How are Your Trufiber Hoods Holding Up?
10/8/08, 08:41 AM
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How are Your Trufiber Hoods Holding Up?
As most of you know I sold my 06 GT. I talked to someone who saw it very recently and said the Trufiber hood had started to develop waves in it. This same person saw it right after it was painted and knew how nice it looked. Anyway he said he thought it was to the point that the paint was probably going to start cracking. I hate that for the new owner of my car, but he hasn't called to complain yet. Was just wondering if any of you were having similar problems with yours.
I have a second Venom hood in my garage. It was part of the deal I made with Trufiber, letting them use my original hood for research and development. I will say the new hood is a lot more solid. It also has the hood pin holes in it. If I understood Phil at Trufiber correctly, the new hoods are baked twice and are absolutely fully cured. Wish I had a car to put it on
.......................................soon I hope.
I have a second Venom hood in my garage. It was part of the deal I made with Trufiber, letting them use my original hood for research and development. I will say the new hood is a lot more solid. It also has the hood pin holes in it. If I understood Phil at Trufiber correctly, the new hoods are baked twice and are absolutely fully cured. Wish I had a car to put it on
.......................................soon I hope.
Last edited by OKLACOP; 10/8/08 at 08:42 AM.
10/8/08, 10:43 AM
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This is a long post so enjoy.
My car received hail damage to the point the original hood needed to be replaced. I ordered the SVT style hood from Trufiber from LMPerformance for a sale price of $400 plus $150 shipping. I work right across the street from the body shop that had my car so i was there the day it was delivered. Per LMP's website, I am to inspect the hood for any 'freight' damage. when the hood was delivered, we did just that. the driver waited 20 min. and then said he had to go and we signed for the hood. No obvious freight damage was evident.
after the driver left, we inspected the hood more and found some problems. the hood was extremely wavy. had a huge dimple in the middle of it. it also appeared that the hood was dropped on its nose and repaired. there were a few cracks on the underside nose of the hood as well.
the shop stated that the hood was basically crap and was hesitant to work on it due to not being able to guarantee how well it would come out. i called phil at trufiber and to put it mildly, he was an ***. called me a liar. said i was hiding something and that the hood could have no where near been as bad as i described. he even admitted to not even being a car guy and just does fiberglass work. not sure what is true and what is not but whatever. he requested i send photos of the damage to LMP and they will forward them on to him. he also stated that i should have fully inspected the hood before the driver left and if any damage was found whether freight damage or not, i should have refused the hood.
i emailed LMP with my information and the photos. i later called them and spoke to one of the sales reps and he confirmed that they frequently have problems with trufiber quality and customer complaints. the next day i got an email from them with a couple options.
1: send the hood back to trufiber at my cost. if found damaged, will fix or replace for free and ship back for free. if trufiber found the hood to be in reasonable condition based upon their opinion, they would charge me another $150 to ship it back. in this situation, i would be out another $150 with the possibility of $300 total.
2: return the hood for a full refund less shipping and i must pay to return it. in this scenario, i am again out $300 for shipping the hood to me and back.
3: LMP will refund me $150. They stated that Trufiber was kind enough to add $25 for a total of $175 and I keep the hood. This was the option i chose for obvious reasons. However, the fact that a vendor stood up astonished me and I will continue to do business with LMP due to their excellent customer service. However, Trufiber providing only a $25 credit for their poor quality hood amazes me to no end and I will never recommend their product nor purchase another product from them.
So my shop let the hood sit out in the sun for a few days and then began prepping it. They took a full 8 hours to block and prep the hood. I stopped by the day after they painted it and they were not happy. The gel coat on the hood was so thin, that even after painting, you could still see a huge amount of waves and the actual fiber in the hood.
They thought maybe the hood needed to bake more so for a full week they had it bake and out in the sun. They then re-blocked and sanded the hood down and then repainted it again.
Though slightly better, the hood is still wavy and in direct sunlight, you can still see the individual fiber weave. After a month, I now have spider cracks in the fiberglass where the hood originally looked like it was repaired.
One thing this experience has taught me is to never use an aftermarket body part. I will always use factory pieces.
To summarize my experience with Trufiber:
My car received hail damage to the point the original hood needed to be replaced. I ordered the SVT style hood from Trufiber from LMPerformance for a sale price of $400 plus $150 shipping. I work right across the street from the body shop that had my car so i was there the day it was delivered. Per LMP's website, I am to inspect the hood for any 'freight' damage. when the hood was delivered, we did just that. the driver waited 20 min. and then said he had to go and we signed for the hood. No obvious freight damage was evident.
after the driver left, we inspected the hood more and found some problems. the hood was extremely wavy. had a huge dimple in the middle of it. it also appeared that the hood was dropped on its nose and repaired. there were a few cracks on the underside nose of the hood as well.
the shop stated that the hood was basically crap and was hesitant to work on it due to not being able to guarantee how well it would come out. i called phil at trufiber and to put it mildly, he was an ***. called me a liar. said i was hiding something and that the hood could have no where near been as bad as i described. he even admitted to not even being a car guy and just does fiberglass work. not sure what is true and what is not but whatever. he requested i send photos of the damage to LMP and they will forward them on to him. he also stated that i should have fully inspected the hood before the driver left and if any damage was found whether freight damage or not, i should have refused the hood.
i emailed LMP with my information and the photos. i later called them and spoke to one of the sales reps and he confirmed that they frequently have problems with trufiber quality and customer complaints. the next day i got an email from them with a couple options.
