armymp1983

I am wanting to purchase one within the next week. I am stationed in Germany so shipping will be pricey. That being said i am looking for and aftermarket hood that won't break apart at 130mph. Best brands? Best fit? Durability? Can you guys suggest based on your personal purchase/opinions, which hood to buy? I am looking for pros and cons. i am also open to the WS9 hoods. Thanks guys

thislswon

iTrader: (5)

I would stay away from VFN. Fitment is shitty and customer service isnt helpful at all unless your willing to bring your car to Wisconsin or where ever the hell they are located...

crimson_bird

iTrader: (4)

speaking from PERSONAL experience, i've had no problems with my ebay hood from hoods4sale. its seen speeds up to 100mph, so i cant say what it'll do at 130. but it hasnt had any problems. quality is good, although i have nothing to compare it to except the stock hood, and since they're different materials that doesn't mean much. fitment is excellent, all my fender/hood and bumper/hood gaps look just as good as stock, all lined up and spaced great, and no huge gaps. price was unbeatable. i got my camaro hood from the same place, and i've had the same experience with it. and customer service is top notch. and you will get your hood within 1-2 weeks.
-disclaimer - - i had a professional do all of my bodywork. i dont have experience with that kind of stiff so i leave it to the guys who do. and my guy has always givin great results.

like i said, this is my PERSONAL experience, so i dont want to hear no ******** bashing anything i'm saying... every experience from other brands is not always perfect, so get off your fuc%$g pedestals.

armymp1983, to be honest with you, if i were going to be racing and what not, i'd go for a true GM hood. thats probably the best "brand", "fit", and "durability" of all. i'm actually a little suprised at myself as i'm typing this that i never even tried to get a true WS6 hood when i was looking for mine. you may be able to get a used one for a decent price if you look hard enough.

ben77

iTrader: (1)

Hoods4sale has great feedback with their hoods, I'm prob gonna buy one here in a month or so. Yes the prices are UNbelievable.

vfntech

iTrader: (21)

First...we are located in Illinois.

I'm not sure what happened in the case with your hood or why you are unhappy with the fit and service...
But...
We generally have a good rep out there for both good quality products that fit well and look great on cars and for our customer service.
You can do a search on this forum and on the web and see that there are many happy customers who have our products and who are happy with our services.
We have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can answer your questions before, during and after your purchase.


We stand behind our products with a 30 day warranty...and have been known to exceed this warranty period for certain circumstances...this is because we value our customer feedback and also take care of our customers so that they are happy with our products and return or recommend our company.
A good majority of our customers are either returning or are referred by previous customers...

Generally if a customer has any problems with fitting issues..when they contact us, we ask that there are any problems with fitting our products...we do request to see pictures of the product as it sits on the car, which gives us a visual of the issues going on.

What a lot of people do not realize is that we do installs of our hoods on customers cars at our location.
This gives us an advantage of not only being familiar with our hood designs and how we make our products...but also what is required to install our hoods on cars, what is needed to fit and make it look it's best on the car.
This also allows us to troubleshoot our product and help our customers should they have any issues.

Generally if we are asking a customer to bring in their hood and car so that we can fit the item...it is because it is a service we offer - so that we can troubleshoot for FREE! - not many other companies do this...
Or because we have had customers who do not wish to send us pics or go through the adjustments that we are recommending to the customer...or perhaps...the hood is sitting on something underneath. Or in some cases, we are unable to work with the customer because of different reasons...

We send instructions along with our products to help our customers walk through the installation process.
We also have a youtube video, that explains what is needed to fit our hoods to the cars...
Most customers can put a hood on their car...but the reason we made this video is to show our customers how to fine tune a hood installation.
So that they can get the same results as a body shop would, for those who would like to do the work themselves and save a couple of bucks.

You can view this here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p3TVUzTuLw


When you switch your OEM over to an aftermarket product...there are always going to be adjustments needed - regardless of what company you decide on...
I have seen threads from people who have taken an OEM hood off and put it back on, but couldn't line it up again.
We try to help our customers understand these adjustments by providing this information to them.


However...
If you choose not to purchase a hood from our company...
PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE A PRODUCT FROM HOODS4LESS.

This is a company who has gone through MANY name changes over the years...Cinci Composits, Hoods4Sale, Hoods4Less, etc...etc...it goes on.
and the last I heard, there was a lawsuit/criminal charges pressing against this company.

This is a company who is well known in the racing circuits because of their shady business practices, products that split apart and have even flew off customers cars in several instances - can you say safety hazard????!!!

But don't take my word for it...
Here are some threads where you can determine yourself...

https://ls1tech.com/forums/general-l...sunoco-ss.html


https://ls1tech.com/forums/western-m...-familier.html

and the main thread...

http://forums.corral.net/forums/showthread.php?t=273968

There are other companies out there that make good products and who we are friendly competitors with...It is not my intentions to come on the forums and bash any company...
But when you are familiar with how many customers have been left with a bad taste in their mouth because of this company...we feel it should be explained to others so that other potential customers do not fall in the same trap that others have.
They use generic materials and they do not use expensive panel adhesives to assemble their products...this is why you can purchase a hood for a lot less then other companies out there. And why it becomes a risk.

