him who I was and reminded him what we talked earlier about, and that the vinyl had arrived. He told me he was a little bit busy, but he would return my call. He never did return my call, so today I was on a test drive with a customer (I work as a saleman at a dealer) and we passed the tint shop down the street from work. Well out front of the shop they have a van with a badass vinyl design on it. So after lunch today I called the tint shop and told them I already had the vinyl, I just needed someone who knew what they were doing to apply it. They told me come on over, for $50 they would put them on for me.

So after a year and a half and about $257 later, I finally got my Factory GM fiberglass 82 Z28 hood done. It feels good to get a project finished!!!

 

And here is the result of all this craziness:






All thats left is to install the insulation. Now the under side of the hood isn't painted so I have a few options. I can rattle can the underside red or maybe even black, then install the insulation. Or, I could leave it unfinished and install the insulation. I kinda like the 2nd idea so it's pretty obvious that the hood is fiberglass.

Here is a pic of what it looks like now, you can see where the guy who painted the hood reinforced it.



So what do you guys think??? What should I do on the underside of the hood? Rattle can it red or black? Or just leave it unfinished and install the insulation?

Can you guys please leave any negative comments to yourself. I do not care if you don't like it, or if you think I should have gotten a different hood.

Oh and BTW: Stevo for helping me

 

excellent find! looks very similiar to the way my little bros turned out since i put my hood on his car and had it painted. i say "great choice!"

 

i'd prolly rattle can it red then install the insulation.

looks real nice! props.

 

just be warned those hoods are notorious for the fiberglass seperating and flying apart, but otherwise looks sweet I've always loved them

 

That was only on certain 83 SMC hoods. In order to save a few bux, GM changed the supplier for the glue that held it together. And when GM switched vendors, the glue was bad. So GM put a recall on certain 83 SMC hoods because of this glue failure. This hood is a 82 hood, therefore, the glue that holds this hood together is not the same as the hoods that are notorious for separating. That's why I was so excited when I found a 82 Z28 SMC hood in this condition. I did a lot of research on this, I even found the range of VIN #s that the recall applied to.

FYI: If you had one of those hoods effected by the recall, GM replaced it with a steel hood. And all 84 Z28 hoods were steel. And I think technically speaking, if you still have a hood that falls into the recall, GM would still have to honor it and buy you a new hood, and have it painted!

 

your right it was the 83's that had the problem I always get them confused

 

You know, it looks good , I know it looks good. keep it up! you got once sexy car

 

what about the inside of the hood what color will you paint it, needs paint badly

 

Did you not read the whole post

 

Looks good Kris, i wonder what a photoshop of your car with black headlight pockets would look like.

 

Thanks Steve,

As you probably already know, I am not a fan of the black headlight pockets. But it would be interesting to see.

 

looks good man I love those hoods, I'd rattle can it red, and while your there you miswell rattle can the rest of the engine bay!

 

Well, I dunno it doesn't look that bad. But I think I prefer it the way it is.

 

the hood looks really good, the vynal really helps the look of it also since the slots looked too bare without it. i think that black headlight buckets would look sick. what did you do with your rs hood?

 

I still like my car the way it is, without the black headlight pockets. I have my RS hood sitting in storage.

 

Hood looks good...nice job.

I'd paint the underside red and install the insulation.

 

im acttully thinking about buy one of those years fiberglass hoods for my 91 z i almost bought one for 100 but didnt know how it would look now that i know i wish i woulda. is it alot lighter then the other hood?>