Parts For Sale NOS Hood

[knn]

I have no relation to this sale, but if it helps someone finish their project:

Ebay NOS hood

 

[Marks1]

Thank you KNN , but the seller has a score of only 1, And the other question for me when considering a NACA/NASA hood is if your car didn’t originally come with the hood, does it really matter if you have an original when there are so many aftermarket ones available for as low as under 400 bucks. Does anyone know if the OER hood that bad? Which aftermarket hood has generally been considered the best bank for the buck?

 

[MikeGriese]

NOS hoods fit better. You may spend $400 for a reproduction hood, but you can easily spend the difference getting the hood to fit.

 

[James561]

I have one of the aftermarket NACA hoods and the fit is not great. The 'hump' curve (fore and aft) along the side edges does NOT match the same curve on the fenders exactly. So there is a gap, no matter how much the fenders or hood is adjusted. I do not recall where it was from, but it was new reproduction and I bought it on-line from a regular aftermarket mustang body parts supplier in the US.. It must have been 10 or 12 years ago. Maybe they have gotten better. Mine is beginning to show signs of rust pitting on the top surface, which I suspect is coming from the underside. My car lives in an open car port. (since 1995)

 

[Lazarus]

I have two verts. My yellow 73 has a Ford NASA hood, the gray 72 (the one in my signature pic) has a Dynacorn. The Ford one has more of an arc than the Dynacorn. The Dynacorn fits perfectly, though when installing we did flatten it a tiny bit with the fairly easy (but go slowly!) 2x4 method described in other threads.

From what I have read and seen, that mismatched arc of hood and fender was common during original production of the cars. It’s a really long piece of sheetmetal, and massaging of the panel is a reasonable expectation.

Keep in mind that NOS panels were often rejects from the line or very late runs on tired tooling. There is also no guarantee how carefully these things have been stored for 50 years. So if you are going for originality and have lots of cash to dedicate to the build, paying 4X a Dynacorn may be the way to go. But I’d hate for someone on a budget to buy that NOS only to have the same fitment issues they would have had with the aftermarket part.

And believe me, I don’t love all aftermarket sheet metal. Often the difference in labor wipes out the savings from an original panel. I put Dynacorn fenders on a 67 Camaro once and they were horrendous. I tend to shy away from reproduction fenders and trunklids generally... But my hood is about the best aftermarket sheet metal I have ever bought.

Maybe I just got lucky, but that’s my experience.

 

[7173Vert]

I have two verts. My yellow 73 has a Ford NASA hood, the gray 72 (the one in my signature pic) has a Dynacorn. The Ford one has more of an arc than the Dynacorn. The Dynacorn fits perfectly, though when installing we did flatten it a tiny bit with the fairly easy (but go slowly!) 2x4 method described in other threads.

From what I have read and seen, that mismatched arc of hood and fender was common during original production of the cars. It’s a really long piece of sheetmetal, and massaging of the panel is a reasonable expectation.

Keep in mind that NOS panels were often rejects from the line or very late runs on tired tooling. There is also no guarantee how carefully these things have been stored for 50 years. So if you are going for originality and have lots of cash to dedicate to the build, paying 4X a Dynacorn may be the way to go. But I’d hate for someone on a budget to buy that NOS only to have the same fitment issues they would have had with the aftermarket part.

And believe me, I don’t love all aftermarket sheet metal. Often the difference in labor wipes out the savings from an original panel. I put Dynacorn fenders on a 67 Camaro once and they were horrendous. I tend to shy away from reproduction fenders and trunklids generally... But my hood is about the best aftermarket sheet metal I have ever bought.

Maybe I just got lucky, but that’s my experience.

Have to disagree with the comment concerning the arc being “common” during production. Ford did a better job back then ensuring the car left the factory with pretty good body lines and allowing the hood to be out of whack as common and acceptable back in the day is not accurate IMO. I have seen original hoods develop some arc due to usage and years gone by…

 

[Lazarus]

Well it’s fair enough to say one shouldn’t assert they left the factory with the mismatch. I can’t say I have ever noticed an original ad with the arc showing, and as I wasn’t even a zygote when these cars came out I have no opinion of what the average one looked like when new. I have seen the arc on survivor cars, but as you say, they may have picked them up over time.

Nevertheless, as I said, from what I have read this mismatch was common during assembly/production. Based on old pics of the line and hearing from guys who were on it, these and other panels were often not perfect when they put them on and took some “massaging”. Sometimes using some pretty unsophisticated methods... I think it’s funny how they made room for the retracted convertible top! Both of my cars inner wheel wells were just smashed a bunch with a hammer.

So my point is that if those guys had to brute-force some of the panels when the cars were factory spec and the panels were (metaphorically) hot off the press, it’s a bit unreasonable to think a NOS panel will just fit perfectly for the restorer after 50 years of storage for the panel and 50 years of wear and tear of the car.

 

[Lazarus]

Thank you KNN , but the seller has a score of only 1, And the other question for me when considering a NACA/NASA hood is if your car didn’t originally come with the hood, does it really matter if you have an original when there are so many aftermarket ones available for as low as under 400 bucks. Does anyone know if the OER hood that bad? Which aftermarket hood has generally been considered the best bank for the buck?

To answer your direct question, I had good luck with the Dynacorn. I didn’t have it shipped to me; I drove several hours and picked one up from the dealer in person so I could inspect it for dings or knocked corners. After a trial fit, which was pretty great, a 2x4 was used to gently flatten the hood while on the ground, as described by instructions I found on this site. I think it took about a half an hour of labor and zero material to get it absolutely perfect.