1: send the hood back to trufiber at my cost. if found damaged, will fix or replace for free and ship back for free. if trufiber found the hood to be in reasonable condition based upon their opinion, they would charge me another $150 to ship it back. in this situation, i would be out another $150 with the possibility of $300 total.
2: return the hood for a full refund less shipping and i must pay to return it. in this scenario, i am again out $300 for shipping the hood to me and back.
3: LMP will refund me $150. They stated that Trufiber was kind enough to add $25 for a total of $175 and I keep the hood. This was the option i chose for obvious reasons. However, the fact that a vendor stood up astonished me and I will continue to do business with LMP due to their excellent customer service. However, Trufiber providing only a $25 credit for their poor quality hood amazes me to no end and I will never recommend their product nor purchase another product from them.
So my shop let the hood sit out in the sun for a few days and then began prepping it. They took a full 8 hours to block and prep the hood. I stopped by the day after they painted it and they were not happy. The gel coat on the hood was so thin, that even after painting, you could still see a huge amount of waves and the actual fiber in the hood.
They thought maybe the hood needed to bake more so for a full week they had it bake and out in the sun. They then re-blocked and sanded the hood down and then repainted it again.
Though slightly better, the hood is still wavy and in direct sunlight, you can still see the individual fiber weave. After a month, I now have spider cracks in the fiberglass where the hood originally looked like it was repaired.
One thing this experience has taught me is to never use an aftermarket body part. I will always use factory pieces.
To summarize my experience with Trufiber:
Last edited by Commbubba19; 10/8/08 at 10:45 AM.
10/8/08, 10:59 AM
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My Tru-Fiber hood also took FAR more prep than it should, still does not look 'right' and is indeed getting more wavy with age. I have no idea how bad it will get. For now it still looks pretty good overall and there is no other game in town for a KR hood. Not to mention I am into this one for over $3500.
10/8/08, 11:10 AM
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My Tru-Fiber hood also took FAR more prep than it should, still does not look 'right' and is indeed getting more wavy with age. I have no idea how bad it will get. For now it still looks pretty good overall and there is no other game in town for a KR hood. Not to mention I am into this one for over $3500.
$3500? How on earth is that possible for just a hood??
Andretti
10/8/08, 12:16 PM
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Well I wasn't trying to get a "bash Trufiber" thread going by any means although I know where you guys are coming from as far as the first run of Trufiber hoods. My first one had spider cracks all through the nose of it. They sent me a new hood that was in great shape.......it's the one you see in my avitar. This new one they just sent seems to be a much better hood. It is heavier, thicker, the mesh in the grills is way more heavy duty, and it is in a green primer which is suppose to save the body shop some time. Phil has been great to me and stood behind the first cracked hood and replaced it. He then didn't forget about me and almost a year later sent me the new Venom hood w/ the hood pin holes that will accomidate the 68 style Shelby twist lock hood pins (same as onthe KR). These holes could easily be filled in if someone didn't want the hood pins.
Again I know some of you have had issues, I was just curious how the hoods were holding up after a few months of driving.
Again I know some of you have had issues, I was just curious how the hoods were holding up after a few months of driving.
10/9/08, 05:54 AM
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Mine is getting the spider cracks throughout the hood and will require more work to get it ready for paint than its worth. I have had the hood in black primer and on the car since March to see how well the fiber glass would hold up and I am quite disappointed.
I have also noticed with time the hood has become more flexible requiring hood pins to keep from lifting and flexing at 85+ mph. I'm not talking minor lifting and flexing but some major lifting and flexing to the point the upper and lower halves in some areas have started to come apart where they were joined.
I love the look of the hood and would prefer to keep it but unless is a quality carbon fiber piece I would not get another one. Regardless of what Shelby says my dealer swears he can get the KR hood eventually so I'll wait and see what happens.
I have also noticed with time the hood has become more flexible requiring hood pins to keep from lifting and flexing at 85+ mph. I'm not talking minor lifting and flexing but some major lifting and flexing to the point the upper and lower halves in some areas have started to come apart where they were joined.
I love the look of the hood and would prefer to keep it but unless is a quality carbon fiber piece I would not get another one. Regardless of what Shelby says my dealer swears he can get the KR hood eventually so I'll wait and see what happens.
