Some of us old school Gearheads remember the Mustang fiberglass hoods from the original Mustangs; the GT350 and GT500KR were outfitted with fiberglass hoods. Back in the day fiberglass hoods were used as a weight savings measure. It was not uncommon for OEM from the 60's to weigh in access of 100 lbs, these hoods were thick gauge steel, lined with a felt-like material and held up by massive springs.
Fiberglass was first developed in 1932 by the Owens company which later became Owens Corning. Initially used in the aviation industry to replace molded wood. Fiberglass caught on in the 1950's in the production of boats and sports cars. Saving weight was the advantage with fiberglass and owning a fiberglass hoods became the desire of many drag racing enthusiasts. The formula was simple decrease weight and go faster.
One of the issues of early fiberglass hoods were the Hood Spring Mechanism they were too strong and caused the fiberglass hoods to bow. The OEM Hood Spring Mechanism were designed to work with the heavier steel hoods not the lightweight fiberglass hoods. Sometimes mixing aftermarket parts with OEM designs does not make a winning combination.
Let's fast-forward to 2012, there are many fiberglass Mustang Hoods on the market today in many different styles from cowl, retro look to Super Snake. One thing that has not changed is that all fiberglass hoods require proper prepping before paint and proper prepping means blocking sanding. Don't be fooled by a paint shop that tells you they can paint a fiberglass hood for $400.....RUN LIKE HELL. I recently visited a local Mustang Speed Shop here in San Diego and one of their customers had his 2007 GT500 there being serviced, the Shelby was outfitted with a Venom Hood by Trufiber, whoever did the painting did a HORRIBLE job, the hood had more orange peel than a grapefruit and was not properly block sanded or wet sanded. My guess is the hood was painted for under $500 and it showed.
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| Suncoast Hood being block sanded |
The above photo shows a Suncoast fiberglass Hood being block sanded by our shop, notice how putty was applied to even out low spots. Several hours went into block sanding and getting the
hood ready for paint, this was not a $400 job. We also use top quality materials like PPG Deltron
paint and PPG 2021 clear. Once finished the hood is wet sanded with 800, 1,500 and 3,000 grit sandpaper followed up with a few different compounds for polishing and buffing.
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| Finished Hood painted by Bangastang |
This hood was crated up and shipped to one of our customers on the East Coast, he was very happy with the finished product.
Bangastang has just added fiberglass Mustang Hoods by Seibon and BMC Extremes to our line-up.
To see our selection of 2010-2014 Fiberglass Mustang Hoods click on the following link Fiberglass Mustang Hoods
Visit our website www.bangastang.com
Mr. Bangastang



