Steve Straus

Ok, I'm pissed.

I've lined up hoods before. This thing doesn't even line up just sitting on the car unbolted to the hinges. I've lined up 2 different hoods on this car now (SB and BB/LT-1) and have had no issues. This L88 hood just WILL NOT Line up.

Zip had better not stick me with the freight charges. That will be $140 (both ways) that I'm out, with nothing to show for it. I'm ready to send this back and get an ecklers hood. Rumor has it they use the original GM molds and are pretty consistent with the quality.

Here's a video I made that shows the problem:
http://members.aol.com/yellow69shark...oodProblem.MPG

Here are some pictures of the hood not fitting quite right:

In this shot you can see how the hood pretty much lines up with the fender until it gets to the corner, then the corner actually TOUCHES the fender. It does this on both sides.



Look closely at where the back of the hood meets the car. On the pass side the gap is about 1/2 an inch wide whereas on the driver side it's almost an inch wide.


This is about as close as I could get it on the front. Remember both back corners of the hood are touching.


A closer shot of the wide gap behind the hood on the driver side.


Again, it's fine until it gets to the back corner.


So Am I on crack? I really think I need to send this back, what do you think?

Here are some higher res shots that really show the detail.
http://members.aol.com/yellow69shark...lignHiRes1.JPG
http://members.aol.com/yellow69shark...lignHiRes2.JPG
http://members.aol.com/yellow69shark...lignHiRes3.JPG
http://members.aol.com/yellow69shark...lignHiRes4.JPG
http://members.aol.com/yellow69shark...lignHiRes5.JPG
http://members.aol.com/yellow69shark...lignHiRes6.JPG

BeachinVette

That does not look good Steve. It looks like it is too short and to wide at the Top. Man I can't believe they would send you something like that. I would give them a call and see what they will do about it.
Good luck
Bob

Stingy74

I'd be willing to bet that you've got yourself a "made in taiwan" hood. Is there nothing that perhaps a body shop coouldn't fix/modify? BTW, love the comentary :)

Steve Straus

When you get it on the hinges the edge of the passenger side hangs over about 1/2 an inch. It's terrible.

Shouldn't I just be able to bolt this on? Why should I have to pay a body shop to fix this.

Stingy74

I'm not sure you can just expect it to fit right away. You might try that hood on another car and find that it fits perfectly. So I guess what i'm saying is that no two cars are alike. Although you'd expect the hood to be off a bit I don't think that's your issue. Send it back and say it sucks. They'll probably offer to send another one out to you so maybe it's worth another try if you can work something out on the shipping. Good luck :).

bowtie racing

How did ZIP respond this ?

BeachinVette

Stingy
I have heard that same thing before. But I have a 76 hood on my 80 front end. I replaced the whole front clip on my car. Both hoods fit perfect on the car. I don't know.
Steve have you taken measurments between the fenders and bumper and cowl, And the same for the hood? If so can you tell which is off?

Bob


[Modified by 76 Red, 2:18 AM 7/3/2002]

MARKUS_P

Steve, due to production tolerances of our cars no fiberglass part will really match without some fiberglass work.
Have you ever heard about a front or rear end that bolts right on without any mods? I didn´t...
Your hood needs some work, but you should have seen mine and how it fits.
Believe me, your hood is an average case.

Steve Straus

Bowtie: I haven't called zip yet.

Markus: I understand that the fit will not be perfect, but we're talking almost an inch off in one spot. There's no way I could fix that. This is my 3rd hood, and I haven't seen a problem like this before.

James

Steve that gap at the back is way off. I would not accept that. I got a L88 hood from Ecklers this last winter and I must say that the fit is very good as well as the quality. In fact the hood is a little tight so I'm going to have to take a little off the sides in couple of spots. I know when I looked Ecklers was the most expensive to ship but I heard from others they have the best product. I will E-Mail you a pick of how the Ecklers hood fit on my 69. I still need to fine fit it but this was out of the box. I hate having to ship stuff back it drives me crazy!!!!!!!!!!!

Fevre

Steve

The sides should not be a problem to sand/grind down but the length does look like a problem. If you can't get out of the freight charges you might see about getting a fiberglass guy (if you don;t want to tackle yourself) to fit it for you. Might be less to pay someone to do that rather than pay shipping charges. But do try try to get them to cover it and e-mail those photos. Good luck.

Twin_Turbo

Sorry about your misfortune. That looks awful :(

Even my cheap butt JCWhitney hood fit better than that (actually it fits pretty darn good)

yellow 72

Send it back and save yourself the grief, that one is for the reject pile :cheers:

Ganey

Twinnie

You might want to say who made it.

Nam-Vet

Steve: That is as good as it gets by your photos that is not all that bad of a fit. I installed the same hood on my 67 I had the hood re-worked to make it a better fit also remember your 30 year old vette has a lot of twists and bends. For the rest of you best thing to do is buy an orginal hood at bone yard and modify with a l88 scoop then you will get a better fit " Maybe"

Twin_Turbo

Ganey,

It was made by Legendry Cars or something like that.

I have their adress somewhere. The hood was reasonably cheap and I was expecting to have to do some major work to get it to fit. I'm going to do a tilt front and am gonna bond it to the front clip so I didn't care about the perfect fit but much to my amazement it DID fit quite good.

Marck

flynhi

I've had good luck with Vanacors in Louisana.

Steve Straus

There is a 1 inch gap at the back. I should have to add 1 inch? on one side? Are you sure?

--
Steve

Marks69BB

Since you've had two other hoods on your car, the hood is crap. Send it back! Get the Ecklers hood. If you complain like crazy, hopefully Zip will at least split the shipping with you, especially if you've bought alot of other stuff from them. As was said before, Eckler's has the original molds and you are paying for that fact! My car had the Eckler's hood (put on in '91) before I bought it last May and I just got the airbox; fits like they were made the same day!

ZiVvmO

I would do this. I got a hood for my 70 from ecklers, and its not perfect but its pretty darn close. They seem to have flared up the sides a little too much, kind of anticipating the fender rise is closer to the hood, but thats about it, and if anything my hood is just a tiny bit on the long side, and yes they do use GM molds. Mine even came in a GM box. :D

oh and BTW how did you make that vid? That looked like a really good quaity for not much kick in the hard drive space.


[Modified by ZiVvmO, 10:45 AM 7/3/2002]