Last edited by Twisted; 10/9/08 at 06:01 AM.
10/9/08, 07:21 AM
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65 hrs of body shop labor. Real KR hood locks. Paint and supplies. That's how you get to $3500. It took that much work to get it where it is now. It was NOT ready to fit and paint. Heck, it was not structurally sound with the inner and outer halves being forced apart by the ram air like a big baloon. Thousands of pin holes, shape and body lines that did not match the OEM fenders next to them etc. Yes, its way too much for a hood but that was the point. It is STILL the only game in town if you want a close match to the KR hood.
The underside does look better than a real KR with all the work we did to finish it. The KR hood lock recesses had to be custom with reinforcing plates to take the load etc.
The underside does look better than a real KR with all the work we did to finish it. The KR hood lock recesses had to be custom with reinforcing plates to take the load etc.
10/9/08, 06:25 PM
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Did you fellows notice that Trufiber is selling the Venom hood in carbon fiber for 1700.00 on their website? I'm kinda scared to order one though with the comments floating around here. Anyone have one yet?
10/10/08, 12:59 AM
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I find it interesting that when I posted up a comment way back when Trufiber was coming out with their first generation GTS hood that my body guy said run, don't walk from a Trufiber product, I took quite a bit of heat for it. I think it takes guts for those that bought the product, and who had a bad experience, to come on and give feedback. Sometimes when a vendor seems like a good guy, or the product is something everyone wants badly, the "caveat emptor" philosophy gets lost in the shuffle. I think it is always a good thing to post experiences good and bad with vendors so that we can all make informed decisions. It is good to hear from those that have not had a problem as well.
Last edited by 07 GT/CS; 10/10/08 at 01:01 AM.
10/10/08, 05:40 AM
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I find it interesting that when I posted up a comment way back when Trufiber was coming out with their first generation GTS hood that my body guy said run, don't walk from a Trufiber product, I took quite a bit of heat for it. I think it takes guts for those that bought the product, and who had a bad experience, to come on and give feedback. Sometimes when a vendor seems like a good guy, or the product is something everyone wants badly, the "caveat emptor" philosophy gets lost in the shuffle. I think it is always a good thing to post experiences good and bad with vendors so that we can all make informed decisions. It is good to hear from those that have not had a problem as well.
I am not trying to bash Truefiber at all I just want to let everyone know what the quality of their product is and how well it's holding up after 9 months on my car. Mine was one of the first run hoods but from the other posts in this thread the next gen or v2.0 was not much better when it came to quality.
Maybe this thread will help Truefiber take a step back and see what they need to do to increase product quality.
I would like to here from anyone who has their carbon fiber venom hood even though the price seems a bit too steep compared to the IPP C/F KR style hood available for just under a grand. You can see it here http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/IPP-0...d=p3911.c0.m14
Last edited by Twisted; 10/10/08 at 05:49 AM.
10/10/08, 07:35 AM
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Keep in mind these hoods are made in China..............
After starting this thread i've inspected the new Venom hood more closely. It truely does appear to be a better product. This would be their third generation hood, so hopefully this one will be right. There is no way to test is as I don't have a car to put it on. I got to play with the first two hoods and the second one was better than the first. This third one seems to be a lot better than the second one. If I keep it and put it on a future car, I'm gonna have to buy the $120.00 hood pins.
After starting this thread i've inspected the new Venom hood more closely. It truely does appear to be a better product. This would be their third generation hood, so hopefully this one will be right. There is no way to test is as I don't have a car to put it on. I got to play with the first two hoods and the second one was better than the first. This third one seems to be a lot better than the second one. If I keep it and put it on a future car, I'm gonna have to buy the $120.00 hood pins.
10/15/08, 07:58 AM
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I've had mine for about 4 months now and I have not had any of the problems listed above. The hood fits great, took little time to prep for paint. I love it and everyone who see it loves it too and even have a freind who order one after seeing mine and his does not have any of the listed problems either and he got his within the last 2 months.
10/17/08, 05:10 PM
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I'm wondering if the driving styles have anything to do with the deterioration, or lack of, with the hood? I just installed the Scott Drake hood pins on my stock hood since I was getting sick of watching my hood vibrate, shake, flutter, undulate, ripple, ride the wave, shimmy, whatever you want to call it at anything over 70 mph. Now the hood stays put no matter the speed. Given the design of the front end, I wonder if those who drive their vehicles at higher speeds are putting much heavier stress on the fiberglass hoods. I commute in my vehicle and although I'll save my daily speeds for the confessional, suffice it to say that it sees a lot of buffeting. Maybe the fiberglass hoods just can't take the regular abuse?
10/24/08, 06:21 PM
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Hey Mellowyellow06, do you have any pictures from underneath the hood? Just wondering what the hood pins attach to, did you have to fab something up or did all the hardware came with hood?