Guytonius

The vendor is actually Trufiber...and everyone else who ordered this hood either has it by now or has to wait for months to get one. I am not willing to wait so I am just going to go to a body shop.....I have some connections there. Shouldn't cost me much.

red454

Ah - I see. Still, I would make them (Trufiber) very aware of it. I would certainly not expect perfection, but that never should have left the factory.

Guytonius

I am thinking of filling the first vent holes to shrink the overall size of the vents....something like what Louie did but since I don't have stripes they can be kinda wide.

What do you guys think?

jcthorne

Anybody heard any news from BMC? Any hoods show up?

The silence is deafening

nsxer

I've emailed and called.......... heard nothing back.

$1000="poof"

5150PONY

Did you fix your hood? how did they fix it ? thnx

Guytonius

No I have not taken it to the shop yet. I am waiting to get side skirts and a rear bumper delivered too so I can have it all painted at the same time.

In the meantime I feel comfortable filling the 2 vent holes myself. I'll leave the dent to the experts though.

I'll keep you posted

Twisted

No news yet but eagerly waiting for that phone call from the shipping company.

nsxer

I just spoke with BMC... They say the hood is shipping out next week. We'll see!! I'll let everyone know if/when I get it.

(fingers crossed)

Deric

wow that makes a huge difference to me. Looks really slick and complements the looks of the front.

Guytonius

Thank you sir. It was easy to do too. Of course the picture is just a photoshop, but all I did for the real thing was mix up bondo hair, fill the front vents, sand it, then a layer of bondo, then sand that. There were a few other imperfections in the vents that needed some bondo too, so I did it all at the same time. Took like a hour and a half total. The body shop will appreciate it.

I agree it makes it look much better.

Guytonius

I decided to fix the dent myself so that I could save some money at the body shop. I went ahead and fixed the small flaws while I was at it. Not counting the dent, there were 9 flaws on the hood itself, and another 7 on the vents.

All the flaws were easy fixes except the dent, which took several attempts to blend into the hood properly.

I left the majority of the hood surface unsanded so that the experets at the body shop can more easily pick out any flaws I missed. I did however scuff the entire underside of the hood for them....and oddly enough, the underside had ZERO flaws. Not even the tiniest pinhole.

I included some pics for you guys to see. All in all, even with the dent, It still gets 2 thumbs up from me.

OKLACOP

Great work Dave. I wish I had a little more paint and body knowledge so I could prep mine before taking it to the shop. I'd love to be able to save some $$$$$$$. I do want to fill in the seams around the heat extractor vents and make them permanent. I don't want them to have a "border" around them. What are your plans for yours. What is the best way to permanently attach them and secondly, what would you use to fill in the seams?

Guytonius

Hey I am no expert either. I say you should try it yourself.

My plan is to leave the border, as I think it looks cool. If you want to fill the seams and blend it together, I recommend drilling holes from the side of the vents and pop riveting them to the hood. This ensures they are permanently positioned. Before you do this though, I would sand all around the vents with 80 grit sandpaper for the next step.

Then mix up Bondo Hair. This stuff is not like the Bondo you are imagining, but a fiberglass filler material with strands of fiberglass mixed all through it. Place the vents on the hood and then spackle this stuff in as best you can. Put on more than necessary, but don't get too crazy as you will need to sand it.

Once you have it sanded, you will notice a lot of imperfections. If they are really deep mix up more Bondo Hair and fill the holes with that. If it looks decent, mix up regular Bondo (I bought the Bondo Professional Gold) and using a good stiff plastic putty knife, spackle the area. Don't try to get it too perfect, leave a little on there so that it can be sanded off.

After 20 minutes, hit it with 120 grit and take it down to the level of the hood. You might need to apply a second, thinner coat and do it again.

Seriously if you have any skill with your hands at all I believe you can do this. I was kinda scared at first but I just went ahead and filled my first 2 vents...then I felf comfortable enough to do a few fills on the vents...then I felt ok to fix the dent and the hood flaws. It was actually kinda fun and I only spent about 4 hours total on it all.

Since you probably don't have a dent you can do yours in 3 or less....but that's time that a body shop would charge you for.

Guytonius

Looks like the civic grille works. Just need to find a way to permanently glue it in. JB Weld or something.

OKLACOP

Looks great. Did you do like you said in the earlier post about cutting the middle of the metal mesh out and keeping the edge for the new plastic grill to adhere to?

Guytonius

Yes, although the civic mesh is a little thicker than I expected, so I basically pushed it back so that it makes a little ledge for it to sit on. I then put the civic mesh through the hole and pulled it into position with the thread you see in the photo, and used a screwdriver to sort of pop it into place.

I am going to paint the little bit of aluminum mesh black so that it's totally invisible, then I will insert the civi mesh, then apply JB Weld to the original mounting points, and pull the mesh intop position. Hold for 4 minutes and viola.

GTMark052

Looks 100% better than the stock mesh IMO. I have a funny feeling that your "fix" will be copied by more than a few people

2006GT500

I like the new grilles

jcthorne

What year civic grille do I need to purchase?