drperformance

iTrader: (5)

I have finally decided to get a fiberglass hood over tubular a arms for drag racing weight savings but am unsure whether to get a lift off or bolt on.

Does any one know the weights of:

Stock steel hood
Fiberglass bolt on hood
Fiberglass lift off / pin on hood

85SILVERBULLET1

Lift off hoods are a pain in the ***. Not to mention they are usually pretty thin and the glass may look a little wavy. I have a glasstech 4 inch cowl and it was not much lighter than the factory TA hood.

327???

I've got a factory z28 fiberglass hood, it's not much lighter, if any, than the factory steel hood.

AlkyIROC

I use a factory fiberglass hood. It's lighter than a steel hood but it's still heavy compared to a thin lift off hood. I've gone through a few of them over the years trying different things. I keep an eye out while in the junkyard for more but haven't seen one in a couple of years now.

As mentioned above, lift off hoods are a pain. A third gen hood is approximately 5' x 5.5" in size. That's a huge hood to lift off by yourself.

One of the main reasons I don't use a lift off hood is that I don't have a pit crew and my fuel cell is mounted up front. I have to open my hood after every round to top up the fuel. With such a big and heavy hood, that task becomes impractical many times a day.

I do remove my hood if I have to pull the engine. After unbolting it from the hinges, it doesn't take that much to lift it up and put it on the roof while in the garage but it's still a chore.

I use hood pins at the front corners and have installed 2 Dzus fasteners at the rear and 2 at the front to keep the hood from lifting at 110+ MPH. The scoop catches a lot of air. A full lift off hood needs at least 4 Dzus fasteners down the side and 4 across the front to hold the hood on. With that many fasteners, lets hope you don't need to get the hood open in a hurry.

drperformance

iTrader: (5)

OK, it sounds like the lift off hood are a pain and there is not that much weight savings with a bolt on. I also know that there is a very good chance that a fiberglass hood will not fit as good as the factory steel hood. So is a fiberglass hood wirth $500+????

I would want the ability to open the hood inbetween passes so the bolt on one sounds more attractive to me, but if it is not going to save me a lot of weight I am second thinking.

DIGGLER

iTrader: (1)

i hate my lift off hood and have been considering going back to a stock hood. or at least fabricating some sort of hinges for this one.

AlkyIROC

Any fiberglass hood including a factory one is a weight saving over a steel hood. The factory fiberglass hood however has those stupid fake inlet scoops in it. If they had made a flat fiberglass hood, it would have been so much better. When I put a cowl onto my hood, I needed to get the longest cowl available in order to cover the indents in the hood.

An aftermarket hood gives you many options as to what kind of hood design you want. Flat, cowl, IROC, etc all molded directly into the hood.

KWIK84

iTrader: (5)

Guess, I'm in the minority, but I love my lift off 4" cowl VFN hood...all 12 lbs of it!!!

project89

iTrader: (1)

i have a bolt on 2.5 in cowl and i love it deff lighter then the stocker.
ive also done the 4inch lift off cowl hood before, i used 4 pins 2 front and 2 rear.

the liftoff was easy enough to take off myself but it was harwood so it had the ruff finished underside and i did manage to scratch the roof of the car up a bit setting the hood up there.

if u do go with a liftoff hood do urself a favor and hot glue 4 sponges around the edges of the hood so when u take it off and set it ontop of ur car dont scratch the roof all up

89importeater

i thought about going with a pin in hood but i just couldnt get the thought of a underhood fire our of my mind and me lookin like a idiot trying to hurry and undo all those fasteners, especially if you are a one man crew. just food for thought.

1320_Guy

iTrader: (3)

I have a 4" glasstec lift off hood. I love it weighs 10 lbs i think. I am 6'2" and my arms are easily long enough take the hood off by myself. I love the look on peoples face when i take it off by my self.

Batass

I also run a lift off fiberglass. It is a pain in the *** to take off. I hear it crack a little every time I take it off myself. Hopefully when I paint it, it doesnt crack the paint. Sure is light though.

I also worry about the amount of time it would take to get it off in case of a fire....

//<86TA>\\

iTrader: (14)

if you dont need a cowl hood, VFN sells stock style glass hoods

checked they have it, they also have formula style hoods, they are both 18 lbs for a bolt on.

the 4.5" cowl is 22lbs.
http://www.vfnfiberglass.com/site.htm

drperformance

iTrader: (5)

I am going to go with a stock style hood and thinking a Glasstek at the moment. But what is everyones thoughts on VFN or Glasstek?

//<86TA>\\

iTrader: (14)

my vfn hood required a bit of finishing, has some pinholes in the gelcoat. But the fit is very good

xpndbl3

iTrader: (5)

i love my glasstek 4" lift off, no more banging my head when working on the motor at the track, there's ALWAYS someone who could give you a hand to pull it off.

87_TA

I had the VFN 4" bolt-on for my TA that they advertised as some rediculious weight of like 15 lbs - it weighed more like 25, when I contacted the company they said it was a missprint - guess what, same missprint is still there! hmmm.

I also hated the fit, ended up using the factory hood.
Any weight you take off the front is good weight reguardless though... So deffinetly worth looking into. Lift offs are deffinetly a pain on these cars, more so on Camaro's.. I have one on my mine, its hard to do by yourself especially if you have a nice paintjob - I don't , if you have a Camaro 82-83 Z28's came with factory fiberglass hoods that are hard to come by, great fit heavy duty and lighter than factory. I happen to have one to

89305formula

iTrader: (5)

i have the glasstek 4in cowl bolt on hood on my formula, it fits great and there are no problems with it yet