I honestly may have just gotten super lucky, but it cost me $400, and I couldn’t be more pleased with it. I had been nervous about trying the repro piece; I looked for a used original first. But nice ones I found still had some rust in the backing/bracing, particularly near the latch. So I decided to try the Dynacorn and was also happy that the repro had the electrostatic paint or whatever inside it as a bonus.

 

[Marks1]

To answer your direct question, I had good luck with the Dynacorn. I didn’t have it shipped to me; I drove several hours and picked one up from the dealer in person so I could inspect it for dings or knocked corners. After a trial fit, which was pretty great, a 2x4 was used to gently flatten the hood while on the ground, as described by instructions I found on this site. I think it took about a half an hour of labor and zero material to get it absolutely perfect.

I honestly may have just gotten super lucky, but it cost me $400, and I couldn’t be more pleased with it. I had been nervous about trying the repro piece; I looked for a used original first. But nice ones I found still had some rust in the backing/bracing, particularly near the latch. So I decided to try the Dynacorn and was also happy that the repro had the electrostatic paint or whatever inside it as a bonus.

Thank you Lazarus, great info from you, and what I was hoping to find out, at least from one person with one brand experience. I wasn't saying the $400 hood was the way to go, as there seems to be some aftermarket hoods that are 600, some 800, and some 1000, and everywhere in between!! What I was trying to find out was which are the best from guys who actually used them, like yourself ! You gave me the scoop on Dynacorn, which is super helpful. Maybe some folks who actually have experience like you, with another one of the brands, will chime in. Dudes with comments that come from zero experience with aftermarket NACA/NASA hoods, can please keep their opinions to themselves. We got it, you think they are more work than they are worth to get right. I think Lazarus has debunked that at least with the Dynacorn he bought.

 

[Lazarus]

To be fair, I have heard that the aftermarket hoods didn’t used to be as good, and evidently some came with one part needing welded, or had inferior primer/sealer finishes. I am in no way questioning anybody else’s experience, just giving mine.

I do want to make sure folks are informed and have reasonable expectations of fitment with either the reproduction or the NOS option. It can take real momentum out of a build to spend a lot of money and not get exactly what you expected.

 

[Marks1]

I have one of the aftermarket NACA hoods and the fit is not great. The 'hump' curve (fore and aft) along the side edges does NOT match the same curve on the fenders exactly. So there is a gap, no matter how much the fenders or hood is adjusted. I do not recall where it was from, but it was new reproduction and I bought it on-line from a regular aftermarket mustang body parts supplier in the US.. It must have been 10 or 12 years ago. Maybe they have gotten better. Mine is beginning to show signs of rust pitting on the top surface, which I suspect is coming from the underside. My car lives in an open car port. (since 1995)

Thank you James, what is the brand?

 

[Ryunker]

I have no relation to this sale, but if it helps someone finish their project:

Ebay NOS hood

Last year, I purchased a new oem hood from a local resto shop. He purchased it new in the 1980's. Ran me $1,500 and others were on major back order.

Funny part is once it was out of the box, its just a used hood. No magic

 

[mrgmhale]

I replaced my 73 Mach 1's NACA/NASA hood with a unit from NPD. The new hood fit "kind of" well. Like others mentioned, the curve was a bit higher than needed or wanted. Not horrible, but noticeable. I later brought the Mach 1 to a restoration shop to do a deep restoration. The owner of the shop advised the aftermarket hood only have a few spot welds between the top and bottom sheets of metal used in the hood assembly. The reason is they expect folks to have to make some adjustment to the hod curving. He cut the spot welds and re-welded once he adjusted the curve to match the front fender curvature. It turned out really nice.

The first photo shows the hood when I first purchased the Mach 1. It had some fairly significant rust on the underside of the hood in one area. I decided to replace the hood vs trying to repair it.

The second photo shows the NPD hood installed. If you look closely you will see how the hood is slightly over-bowed. There was also a bit of a tooling flat spot about 2/3 from the front. The restoration shop got it all set up.

In addition to the 3rd photo, here is a link with a walk-around video of the restored Mach 1. In the photo (after the restoration was done), and the video, you can see how nicely the hood (the entire car) turned out:

 

[Marks1]

I replaced my 73 Mach 1's NACA/NASA hood with a unit from NPD. The new hood fit "kind of" well. Like others mentioned, the curve was a bit higher than needed or wanted. Not horrible, but noticeable. I later brought the Mach 1 to a restoration shop to do a deep restoration. The owner of the shop advised the aftermarket hood only have a few spot welds between the top and bottom sheets of metal used in the hood assembly. The reason is they expect folks to have to make some adjustment to the hod curving. He cut the spot welds and re-welded once he adjusted the curve to match the front fender curvature. It turned out really nice.

The first photo shows the hood when I first purchased the Mach 1. It had some fairly significant rust on the underside of the hood in one area. I decided to replace the hood vs trying to repair it.

The second photo shows the NPD hood installed. If you look closely you will see how the hood is slightly over-bowed. There was also a bit of a tooling flat spot about 2/3 from the front. The restoration shop got it all set up.

In addition to the 3rd photo, here is a link with a walk-around video of the restored Mach 1. In the photo (after the restoration was done), and the video, you can see how nicely the hood (the entire car) turned out:

That is one damn beautiful car Gil !! Thanks for your input !!!

 

[James561]

Thank you James, what is the brand?

Sorry, after looking through my folders of papers I dont know. I have owned the car for 27 years.