shippershack

So, my 2002 Firehawk Hood has caught something ill. Once I started daily driving the thing, the hood is now, spider-cracking, bubbling and looking like it caught the plague! I've heard it was the gel coat, or SLP painting it when the hood was hot and press off the press? What gives? What is the cause, and what is the permenant fix? If I sand it, prime, gel it, paint it, will it come back? Is it the fiberglass flexing? Anybody want to help me find the cure?
Thanks

Roger@U.S.Exotics

Your body/paint guy is gonna think I'm whacko, but the best way I've found to deal with something like that is heat and sand.. don't get excited, it's not the beach, but it ain't the end of the world either. The first thing you'll wanna do though is have your bodyshop run an infrared curing lamp on it. You really wanna heat the topside of the hood hard, even if you get some distortion in the surface. This will expose and release any soft spots of undercured material and bring all the gases to the surface by forcing them to expand. You just want everything exposed so you can see what you're dealing with first.

Once that's done have it sandblasted. This is where people think I'm crazy, but I do this regularly with the viper hoods I build. This will strip away all of the soft material. You've got moisture under the surface, and it's a combination of engine heat and direct sunlight that's bringing the bubbles to the surface right now, and without knowing whether that moisture is in the glass, the gelcoat, primer, or paint... your best bet will be to strip it with the sandblaster to bare glass. Once it's stripped and any voids are filled with a reinforced bodyfiller, have your bodyman shoot it in a few coats of hi-fill polyester primer. The polyester primer is the closest thing to gelcoat he'll be comfortable using. A few heavy coats of that and you're finally ready for typical prep and paint.

This may or may not be worth your while, so if I were you, I'd check around the net for any availability and pricing on a replacement Firehawk hood first to get some figures together, and then print this out and go over it with your bodyshop to get an estimate. If you've got some connections, you might be able to get a good deal, but be prepared to pay a few bucks, since all this is BEFORE you get the hood to the point of any other new hood. You'll still have the cost of prep and paint ahead of you after this. Honestly though, if it were me, I'd bite the bullet and get this done with the existing hood if you're set on keeping a Firehawk hood on the car. Otherwise you're running the risk of buying another one, which won't be cheap either, and possibly have the same problems with that down the road.... And I know PLENTY of guys who've dealt with the exact same issues on their Firehawk hoods. This is a pretty typical problem. Well, hopefully I didn't scare you with all this. If you have access to the lamp and blaster, it's really not too demanding at all and you could do it yourself, but I'd never settle for simply sanding it and not knowing if more issues are lurking just under the surface. Good luck with everything and feel free to message me if you need any additional help buddy.

The Alchemist

iTrader: (19)

Do the Camaro SS guys have the same issues with their SLP hoods?

Sorry to hear about this, that definitely sucks, especially since your front bumper is modified for the firehawk hood.

shippershack

Thanks Roger for all the info. I wish that SLP could've got it right the first time. All the car shows I go to have Hawks with the same problem. Anyone know a great bodyshop near Savannah?

pjb

iTrader: (2)

I'm the original owner of my 98 black SS. my Hood was full of tiny nicks and chips that were white specks. The rest of the car looked great. I took the hood to a local body shop and they smoothed the nicks and repainted the hood. not sure of their process, but it looks great now. The paint on my hood and rear spoiler never seemed as nice as the rest of the car. rear spoiler has a couple of very small nicks but not enough to need repainting (yet).