I recently purchased a 2000 Trans Am with the regular flat hood. I want a WS6 hood but it appears the bumper has been trimmed by a previous owner. The person I bought it from said the car had a Firehawk hood on it when he bought it. He didn’t like it so he changed hoods. My question is, if I put a WS6 hood on now, will it look weird with the bumper trimmed? Honestly, I didn’t even notice the trim until I began researching hoods and looked more closely at mine. Thanks for any advice you can offer.

 

If you still have the wing on the back, I wouldn't think a WS6 hood would look out of place. Is the car a bona fide Firehawk or WS6?

This is all if you can get a WS6 hood. When I sold my car, (a long time ago) the hood was worth ridiculous money. The imitation WS6 hoods had a reputation for being flimsy with bad fitments.

 

That large emblem is wild! Why not be different and keep a smooth hood? So few remain as it seems 75% or more of Trans Am owners have switched. I actually had a choice when I bought mine new way back when. The WS6 package was $3,000 extra, and although in the obvious minority, I actually liked the smooth hood look. Originality can be a good thing but it's your car and be prepared to spend solid $$$ for a quality hood and correct paint.

 

I’ve always loved the WS6 hood but don’t really care if I have a true WS6. It’s a big reason that I wanted a 4th Gen. The car I bought was too clean to pass up but I figured I could just add a hood. I just didn’t know the bumper had been cut. I found a WS6 hood locally that was on a Firehawk but it has the center removed to show the Hawk emblem. The problem is that the seller doesn’t have very good pictures of the hood on the car. It’s a lot of money to spend if I’m not sure I will like the way it looks on my car.

 

If youre going to spend a lot of money get a hood that is not cut up. as for your bumper, as a WS6 owner, I dont really see where your hood is "cut up"


What am I missing?

 

Tupp,
I was referring to the part between the openings. A regular WS6 hood doesn’t have the gap between the openings.

 

My understanding is that the WS6 and non-WS6 (flat-hooded cars) bumpers were shaped the same between the nostrils. The only bumper trimming that occurred was on the Firehawk bumpers due to the Firehawk emblem used in that spot (the Firehawk hood may have also been shaped differently for that emblem, not positive on that). The WS6 and flat hoods would therefore be shaped the same to work with the same (non-trimmed) bumper.

It appears to me that the PO trimmed his WS6 hood to better fit around the Firehawk emblem on the bumper.

 

Where is your bumper trimmed? I can't see anything in your picture that clearly shows this.

WS6 and base model TAs both got the same bumper, so if the flat hood looks proper now (which is does as far as I can tell in your first pic) then the WS6 hood would look equally proper.

Again, I don't understand/see where or how your bumper is "trimmed"?

 

RPM WS6,
Thanks for the reply. That makes sense. I’ve attached a couple pictures of the trimmed area. When the hood is shut, I can really only see the exposed area where it was trimmed when looking from above the hood/bumper area.

 

If anything had to be trimmed the only reason would have been to adjust for an crappy fitting hood or the car was tweaked up front. I cannot see anything that looks severely modified so I think you would be just fine others opinions may differ. Worst case you can adjust the hood and headlight doors to even the gaps and 99.9 of onlookers will never be none the wiser unless you point it out.

Mine is a bonafide WS6 and the hood is 100% unmodified like most did with dremels and sawzalls back when these cars were new. Dang cost of the hood makes me nervous everytime I go out with her these day's