are they hard to take care of or what not to keep them looking good. what all is involved to maintain it. thought about getting one was curious.
Stock Blue 04 4 door yay
depends on the maker of the hood, and the climate you live in.. I have a VIS and live in arizona. I cleaned and waxed the thing like crazy when I first got it. Come to find out it hadn't been cleared, and started oxidizing no matter how much i tried to take care of it.
for the most part i hate to say it but if you leave it the way it comes it will more than likely oxidize.
best bet is to keep it regularly waxed and inside a garage as much as possible out of direct sunlight.
Oldsmobile all motor > Saab/Opel boosted
And have it professionally cleared before it ever sees your car.
i've had my turbo sport hood for 3 year! waxed it alot when i first got it! looks great to this very day!
WiGM-Tuners member.
i just picked up a VIS sunfire hood at the junk yard for $35, my friend cleared it and its good as new.
Spencer is lucky. that is all.
FOR SALE
My VIS is hood oxidized, I was told by a local auto body guy I know that he could have it looking brand new and cleared for $125. If I ever got a new one I would get it cleared.
ok dumb question, when you say cleared, you guys mean having clear coat sprayed on right?
Stock Blue 04 4 door yay
yes if you get it, take it to a body shop and have them put a few layers of clear coat on it.
i've had my VIS hood for 2 years now. i only have it on during the warm months, but its on a daily driven car that sits in direct sunlight pretty much all day every day. that being said, it still looks brand new (minus a couple minor nicks from normal driving). no fading, no cracking, no haze. and i never had it cleared. the car gets washed almost every weekend and i usually try to keep up on waxing, but i've let it go for too long before. just last weekend i washed, waxed and clay bar'd the whole car and i'm very pleased with how the hood still looks. maybe i'm one of the lucky ones?
Edited 2 time(s). Last edited Wednesday, August 25, 2010 7:15 PM
alright, thanks for the info guys
Stock Blue 04 4 door yay
I've had my hood now for 6+ years.
It still looks like brand new but I've had to work hard to keep it that way.
For about 2 years, I daily drove the car playing tournament paintball with little to no maintenance on the paint nor the hood.
It started fading really bad and turning yellow but here's how I got it back on track and like a mirror again.
It's an Erebuni so I'm guessing it's clear coated.
I first used Meguiars #4 deep cleaner on it to get off all the oxidation without going too deep. It took alot of hard work, lots of elbow grease, and a couple of days doing it one section of the hood at a time.
Once that was done, I then used Meguiars #7 polish which I again did this with lots of elbow grease and did this twice on the hood to achieve a nice shine.
Finally, I've been using Liquid Glass Polymer sealant on the entire car and the more times I use the product the deeper the gloss it gets. Like it states, it becomes like glass the more you use it, and I've been using this product for 20+ years now with most excellent results.
So now the hood looks like it did when I bought it and probably has an even better shine on it since it was new.
The other thing about the Liquid Glass is that it seals the paint and has UV protection too.
You can see the depth in the hood and no more yellow with nothing but shine.
I've always been able to make paint come alive if it's faded or oxidized with the above setup by Meguiars. It takes hard work, lots of effort, and the results speak for itself.
I've done the same for my Porsche and even the previous owner noticed immediately that the paint looked way better than what it was when he sold me the car.
Good luck on your hood man. You can get it back to life without clear coating it. Just get a polymer sealant setup like Liquid Glass to keep it nice but you'll have to work your a$$ off to get it to that point.
Misnblu.com
Newbie member since 1999
Thank you Dave and JBO! 
i wanted to try liquid glass back in the day but when the bottle said you had to sand it off to remove it for whatever reason that killed it for me.
Spencer wrote:i wanted to try liquid glass back in the day but when the bottle said you had to sand it off to remove it for whatever reason that killed it for me.
Never read that anywhere on the instructions anywhere.
Maybe I missed something on the label.
If that was the reason for you not to use it then you missed out on a great product for sure.
I swear by the product and have seen several show cars that have a true glass look with the product on it.
My Honda was like glass because I wet sanded the entire car, polished it, and put many coats on it over the years for a finish I have yet to have again with any car I now own. That' Honda paint was perfection and totally glass like. The Cavy is starting to get close to that but I've not gone so far as to wet sand it totally smooth either. For factory paint that's been weathered and tarnished, people ask me if it's an aftermarket paint job when they see it. They can't believe it's the original factory paint.
Oh and that 35 dollar c/f hood came out beautifully, very nice.
Misnblu.com
Newbie member since 1999
Thank you Dave and JBO!
i may have to give it a 2nd look. If i can find it last i saw it in a store around here was like 8 years ago.
Whats that red washer coming out of the front bumper?
yeah, saves weight not having a starter motor. it's usually used on race cars, but it still works on gm 4 cyl motors.
That's why people usually get aluminum flywheels, with the pull starter it's easier to pull because the flywheel weighs less...otherwise you'd have crazy strong back/arm muscles after trying to get it to start with a stock cast iron flywheel.
I left my starter on, but some guys see it as a weight savings.
The starter weighs close to 15 pounds.
Lmfao. Be nice to the newby. Its a tow hook.
