Every once in a while you have that one thing on the car that you just keep putting off. For some reason you just have a feeling that it's deeper than you're ready to go.
Well....today was that day for me. On my lunch call with the Ol'Lady my fiberglass hood was brought up. That thing rode with us everywhere. It's the only body part I have left from my cherished 89 gt convertible. When I first met her we would go on long drives, at the crack of dawn, with the top down and heat on. Music would be playin' and I felt like the luckiest and coolest guy on the planet. Everyone would look and know the car was what got her 'cause this funny looking dude couldn't pull it off on his own. Lol
I knew there were spider cracks under the front. Even knew there was some bondo. Thought it was just from being worked for paint. When I bought the 89 vert it was painted a very well done multilayer custom candy apple red. It was gorgeous but had a dent in the passenger fender and no one could guarantee a paint match. I also wasn't into red. I was more of a blue type of guy ( never said my past was squeaky clean ).I had no idea what has been lurking under there for the last 20 years.
Today I started to venture down this long dark road.
The bondo had a chemical reaction with the gel coat and caused it to soften underneath. Took a screw driver and a hammer and started chipping away. This is what I found underneath.
The whole front skeleton of this hood has huge cracks that were covered with bondo. Whoever did it didn't even sand it first. In some places it was almost 1/4 inch thick.
I had no idea it was this bad. Thought I just had a little fiberglass repair to do with the biggest part being where I notched the bottom to clear a strut tower brace years ago.
I was in a daze. The other day a storming Norman fiberglass hood was on FB for 150 not far from here. No dice on that. Looked at the normal online stores. I just can't justify 6 or 700 hundred bucks for one. To be honest, they all look ugly to me. They don't slope up at the right angle. Every one of them seems too sharp. The metal one ( that I actually wanted for years ) would be a waste if time because the inner structure is almost identical to stock and I'd have to cut it out to fit.
Danced with the dilemma for a few hours. I'm going to have to fix it the right way. That means stripping it all down, cutting the bad out, and layering it with new glass. This will be time consuming and a PITA. The center of the hood has some issues with fuel vapor from my old carb set up. Don't know how to deal with that yet. Going to order a fiberglass roller and get on it.
Guess I've gotta do what I've gotta do.