i used to reach Phil @ +1 (714) 451-1444

 

714-451-1444....... It has worked for me every time I called it. I haven't talked to him in probably 3-4 weeks tho so it may have changed.

edit.......I just realized you beat me to it Louie.

 

Thanks, I got a hold of him and he is going to try to see where things are.

 

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). Louie and Joe did you all notice this on your hoods??????? I called Phil and he said it is just in the gel coat and is very normal. What worries me is that these possibly occurred when I got the car up to speed and the wind/pressure tried to lift the hood up. Those of you w/ fiberglass hood experience chime in also. 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.

 

i haven't had these cracks on my hood Rob, but i must admit they're pretty common on Fiberglass panel coating in general.
i'd have the bodyshop guys sand off the areas in question, and you'll see the cracks are limited to the thin white gel coating above the actual fiberglass layer

 

i had that on my old rk sport cali dream hood. body shop sanded it out.

 

Thanks guys........you're making me feel better. Anyone else?????

 

I had them too, but I think it's from when I tried to heat and pull the dent out. I left them there for the body shop to deal with.

But I will say this....I don't think it has anything to do with you driving the car. there are 2 parts to the hood, a top half and a bottom half. The part that is bolted to the car is the bottom half, and the top part is simply bonded to the lower half. If anything you would have seen cracks on the underside of the hood where the latch is bolted. That is the area where the greatest stress would be if the hood was lifting.

I wouldn't worry too much. Be thankful you didn't have a huge dent in the center like I did.

 

I just got an email form Phil. He said he was going to send me a replacemnt hood when the next shipment arrived......he thinks it will be sometime in March. Guess when he saw the pics he decided it was more than just the gel coat.

 

Cant tell how bad it is from the pix. Could be jsut the gel coat crack. That happens when they use too much catalyst. Spider crack can be fix by sand down the hood and bondo it, and as good as new.

 

Hey Rob,

Do you have to return the "defective" hood? Wanna make some $$$???

Willie

 

How much for the hood?

 

Where are these hoods coming from? China? Everything else is...

 

When I described the problem to Phil he said the same thing. After seeing the pics his email just said he was sending a replacement.........I haven't talked to him one on one on the phone yet, but I'm assuming he thinks there is more of a problem than just cracking gel coat. I'm wondering if the hood is flexing in that spot and it caused the cracks......if this is the case, won't it do the same to my paint????????????/

 

Phil didn't say for sure. His email did say to hang onto it for now. And yes they are made in China.

 

I think I'm going to sand through the cracks and shoot a coat of primer on the area in question. I'll then go drive the crap out of the car and see if the hood flexes and re-cracks the primer. If not, I'm going to keep the hood and have the Mustang Collision center here in Mustang, Ok paint it for me. I hope this fixes the problem. I hate for Phil to ship me another hood when there are others who haven't received their hoods yet. If I can make mine work I won't feel like I'm taking a hood away from someone else. Hopefully the cracks won't reappear. I'll update when I can.

 

I feel like I'm the only one still posting here....oh well. 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.

 

That simply CAN'T be from driving the car. That had to have happened during shipping.

 

I'm thinkin it did. My damage just wasn't as visible as yours was Dave.

 

I'm still watching but due to the other damaged hoods in the last shipment I have to wait until the next shipment comes in too so not too much to say other than I hope they are on time and have no delays in clearing customs.

Waiting is such a ***** but Phil seems to be a stand up guy so I told him I'd wait patiently for this hood.