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Reply to "Pantera hood wanted"

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Originally posted by Joules5:
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I'm working with a Co. in Calif that has hood and decklid molds. Presently he sent me both in fiberglass ... I'm going to try them on both my cars and adjust the fit. Then he is going to adjust the molds and produce them in Carbon Fiber with Honeycomb backing. Total wieght 12 lbs as compared to 28lbs.

The down side is bowing I feel the only way to stop it is to add aluminum supports or a Honeycomb backing for strength.


I thought that most of the Fibergalss/CF products were actually made here in Reno. There's one guy here who lays up for PI, Wilkinson and PPC Reno. Funny thing is that each vendor has his own mold!

With the way these hoods/decklids are laid up they are only an aethestic CF overlay, not structural CF. Until someone makes a structural vacuum formed/autoclaved CF unit the bowing will always be an issue. It will be even more of an issue if your guy hand lays a 12lb CF unit that is air cured, personally I wouldn't touch that. I thought there was a guy in Europe (Sweden, Norway?) that was trying to go the autoclaved route?


Julian,

I do have to the only 100% CF hood in existance that I know of (weight is 8lbs). It was vacuum formed/air cured and not autoclaved.........the results were less than impressive and it still had the bow, even after throwing a couple of grand at it.

As for the fitment issues that seem to plague all aftermarket fiberglass hoods fitment will remain an issue until someone does some serious (read expensive) mold fabrication,let me explain.

I work in the investment casting field using the "Lost Wax" process to make aircraft engine parts. When ever we make a tool the shrink factor has to be calculated into the design, this is doe because wax, like fiberglass, is a liquid and will shrink and contract as it dries. We usually run a few patters and cast them to see how close we are to the actual required dimensions and profile. The vast majority of the time the tool is sent out to the tool and die shop for what we call tool tune.

Now back to the hoods. From what I have both seen and read there are at least three different molds being used out there. One being a mold made from a steel hood from the 71-74 Ford era cars, as prviously mentioned when this mold is used the fiberglass contracts and fitment is not as good as the steel hood.

Second, rumor has it that a second fiberglass mold was made from the first 71-74 ford era mold making the shrink/fitment issues even worse! (a mold made from a mold!)

Third, a mold was made from the post-Ford era cars. The steel hoods (as with many parts) were made from a seperate set of tooling than the Ford era cars and are dimensionally different than the Ford era cars. Trying to fit a post ford hood onto a ford era car is a nightmare!

My point being is that until someone takes a fiberglass hood and calculates the curvature and length shrink issues and then reworks the mold, we will be stuck with the "pretty close at best" fitment problem. If I had to do it over again I would use the kit offered by one of the vendors using the stock steel support structure and aluminum skin.
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