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quote:
Originally posted by tyler5:
... I was told at some point in life the length is different from the early models compared to the later. maybe the L series. I cannot confirm. I am in Florida so shipping may be the only issue.
thanks Larry


I can confirm that the hoods on the early cars were slightly different. It appears to apply to at least the early Pre-Ls that were built at Vignaly if I'm remembering correctly.

ZONKEY is an early '71 (1549, May assembly). When I was doing my restoration, I had the hood, doors, and rear deck lid "dipped" (big mistake!). I painted it in pieces and set them aside while I worked on the engine and other mechanicals. About a year later I went to put it together and found that the front edge had rusted through in places. Actually residual acid from the dip and the existing rust combined to eat through the steel.

So, I thought, screw it, I'll get a carbon fiber replacement. Panteras by Wilkinson is only about 20 mi from my house and Steve (a friend since the first POCA meeting in San Pedro) had been helping me with my restoration. He had recently come out with a Carbon fiber hood so I went and got one. It didn't fit in two different ways: the curve of the front edge was greater (leaving an overbite of about 3/8" in the middle) and the front to back curve was greater so the it rose above the fender by about 1/4" peak about 18" back from the front edge. Crap! I called Steve and he said "that shouldn't be" so we assumed a molding error. He had a new in the box "factory" hood which I bought. Its (mis)fit was pretty much the same. I was in a mad rush to get the car back together and running for Silver State so I kept it and rattle can sprayed it black, thinking I'd fix the fit problem later.

A few years later I was talking with Ken Green about my problem and he mentioned he had a hood from an early car (can't remember the SN, but it was fairly close to mine) I drove over to his house and we test fitted it. Perfect fit!!

The factory hood is available for sale. It has about 15k miles on it, was only in light rain twice that I can remember, is in primer on the underside and primer + rustolium on the top which should all come off with a little acetone. I have no idea what a slightly used one is worth but Wilkinson currently list them for $4816.40 (https://panterapartsusa.myshopify.com/collections/front-and-rear-deck-lids/products/18100a)

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