My stock hood had the holes for the hood locks cut out of them already. Is this factory?
1338262325.jpg
1338262318.jpg

 

Yeah.......that looks like it's in the same location as my hood. And my hood is a real W25 hood. You should be able to get your measurements from that.

Is that from one of the non ram air hoods? I have a steel hood for my car and there is no cutout for the hold downs.

 

Eddie, I think you just hit on something really important. After reading your question I went and looked at my stock 72 hood (has the faux louvers). It HAS the same cut-out as in that pic. If they're basically the same as the W25, I'm kind of wondering if the subframe is just glued to the upper, or if it is spot welded anywhere. If it's just glued, that means the liner of any stock hood could be used on one of those cheaper OAI ones and it should work? Your thoughts?

 

You've made me curious now. I'm gonna go have a look at my hood to see if it has those same holes. I've never noticed them before, if they are there. My original hood was just like your's......with the faux louvers.

 

Back from inspecting my old hood. It has the holes too. And it is just glued down. You can see the glue "dobs" sticking out around the the framework. So, in reality, you could buy an aftermarket hood and use your old frame from the steel hood and it would be like a real W25 hood.

Although, I would suggest having a bit of experience with fitting of some sort, like bodywork or even someone who's a finish carpenter could probably fit it too.

 

Cool, that's what I thought. My hood has the OEM sound pad so I couldn't see much under there. I have some basic skills and plenty of patience. I think I know where there's a hood I can practice on. How tough do you think it will be to undo the seam that runs flat on the side of the hood? I'm thinking flat chisel, BFH maybe some WD40 to loosen the glue bond???

 

I'd try one of those box cutter knives first. You can extend and retract the blade to get into difficult spots. I'm not sure how tough the glue is for those hoods? I haven't tried one yet. I know the newer ones (90s or up), a box cutter will work because I've done it to use the hood skin for body metal.

I tried to see what company made a hood with the air box, but no framework and I can't seem to find it (i've seen them before somewhere)? Other than the pin on, which has no air box, they all have frame work. If you can find one without the framework, it'll be a bonus because you won't need to cut out all that fiberglass.