jordankeck

I am looking for some help on how to trim my Glasstek hood before painting it. In the pics below you can see that the hood has a lip around all four sides. My question to those of you that have installed aftermarket glass hoods, should I trim the lip at all, on the front only or what? Any help would be of great help.

bowtiedad_z28

I have a Glastek 4" cowl hood. Two to be exact. I only trimmed what needed to be trimmed. Even the lips on the sides and front help keep the hood rigid.

jordankeck

As the hood sits now, there is no interference with any part of the car. The reason I ask is because the front edges of the hood where the headlights are located obviously has a lip that extends down into the headlight bucket. I had a 97 SS with an OEM fiberglass hood and I do not remember that hood having any lip at any place around the hood. Should I plan to trim the hood lip flush in the headlight buckets or will that not interfere with the broadcast of light from the headlights?

L.dookie

i don't really see how it would effect lighting too terribly. you should still get more than enough light to the road. Personally, i would install the hood and make sure everything will fit properly then take it off and paint it. heck, even drive it around at night with the new hood on and see if you will need to trim the front

MTL_Z28

I have a Harwood cowl hood and it came with the similar lip all around the hood. The paint shop I took it to installed it without doing any trimming but I wish they had at least trimmed around the headlight area as you say I think it would look cleaner than having a small overhang there. As a matter of fact in the Harwood instructions it says you must trim the hood prior to fitting if I'm not mistaken. Did your hood come with instructions? they will probably say what's recommended for your specific hood.

USAFretired

Suncoast creations hood was bolt on and go. No lips. I was worried about it flying open so I spent the extra for a hood I trusted.

Z28SORR

Most light weight after market hoods come this way. You trim them as required either because of interference or for looks.
On my 84 hood I trimmed the entire front lip off, then reinforced it with a 2" wide strip of fiberglass cloth. Been on the car since 86 with no cracking or problems.
I would definitely trim this acrossed the front and add reinforcement where necessary. One of those fiberglass repair kits you get at Auto Parts usually have enough matterial in them to do this.
Go fo it!!

Brangeta

Those hoods look goofy in the area above the headlights when they aren't trimmed. Very goofy. If you don't trim it, maybe you should get headlight covers to hide how thick those edges are.

If it were me, I'd either get a different hood or I'd trim it and figure out if I needed to reinforce it somewhere else.

Edit: Haha I just thought of something. The edge is so thick that you could mount headlight covers to the hood instead of the headlight bucket and when you open the hood you'd have a very unusual appearance... What's the exotic car that had headlights like that...? There was some car that when the hood lifted the headlight lenses went with the hood...

jordankeck

Thank you everyone for all of the input. I contacted Glasstek and they told me the lip material is for shipping only to add rigidity to the part in transit and to avoid damage to the hood edge during handling. The hood is designed so that the entire lip is removed before paint, giving it a very OEM look. Thanks again to everyone that replied!!

MTL_Z28

Do you guys think I could trim the areas around the headlights now lol I guess it's a bit late now that the hood has been painted already. Another thing I was thinking is I could just paint a thin black band on the lip of the hood now right over the headlights so it will not be noticeable at least when hood is closed. Is this a better idea?

BrangeTA it's not that noticeable actually, I've gotten alot of positive comments on the hood so far no one has ever said anything about the lip, but yeah to people who know f-bodies inside out like us it's noticeable.

Brangeta

Is your car a darker color? The car I saw with one was white and mannnnn, it looked like the hood was made of plywood. On a darker color many people might not notice it.

Just remembered what car has the headlight covers open with the hood. Ferrari 512M.

MTL_Z28

Here's some pics of my car:






I'm thinking some black paint on the lip above the headlights (like a quarter inch) will remedy the situation.


For the headlight covers I just don't like the way they look on LT1 camaros... A bit of a ricey mod if you ask me.

MTL_Z28

Then again... With some blacked out headlight covers... This may look good on my car...


NAH!! It's too ricey I just couldn't bring myself to do it LOL