OKLACOP

I need your opinions and advice. The following is a repost of mine from another thread. There are only a few of us still visiting that thread (started by Trufiber) so I decided to start my own thread to get some more opinions. This is in reference to my new Trufiber "Venom" hood for the GT500 front fascia. See below.......



I just got back from my paint and body shop and had them look at the hood. They immediately noticed cracks in nose area of the hood. See pics. The cracks are small hairline cracks that appear to only be in the gel coat. My paint/body guy called them stress cracks. They are above and below the front splitter (between the vents). I called Phil w/ Trufiber and he said it is just in the gel coat and is very normal. What worries me is that these are deeper than the gel coat and possibly occurred when I got the car up to speed and the wind/pressure tried to lift the hood up. I'm worried that the fiberglass itself is cracking. Those of you w/ fiberglass hood experience please chime in. I really don't think these cracks were there when I took delivery of the hood. I don't want to pay for paint just to have these cracks re-appear. Is it normal for the gel coat to "spiderweb" Thanks everyone.

05GT-O.C.D.

I don't know if that's normal for their products or not. But I'd be worried as well.

5150PONY

is it the crack on the gel coat or it deep through the fiberglass? It can occurred when they use to much catalyst.
If just cracks on the gel coat, they can sand it down bondo it and you are fine. Block sand the hood, spray couple primer coats and good as new....

Va Stang

If the spider cracks are from hood flex while driving they indeed will come back and show thru your paint. If you call TF they will just tell you it is normal (for their hoods) to have cracks, pin holes and some minor bowing. That is BS. A few imperfections are to be expected. But it seems to be more and more with their hoods. I would repair it and drive it some more before painting. See if the cracks come back before spending all the money on paint.

Tispco

+1 I agree. Hopefully, it is just too much catalyst as 5150PONY mentioned. For as much as it costs to prep and paint a hood, I would get it fixed and drive it around before sinking anymore money into it. IMO, I would rather have the stock hood than an aftermarket one with cracks in the paint. It would drive me nuts.

OKLACOP

BAD NEWS......the cracks go well into the fiberglass. I just started sanding the area and here is what I found. Enjoy the pics...........I didn't Guess I'll be taking Phil up on his replacement offer. I know there are no guarantees, but who's to say the new hood won't do the same thing.
Attached Thumbnails

GPStang06

**** that sucks Rob, sorry to hear that. I have the same small hairline cracksit one corner of my hood but they aren't deep into the fiberglass.

Twisted

It was most likely damaged by dropping it or too much weight placed on top of or against it during shipping or storage, the glass and gel coat looks to be too thin as well making it easier to damage.

Gel coat should be 3 to 5 mil's thick, a good way to judge it is 1 piece of note book paper is about 1 mil thick. If the gel coat is too thick it will crack same goes for being too thin.

n8rfastback

that hood should not have cracked at all...

if you can see light through it that easily i would say the fiberglass is way too thin....

hairline cracks in a fiberglass hood are definately not supposed to be there....

the resin/epoxy should be flexible enough to tolerate any flexing, if the hood isnt thick enough it would explain why this happened.

OKLACOP

I spoke to Phil again today to make sure he got the pics. He is going to ship me a new hood in mid march. He said the new hoods will not have removable heat extractor vents which is good in my opinion. The new hood will also have a thicker top piece, which will make it stronger.

Phil wants this hood back and is going to sell it. He said anyone who has fiberglass experience can easily repair this if they know what they are doing. Several of you have pm's me about the hood (asking me if I would sell it). The hood is technically Phil's since he is sending me a replacement. If anyone is interested let Phil know. Twisted pm'd me first so as far as I'm concerned if Phil hasn't already found a buyer, Twisted has dibs.

Twisted - if you are still interested let me know and I can contact Phil or you can call him and figure out what he wants for it.

OKLACOP

That light you see is my streamlight flashlight.....it's not shining through. I placed if face down on the top of the hood, right next to the cracks to light them up.