Crimsonbird...
It is also not my intention to pick on your hood choice.
I am very happy your hood is working out for you and that you're extremely happy with your purchase...but you are a minority...and I do not want to see other customers burned because of this company.
They have been around for a while...we know how they operate and have seen complaints all over the web...on forums and customers coming in complaining and speaking to guys at the tracks/shows.

Why should a company who has shady business practices and a product that can and has been known to cause safety issues be allowed to sell products anywhere I have no idea....plus they are not a sponsor on this forum.

99Ws6TransAm

iTrader: (43)

Really? Id like to know where you came up with this. I have a vfn hood. I went through 2 weeks of pms/phone calls with them having a million different questions and concerns. All were answered in a timely, professional manner. It put my mind at ease on ordering a hood. Once i received my hood...the shipping charges were more then what i was oringinally quoted. I got in contact with vfn...and they made it right. Even got me a set of light weight hood struts for no extra charge..shipped to my door FREE. After having the hood painted and installed..i had fitment issues. AGAIN contacted vfn..sent pictures..ect ect. They AGAIN worked with me in a timely, professional manner..and gave their opinions and suggestions on how to fix it. Within an hr of me contacting them..i had my hood lined up and fitting like stock. So your claim here about Vfn..is nothing but hot air. Id recommend a vfn hood any day...their great to work with.

thislswon

iTrader: (5)

i sent numerous pics of my hood and it was clear that the hood was warped from the factory. I took it to 3 different bodyshops and none of them could fit it even decently and all said that the hood was warped. Hood was also pitted. Finally i found a guy that could fit it decently after about a year of searching....just my one experience with you guys and thats all i can speak from

thislswon

iTrader: (5)

guess what one experience doesnt mean all are like that..im glad you had good luck. I simply didnt and was just sharing my experience. Hood was clearly warped and pitted and they said i would have to bring it to illinois before they could do anything about it. Evenhtough the pics clearly showed the warping and pitts

'00 formula elesone

iTrader: (2)

Imo, go with vfn. I havent had mine very long, but I went with the sunoco from vfn for my z. Sorry to hear there may be a couple of folks who disagree but the quality is high on my hood. I took my time looking too. I had the hood on the car in less than 2 hours with very minimal adjustments.

armymp1983

[QUOTE=vfntech;12726460]First...we are located in Illinois.

I'm not sure what happened in the case with your hood or why you are unhappy with the fit and service...


I am interested. What kind of deal could you do for a WS6 or WS9 bolt on hood? Also will you be willing to ship to overseas? I am stationed in Germany. I will arrange shipping.

thislswon

iTrader: (5)

Your not sure why i was unhappy???Did ya not read my post? Hood was clearly warped and pitted...sent numerous pics of every different angle and close ups of the pitting...asked for my money back, asked for another hood, and all i got was information on how to make it fit better or the option to bring it back to them to fit/see lol. I dont think it is my place to try and hassle with fitting a hood that clearly wont fit right know matter how good of a body man you are. THE HOOD WAS WARPED AND PITTED. Really not that hard to understand in this case.

I understand they have alot of feedback and couldve been a rare thing. I can deal with that, but they didnt make it right and eventually stopped returning my emails. That is what i cant deal with.....i didnt even mind the pitting to bad...easy fix...but the warping was/is horrible...

there is a reason why every picture i post of my car on this forum is from the driverside and never face on unless its from a distance....

Trans Am Jam

iTrader: (7)

I mean......my Trufiber WS9 hood is great quality, the fitment is awesome, and after going 140mph +...it hasn't flew off. . . if you're so worried that your hood will fall off just buy hood pins, they have an array of different style hood pins (some black some chrome)

vfntech

iTrader: (21)

Alright...I have to set this straight.
A warped hood would mean that the mold itself is warped..
You cannot pull a warped hood out of a good mold...it doesn't happen.
This is why we keep our molds in excellent shape.

The hood mold for the WS6 is not warped...and I know this in fact because we have had the same mold for quite a while now at this point.
The same mold was used for your hood, for customers after and even now up to this point...and we do not have issues with warping.
This is even the same mold that our WS6 came from for magazine articles, that we install and for racers that we sponsor.

I understand that your posting up your experience...and that's fine. That is understandable, and I'm not bashing you...

But on the same hand...I'm also explaining that we do have an excellent rep out there for helping our customers and making a good product.

Sometimes unfortunately there are customers that we're unable to help for whatever reason...but there's usually an extremely good valid reason for this...we do not just pick customers out of a hat to "jerk" over.
We try our absolute best to work with everyone...
But unfortunately have encountered customers that we just can't work with...I won't go into details...but we have seen it all....

Most customers are easy to help and we are more then happy to do this...

Although I do not have details on your order at this time...If you want to pm me the name the item was ordered under, the date around it was ordered or the order number...I can gladly look through the notes and pics that we have on your order and gladly review everything.

vfntech

iTrader: (21)

[QUOTE=armymp1983;12726788]I can send over a pm on Monday for you with pricing information

Overseas shipping is not a problem for us ;D