Fiberglass Six Pack hood Repair and install

timmycharger · April 13, 2025, 02:45:08 PM

I always planned on putting this hood back on at some point so I am finally getting around to making the repairs from prior mistakes and also making some improvements. This will take a long time as I am going to do it all myself, from the bodywork to the paint.

The hood is in good shape, It was originally a solid glass hood that I had a body guy glass in the scoop. I was set on having working turn signals in the hood so I cut holes but made them way too big, resulting in that area to weaken and crack on one side. My solution back then was just adding 2 more pins to the front of the hood which looked awful. I still plan on using the lights but I will be making the holes much smaller and using a the factory latch system to avoid this issue in the future.

I have the special light springs that I will have to change and then will just hang the stock hood in the place of the glass hood like in the pic below. I have a taller K and N filter that I will swap out, putting it right up high in the scoop. The pins will screw in the same spot they were before, I just have the stock hood bumpers there now.

The hood has some holes that you can see where the body guy covered up, will line up with the stock latch system. Tricky part is how to fasten the hardware. I could use rivnuts but they would probably break over time. I think I will cut a window and slide in and glue a steel plate with threaded holes for the latch stuff. It will take some work but I think it would be strongest.

timmycharger · April 13, 2025, 03:10:50 PM

First I worked on the front extra hood pin area. Not pictured but first I egged out the holes where the rivets were and the pin. Then I flipped it over and did the same on the other side, removing all the paint around the area. I stuffed in some fiberglass cloth and then filled it with resin.

timmycharger · April 13, 2025, 03:13:56 PM

More of the hood pin repair. This was tricky as the hood is double layered and I had to get the fiberglass to lay just right in there to hold the resin. Once it dried, a little bit of grinding got it smooth. Eventually Ill flip it over and do the same on the other side.

timmycharger · April 13, 2025, 03:25:41 PM

For the crack, I filled it with resin, then used a strap to hold the crack closed. Added several layers of resin/cloth, making the opening for the turn signal as small as possible. I will still lay a few more layers after this dries and the new package of resin/hardener arrives.

timmycharger · April 13, 2025, 03:27:49 PM

Next I have to figure out the best way to remove the six pack decals without doing too much damage.

timmycharger · April 21, 2025, 06:52:51 AM

The other opening for the hood turn signal light is just about finished, reduced in size to match the passenger side.

The next step was tricky as I had to measure exactly where the bolt holes are for the latch release and striker catch. This hood had holes already that were filled so I could at least get in the ball park. I made a cardboard template from my stock hood which got everything about perfect.

Next step is to slice out a piece so I can slide in a metal plate with bolts welded to it so the striker/release do not just simply break off through the fiberglass.

Kern Dog · April 23, 2025, 12:24:53 AM

The ratchet strap was an interesting way to pull the ends together to close up the crack.

70 sublime · April 23, 2025, 06:23:44 AM

Are you going to leave the springs on the hood hinges if you mount it like a metal hood ?

timmycharger · April 23, 2025, 06:47:19 AM

Quote from: Kern Dog on April 23, 2025, 12:24:53 AMThe ratchet strap was an interesting way to pull the ends together to close up the crack.

Yeah, it was the easiest thing I could think of. It did the trick, made a tiny scrape on one side of the hood but that is an easy fix. It didnt take much pressure to keep it together so hopefully with the 10 layers of glass and resin, it should be rock solid.

timmycharger · April 23, 2025, 06:48:57 AM

Quote from: 70 sublime on April 23, 2025, 06:23:44 AMAre you going to leave the springs on the hood hinges if you mount it like a metal hood ?

Nope, I have the springs that came with the hood that I have to swap out, they are much skinnier and weaker and made for glass hoods. I just have to spray them blue as they are still green from when my car was still F3 25 years ago.

timmycharger · April 28, 2025, 07:16:00 AM

More work on the hood this last weekend. I cut out two small "windows" to allow me to slide in a metal plate with nuts welded to it. I left a section in the middle for strength as that is one of the mounting points of the latch catch and put a small plate with a welded nut.

The metal is just some scrap I had that was thick enough and big enough to fit exactly in the rectangular area to provide the most strength as possible.

After welding the nuts, the plates were painted and epoxied to the underside of the area where the latch will go. After the epoxy dried, I closed the windows by just sticking them to some cloth resin and then glassing it all back in. This is 3 layers of glass for now, I plan on putting a few more strips for strength. I will carefully re open the hole I closed for the bottom bolt and will chase all of the threads with my tap.

Before glassing it closed, you can see the latch/catch installed for a test. It has been measured 12x and is exactly in the spot as the stock hood.

timmycharger · April 28, 2025, 07:18:05 AM

more pics below. In the first pic you can see how I clamped everything together while the epoxy dried. Some bolts and huge washers did the trick to spread out the area evenly.

timmycharger · Reply #12 - Re: Fiberglass Six Pack hood Repair and install

Did a little bit of work over the weekend. Flipped the hood over finally and worked on the topside. I used the 3M rubber wheel to remove the Six Pack decals which came off very quickly and easily with that tool.

I then used the resin and filled in the top side of the old hood pin holes in the front that had fiberglass cloth imbedded from the bottom side. Ground it down and it is rock solid.

The hood was scuffed with 180 grit and I then made the first pass with body filler which I will start sanding this week. The hood had some waves from the first body shop 25 years ago that I want to smooth out.