visual difference between steel/fiberglass 69 firebird TA hood

[fosheezie]

I currently have a 68 firebird and love the look of the 69 TA hood, I was just wondering if anyone knew if there were any visual differences between the two.. was leading towards a steel hood but I have never owned a fiberglass hood either, and I know both have pros and cons

And even though I wanted the open scoops on the front, I have heard that the air coming into the engine bay can make radiator cooling less effective.. I am running an LS engine..so the cold air effect probably wouldn't do me much good.. thoughts and comments on both are much appreciated

Josh

[dhutton]

I had the fiberglass hood. It did not fit well and required a lot of massaging. I would not buy another one.

Don

[1965gp]

I have the fiberglass hood- the imprints around the scoops to make them look like separate pieces were a joke- we filled them and smoothed it.

My biggest complaint is that the arc of the hood does not match the fender. If you look at the car from the side the corners of the hood match up but 1/2 way down the hood sticks up over the fender

[MonzaRacer]

I currently have a 68 firebird and love the look of the 69 TA hood, I was just wondering if anyone knew if there were any visual differences between the two.. was leading towards a steel hood but I have never owned a fiberglass hood either, and I know both have pros and cons

And even though I wanted the open scoops on the front, I have heard that the air coming into the engine bay can make radiator cooling less effective.. I am running an LS engine..so the cold air effect probably wouldn't do me much good.. thoughts and comments on both are much appreciated

Josh

So what does running an LSx have to do with cold air in the engine bay?
If your air cleaner is under hood, cool air is good for you. As for hurting anything, no it wont. And if it did hurt aerodynamics by getting air under car and making it stable, then you can simply close them off with duct tape or masking tape.
As for making radiator less efficient, no it wont. Cooling is an effect of ram air through the radiator. As long as your radiator is sealed to the support, I doubt the amount of air through hood mounted scoops would affect cooling. If your car is so bad at cooling look into swapping to Evans Cooling NPG+.

[BMR Sales]

It's rare that a F/G doesn't need some massaging

[CampbellshotrodsAZ]

I'm not too fond of fiberglass anything. I've noticed a lot more shrinkdown in the bodywork that was necessary to get the parts to even fit. I vowed to never use glass parts again... and then I bought a 71 Firebird with a Formula hood last week so I guess I get to play with it again! Got to figure out how to straighten it because my car has the rise in the middle like 1965gp mentioned.

[fosheezie]

So what does running an LSx have to do with cold air in the engine bay?
If your air cleaner is under hood, cool air is good for you. As for hurting anything, no it wont. And if it did hurt aerodynamics by getting air under car and making it stable, then you can simply close them off with duct tape or masking tape.
As for making radiator less efficient, no it wont. Cooling is an effect of ram air through the radiator. As long as your radiator is sealed to the support, I doubt the amount of air through hood mounted scoops would affect cooling. If your car is so bad at cooling look into swapping to Evans Cooling NPG+.

Never said my car was bad at cooling, cools just fine actually.. But I have seen one or two threads of guys running scoop style hoods (much larger than what I was looking at, but still a scoop none the
Less) and they both claimed their cars ran hotter with a scooped hood , but possibly because of a poor ratiator to care seal as you mentioned.... But I couldn't find the threads

And by not benefiting from the cold air effect, I was actually referring to the ram air effect, so thanks for clearing that up..

Now, as for everybody else I appreciate the info on the glass hoods, looks like steel will be the way to go

[vintageracer]

Which brand/manufacturer of fiberglass hood are you considering or asking us to provide a review on?

[indyjps]

Ive bought several pin on hoods and built the under structure myself. This allows you to fit it to the car and take any bow out or add bow. I use square pvc for the structure. Slice it lengthwise, set you hood height to hinge face with pvc, set your hood height at the front with a factory hood bumper. Fit the pvc to add or subtract bow when you glass the pvc to the hood. Creative clamping and weighting to get the bow you want, cardboard profile template of the fender bow helps.

[Gkc3523]

I'm currently in final assembly on my 69 Firebird and I used the steel reproduction Trans-Am hood with the fiberglass air intakes. The hood itself fit well except for the tip or point which was about 3/4" too high and came to a sharp point. If you still have your OEM Pontiac hood you will notice the stock hood has a rounded point. The fiberglass air intakes fit in the cut-outs but did not follow the contour of the hood, they bubbled up for lack of a better term. We corrected all of the flaws and I will say the hood looks really good but there is a lot time spent on making it right.
Just a side note, I was told that the supplier that mine came from copied the 69 frame structure. They said that the other manufacturer uses a 67/68 type frame. I really don’t know if there is a difference or not?