Preference would be to get a Thornton but none are available and as of now none are in the pipeline. Does anyone have any experience with these? I'm assuming Tamraz & TPP are selling the same unit. Hood is down the line for me but I'd like to get some feedback if anyone has any to offer.


A nice original is an option but they are becoming tougher & tougher to find.


Thanks, Ron




http://www.ebay.com/itm/1969-70-Olds...9XUZZo&vxp=mtr

 

My neighbor has an older version of this hood. From 10 feet away you can't tell a difference and his car looks great. From 20 feet away his $15k cutlass convertible looks exactly like my W30 to 99% of the population. I'd do one of two things, go with these inexpensive ones or wait for an original. Seems if one can be patient one will show up.... actually it seems like they are never for sale and then two or three pop up at once.

 

Some of the fiberglass OAI hoods need hours of bodywork, depends on how nice you want it to look..

 

My experience with reproduction hoods are they are nose heavy.
Originals are better weighted and have a tail heavy to neutral balance. You'll feel the difference when opening the hood.

 

My Thornton hood needed two rounds of sanding before paint. cost 650.00 total plus the 2500.00 to buy. Was awesome and probably helped sell my car but not everyone can tell it from the cheaper fiberglass one. Never saw your find before so it may be fine but Thornton is a GM authorized reproduction. If you are not **** or looking for show points you may not care to spend the extra loot. It you use the fiberglass one though you will need lighter springs to keep from warping the cheap hood.

 

I do not have any experience with this particular brand, but can speak from first hand experience that the quality/fit of an OE hood or a Thornton hood is far from bolt on ball bearing test standard out of the box. They all require a fair amount of tweaks, messaging, and general fanangaling to get them to fit reasonably right. Almost every factory issued unmolested vehicle I've seen has the dreaded droop on the left forward edge. The version you are looking at may require more time to perfect, the question is how much time can you afford out of your schedule to make it right, or how much can you afford to pay a reputable body man @ $85 an hour to make it right..... Be diligent and spend your money/time wisely... Personally, I would not buy anything less than OE, or Thornton for a non track car...

 

This one actually has a steel frame so stock hinges but IIRC its riveted to the fiberglass instead of bonded.

 

Thank you all for the feedback. I was hoping for some input on this particular hood (fiberglass/steel frame/non-Thorntons). I have been down this road before. On my last car I found an original hood needing restoration. Some fiberglass repair and a rusted frame. At the time Thornton had frames available for the '70's. I brought the hood to him in PA. The swapped the frame for an entirely new frame (rather than patching what was there) and did the fiberglass repairs. I got it back in that condition & brought it to a local guy for final sanding, paint & installation. Came out great but not cheap all-in. Difference is back then I got the hood for $350 IIRC and knew where I could get a frame from. These days the originals I see are dilapidated & the ask is $1K. That being said, my car is pretty nice & I don't want to eff around with cheap crap.


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Why isn't Thornton's making hoods right now??? Is this just temporary? I've always considered buying one from them if my repair work doesn't turn out they way I want on my original.

 

I bought a Thornton hood in the spring and it arrived in one week. I thought that was unusually fast. But seeing this post, perhaps they wait until a set number are on back order before commissioning a run. I must have ordered during a production run.

I have an original hood that is rust-free, cracks fixed by a Corvette body specialist, frame re-bonded to the hood, located in Minneapolis if you are interested. I didn't use it because after all that work it had the usual fit issues that original hoods have. The Thornton was far closer to perfect.

 

You can find nice originals for the price of the Thornton's. That is if you can find someone willing to let the original go. I have a nice original but I am in the group that don't want to let it go. I have a car in my sights that I will end up with in the next couple years and need to be sure I don't need this hood before letting it go.

 

I asked about a wait list & they said they aren't taking names. Since the frames are different I don't think they have a supplier for the '70 frames right now.