NASA Hood options- repair or aftermarket?

Gents-

As we look to dress the old girl up, I've been noodling options on the NASA hood. We want to go full forced air setup, and naturally would love to use a factory hood, but we all know how hard they are to find in good shape, so I started looking at Dynacorn's version.

I was almost sold on aftermarket when I found found a used NASA hood that the fellow has priced @ $250.00. The hood is straight, but it has rusted through the underside (see pic). (It is only the hood not trim pieces) It appears to be something I can repair, but after the repair, I'm in another $100-150 for soda blasting and sealer /primer.

Don at Ohio says $320 + freight for the Dynacorn.

Can I get opinions on which direction you feel is best?

Thanks!

Butch

I wouldn't pay 250 for that. Keep searching I've seen nice originals 300-500. Heard the quality is much better than repo

I was told by a few people, who have bought repop hoods, if you get a Reproduction hood, you should also replace the 2 front fenders for a proper fit.

I have used a Dynacord NASA hood on two different vehicles with no problems. Fit was great, and the Dynacorn hood actually does NOT have the flaw that is in the OEM hood: the extreme bow in the middle, mostly on the driver side.

For the amount of work required to get a good fit with the Dynacorn vs that rusty OEM piece...I would do the Dynacorn.

Remember: Rust will ALWAYS come back.

I have used a Dynacord NASA hood on two different vehicles with no problems. Fit was great, and the Dynacorn hood actually does NOT have the flaw that is in the OEM hood: the extreme bow in the middle, mostly on the driver side.

For the amount of work required to get a good fit with the Dynacorn vs that rusty OEM piece...I would do the Dynacorn.

Remember: Rust will ALWAYS come back.

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I talked to one of the guys at DynCorp and he said that they to manufacture the hood exactly to the original and they kept getting returns because of the bow that Kit mentioned. I had this problem on my original OEM hood and my painter suggested getting a new one. I haven't seen anything but good reviews on the DynCorp hood. I have one ready to go in garage but haven't fitted it yet so I can't really comment from experience, only what I've read.

I have used a Dynacord NASA hood on two different vehicles with no problems. Fit was great, and the Dynacorn hood actually does NOT have the flaw that is in the OEM hood: the extreme bow in the middle, mostly on the driver side.

For the amount of work required to get a good fit with the Dynacorn vs that rusty OEM piece...I would do the Dynacorn.

Remember: Rust will ALWAYS come back.

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+1 mine fit with minor tweaking.

Thanks guys! I'm leaning more towards the Dynacorn now than before. Thanks for the heads up on the "bow" in the hood. I have a slight bow on the current original hood that my son and I have pondered over. Am I safe in extrapolating the bow in due in part to the amount of pressure needed to close the hood ? If yes, would it be reasonable to assume replacing stock hood springs with update ( albeit not period correct) strut arms would alleviate the concern? I sure don't want to go through the effort and expense of fitting and repainting to have it get tweaked!

The Dynacorn hood is really good. original is nice, but you know how it goes.

i have my rusted out original hood in the garage and the Dynacorn on my car...

i never even painted it i just buffed out the Anti Rust coating on it.

my car is in my Signature below

Great looking car! Clever idea! I appreciate the input- I'm ordering the Dynacorn- unless a premium original Wimbledon white NASA shows up in the classifieds within the next week!

I was told by a few people, who have bought repop hoods, if you get a Reproduction hood, you should also replace the 2 front fenders for a proper fit.

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Those people were wrong

I was told by a few people, who have bought repop hoods, if you get a Reproduction hood, you should also replace the 2 front fenders for a proper fit.

Click to expand...

Those people were wrong

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Don,

I see that now, that I'm reading this.

the only thing I can thing of is one of the guys has a Concourse 1973, and the other guy has a Concourse 1971 Boss 351, and I know they were at one time looking for original parts, so they don't have to buy after market sheet metal, it might just be them.

I was told by a few people, who have bought repop hoods, if you get a Reproduction hood, you should also replace the 2 front fenders for a proper fit.

Click to expand...

Those people were wrong

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I'm reporting you to the Car Talk guys as a salesman who is not abiding by the 1st rule of car salesmanship: make the customer pay more than he should. Whatzamatter, Don: your boat is fully paid for? Your kids now out of college?

the original hood had a bow in it, and Ford attempted to correct that mistake by using lots of washers underneath the fender attaching points. Anyone who has ever installed and aligned and original hood with original fenders will know exactly what I am talking about

the original hood had a bow in it, and Ford attempted to correct that mistake by using lots of washers underneath the fender attaching points. Anyone who has ever installed and aligned and original hood with original fenders will know exactly what I am talking about

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even the flat hood has a bow in it, I have 2 of them, I thought it was the hood on the original one, then I bought a mint condition second one, and it had the same bow.

body shims helped a lot.

the original hood had a bow in it, and Ford attempted to correct that mistake by using lots of washers underneath the fender attaching points. Anyone who has ever installed and aligned and original hood with original fenders will know exactly what I am talking about

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You sure it was a bow and not the way the hood is suppose to be curved

There is nothing wrong with shims and they were necessary on the cars then

Some of you may have never seen a factory-shimmed fender on a 71-73 'Stang: 2-3 shims along the run were normal for most cars back then, but these cars often had none at the ends and 5 or 6 in the center...stressing the crap out of the fender just to get it reasonably close. It has got to be about the widest tolerance on a body part I have ever seen.

It just re-illustrates for those of us now acclimated to modern manufacturing accuracy how archaic and quick-and-dirty manufacturing techniques and technology was 40-50 years ago.

It is somewhat amazing to me that they could end up with such a nicely finished and performing product back then, considering the low-tech and innacurate methods used to get there.

Today's consumer does not appreciate the human craftsmanship that all products had generations ago.

Today's technology allows a decent finished product with little or no human "interference".

Its not all progress to me...the human touch cannot be replicated 100% by machine.

Well, I have a factory hood and repop fenders, and I can honestly say that 'the bow' is very pronounced... like 1/4" or so, with everything else lining up nicely. I don't know that stuffing some shims in under the fenders will actually help all that much, so I'm just resigned to leaving it as is, and will defend it as a factory fit & finish issue.

Shim it, baby! Just like the factory did. You will be surprised at how much "adjustability" you can get out of rigid sheetmetal.

Shim it, baby! Just like the factory did. You will be surprised at how much "adjustability" you can get out of rigid sheetmetal.

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LOL - thanks! Might just do that. I had bought a Fender mounting kit from Don, only to later pick up a Master Body Fastener kit... so, I got me some shims to play with. ::thumb::