insomniac

iTrader: (3)

How safe is it to have a fiberglass hood and not use hood pins?

Also how crumby are these fiberglass hoods made? Do they make a steel ram air or cowl hood for a firebird?

stealtht/a

iTrader: (1)

All depends on who makes it. A lot of them are pretty crappy. Chopper gun fiberglass and no proper mounting inserts means you need hood pins. The only fiberglass hood I've seen in person was built this way. If the higher quality ones have actual laminate construction and good reinforcement inserts for the hood latch and hinges, no reason it shouldn't be as good as steel with no pins
However, from what I've seen here on third gen all the fiberglass hoods for our cars are pretty low grade polyester with minimal reinforcement, so I'd use pins.

insomniac

iTrader: (3)

eh rather just stick with a steel hood rather then use hood pins... to me they look ok on a camaro, dont like em on the birds... and they look really bad when they get a little old and start to rust

stealtht/a

iTrader: (1)

There are some cool race style latches that are flush, but they are kinda expensive.

heavy_chevy29

ive been almost 140mph in the 1/4 a lot of times with no pins. stock latch on a harwood 4in cowl. also was a street car with no pins for many years before i went full race. im upping the power level this year and should be close to 150 mph. ill probably be putting those flush mount pins in

insomniac

iTrader: (3)

how is the quality of the harwood hood?

heavy_chevy29

well its lasted 8 years with no major issues. some small cracks at the base of the cowl by the windshield. it did require a bit of work to fit it and get it straight. i used to work in a body shop. there is no such thing as a bolt on/scuff n paint fiber glass hoods. they all need some work.

lonsal

iTrader: (2)

If the 'glass hood was designed to be run without pins, then it should be OK. I tried to convert a 'glass hood that was from an IROC I purchased which had hood pins to running it with no pins by grafting on the steel portion of a stock hood around the latch area. It delaminated in a few months. The genuine Jongbloed hood on my Camaro is holding up very well considering it was manufactured in the 80's. No signs of cracking at all.

Lon