Any sugeastions on what type of Ram air for my 72? I would like one with the steel liner but it has not been made. I am reluctant to go with the all Fiberglass one due to strenght. An original is going for over $3000. Unless I had a car worthy of that cost I would not consider it. Any sugestions?

Thanks
Tim72

 

I bought an aftermarket hood from Brothers 2 years ago off Ebay....it was $420 and once painted looks great...I used the aftermarket suggested springs and they hold the hood up fine and shut as good as the factory springs...I also bought the aftermarket hood pins and retainers....lined up very well.....I did however have to adapt the stainless hood moulding (by cutting in half due to the incresed thickness in the hood) the moulding wouldn't fit over the intended hood edge, this is on the very rear edge of the hood. The front of the air scoops are slightly different than stock in appearance, most people can't tell the difference unless you were to point it out...I did keep my stock hood however since this is an SX convertible and 1 of 793 built ( I have every piece of paperwork that came with the car) so I want to keep it where I can change it back if I ever need to.

 

Tim,

Sadly if you're on a budget you may have to go with all glass.

Be ware of the Parts Place Inc. I purchased my glass hood from them and it was pure junk. (To my knowledge their hoods are supplied by Glasstek).

The body and paint shop was doing final assemly of my car and when they mounted the hood the nuts were pulling right trough the glass. They took the hood back off and found that the only thing holding in the mounting nuts was fiberblass and epoxy! No backing or anything! Pretty dangerous considering the scoops are designed to catch air.

The shop had to cut open the hood, install steel plates, drill them, tap then, then reglass the hood and paint it. In all cost me over $400 for them to reinforce the hood and over $600 for the hood itself.

I notified the Parts Place of the problem and after spending a lot of money with them, they refused to back the product or even help out with the repair costs.

I've whined about this before on this forum, but i'm still chapped about it. Granted they have good prices on some nice parts, but I still refuse to use them because of their poor service and lack of follow up.

Hopefully the economy will get the best of such a poorly run company and their competition with good customer service will take over their territory.

Thornton has steel frame hoods for 70', but I'm not so sure about 71-71'

http://gawain.membrane.com/~thornton/hood.html

 

They are pricey but Thornton does have them for 70-72. They are supposed to be the best repro available.
http://gawain.membrane.com/~thornton/hood.html

 

You cant go wrong with one of the hoods from Thornton. Some of the aftermarkets just dont fit correctly and a lot work sometimes is needed to get them looking close to correct. The Parts Place is planning on having the 71-72 steel liner at some point,but when I called them they could not give a time frame.If you plan on using Thornton you are going have to be patient because they had a waiting list and I had been trying to order one from them since last July. They finally took my order about 2 weeks ago,Their hoods are suppose to be just like what GM originally made.

 

One way to get one of those hoods is to buy a whole car with one on it. I see cars sell for for 2-3k with original OAI hoods, makes no sense when guys want 2-3k for the hoods? Not real nice cars but they run and have parts. A week or two later they're for sale again with a different color stock type hood for a few hundred less or parted out.