GRAND PRIX Aluminum hood anyone?

[grandamman]

Is it the black one with the red interior I think was yours?

No....I wish. It is/was Agate Red with black cloth. "Had" a landau lat was removed.
I'm thinking of using the floors for my 4 speed.
It was a race car, spent some time in Belgium and needs everything but floors and frame.

 

[Blake442]

Awesome GP!
I've never heard of or seen an aluminum GP trunk lid... Only the '78-'80 Monte trunk.

 

[deanlemans81]

Nice score.

 

[olds307 and 403]

The 78 to 80 cars seem to have many more aluminum parts, very dark times. My 88 Brougham has nothing aluminum except the wheels, weighs 3750 pounds, no light weight.

 

[buzz77]

Wow... An aluminum hood, so it isn't an urban legend! Now only if we can verify if the trunk lid ever came in aluminum.

 

[ck80]

Awesome GP!
I've never heard of or seen an aluminum GP trunk lid... Only the '78-'80 Monte trunk.

Well, 78-80 regal had an aluminum trunk lid as well... so it wouldn't be shocking.

It's ironic. For all the relative lack of materials coatings and protection on these late 70s cars, things like those aluminum core supports, the diesel cutlass alum hoods, these aluminum decklids, etc, didn't have all the galvanic corrosion problems the "superior" modern cars seem to.

 

[buzz77]

I heard of an alumunum hood a few years back but I could never verify it existed.
Today I bought a 79 GP with T tops, landau, viscount seats, aluminum rad support and an aluminum hood.
No aluminum deck lid, so I cannot verify that.
Note the welds on the hood
View attachment 87739 View attachment 87740

Please rescue this car and restore it.

 

[TomDisab]

My take on aluminum components is this:

I believe they were used when a car was equipped with a specific set of optional content OR when it's projected build weight would put it in a category where they would be in trouble with CAFE standards. There seems to be no other logical explanation for the seeming randomness of which cars have them and which don't.

'Course, i could be talking out my tailpipe and not have a clue.

As a retired GM assembly employee (soon to be demolished Wilmington, DE) I can offer this possible explanation... There were several times over the years there that certain "batches" of cars would be made with engineering "try out " components. For instance, air bags on '76 big cars. At my own plant plastic windshield lace on some '80's B bodies (if you recall GM used metal for years). On the Corsica for a time we filled the windshield posts with foam. While we tracked the changes through the plant, to my knowledge there was never an active follow up once they left the plant. I wish I could think of a few more but you get the idea.