im lookin into ordering a hood for my 78 cutlass has anyone used vfn priducts before and how was the quality and fit of their hoods thanks for any input
vfn fiberglass hoods
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I had one on my '87 Cutlass for a while. Fit was okay out of the box. Their bolt-on hoods only weigh around 22lbs or so.
Just keep in mind, ANY fiberglass hood you buy is going to take a LOT of bodywork to make them look good. You just can't bolt one on out of the box, scuff it and shoot it with paint and expect it to look right.
Just keep in mind, ANY fiberglass hood you buy is going to take a LOT of bodywork to make them look good. You just can't bolt one on out of the box, scuff it and shoot it with paint and expect it to look right.
They have a center rib like most other Camaro copies. Your not going to find a bolt-on cowl hood that has provisions for stock hood chrome.
stomis said:
Yeah, your only option with that is to go with a mold-on or bolt-on cowl scoop like the FE3X scoop or something similar.
And I agree, the Camaro body line on all these cowl scoops just doesn't look "right" on an Olds hood considering there's no other body line like it on the car.
the vfn hoods do have the important lines to match the front header panel, the lines that come off where the lights end. But that center rib some people don't like some people do. The 4" vfn cowl hood is great for a dragster but it doesn't look right on a stock car or a street car, just my opinion. Their 2" cowl hoods are nice, if you don't care about the chrome trim.
I recommend anyone getting vfn stuff to get the cheapest one, lift off pieces. The mounting positions for the bolt on ones will require some work, and (if done properly) making brackets to hold the fiberglass in tact when bolting on the hood/trunk. Fitment is going to be harder with a bolt on piece as the angle of the lift/bracket needs to match as well as the outer lines (and these pieces aren't perfect). The extra weight and bracing, to me, doesn't justify the cost difference, hood pins and done. Their bolt-on hood would be easier to take out some spring tension in the bracket but the trunk is harder to do this.
I ended up putting pins on my trunk anyway, but it was okay in the end as there will be a lot of force pulling up on the trunk deck lid at high speeds, so a featherweight trunk may not be the best idea.
I recommend anyone getting vfn stuff to get the cheapest one, lift off pieces. The mounting positions for the bolt on ones will require some work, and (if done properly) making brackets to hold the fiberglass in tact when bolting on the hood/trunk. Fitment is going to be harder with a bolt on piece as the angle of the lift/bracket needs to match as well as the outer lines (and these pieces aren't perfect). The extra weight and bracing, to me, doesn't justify the cost difference, hood pins and done. Their bolt-on hood would be easier to take out some spring tension in the bracket but the trunk is harder to do this.
I ended up putting pins on my trunk anyway, but it was okay in the end as there will be a lot of force pulling up on the trunk deck lid at high speeds, so a featherweight trunk may not be the best idea.
I didn't have any of those problems with my bolt-on hood. In my opinion, lift off hoods are for race cars only. There's a lot more work involved with mounting one of those than just bolting a hood to the stock hinges. And then you get to figure out where to set a nice, freshly painted hood everytime you want to get to the engine. 
they likely sell a lot more hoods and the front spring brackets can be cut so the hood may be a lot nicer.
the VFN bolt on trunk deck lid quality was terrible, I probably had a bad experience with it. There wasn't enough bracing on the bolt holes the whole thing was way off, it was a half inch thick on the outer lip and the trunk would have never lined up with the stock panels, so I ended up getting a fiberglass clip and cutting here and there
the VFN bolt on trunk deck lid quality was terrible, I probably had a bad experience with it. There wasn't enough bracing on the bolt holes the whole thing was way off, it was a half inch thick on the outer lip and the trunk would have never lined up with the stock panels, so I ended up getting a fiberglass clip and cutting here and there
FE3X CLONE said:
I totally agree i do not like any of these AMH for our g body cars the camaro body line just looks out of place on the gbody, FE3X cowl scoop is the only way to go, like on Joe Viteks 88 pictured here
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