[DeTomaso] hood fitment between years?

[Cullen McCann]

The collaborative wisdom available from this list never ceases to amaze me. Thank you Mike for the thorough advice.  Thank you also for your challenging but successful rebuild of my rack and Pinion and your volunteer efforts. My steering set up would have been a lost cause without you. I owe you one!!

Cullen
4653



> On Jun 5, 2015, at 7:27 PM, Mike Drew via DeTomaso <detomaso at poca.com> wrote:
> 
>   In a message dated 6/5/15 9 24 5, rlbpantera at earthlink.net writes:
> 
>     I bought the hood new in the box from Wilkinson. Seems doubtful he
>     would sell me a GT5 hood.
> 
>>>> New in WHAT box?  Ford box?  Or De Tomaso box?  If it wasn't in a
>   Ford box, likely it was a GT5 hood.  That's what the factory had on
>   offer back then.  (Last year, Wilkinson was roaming around with
>   Santiago and found an unopened crate that had 25 brand new Ford-era
>   hoods in it that nobody knew they had in the warehouse!)
> 
>> Also I'd previously tried one of his "carbon fiber" hoods and it
>     didn't fit.
> 
>>>> Depending on the source, they often don't.
> 
>> The problem with both of them was the same: the curvature was
>     different than the fenders and peaked 1/4" above them about a foot
>     from the nose. Seems very unlikely a carbon hood mold would have
>     been made for the GT5. Also I thought I'd heard that stampings
>     didn't come along until after Ford had bought De Tomaso.
> 
>>>> The parts of the cars were stamped; the method of construction
>   changed slightly as the assembly line ramped up, but they were all
>   built of the same bits.
>   I've seen atrocious fit/fitment issues with several different
>   vendor-sourced lightweight hoods and decklids.
>   I've also seen used front hoods that didn't fit properly because they
>   were bent while in storage.  In fact, I've seen people bend their own
>   hoods by overpacking their front trunks and creating the type of bowed
>   effect you are speaking of.  It's easy to bend them out of shape, and
>   not that much harder to bend them back INTO shape.  I watched Johnny
>   Woods fix one with his bare hands and a pair of 2x4 blocks in about 15
>   minutes once.
>   When trying to sort out this kind of thing, the best thing to do is
>   consult the Ford parts book.  Ford was very meticulous about
>   documenting running changes where parts were different between early
>   and late cars (bumpers, windshield trim etc.).  The Ford parts book
>   lists ONE part number for a Pantera front hood, from start to finish.
>   (They list three different styles for the rear decklid, before #1285,
>   #1285 to #2638, and after #2638.  The first style used the latching
>   mechanism with the handle in the driver's doorjamb, second style used a
>   'normal' pushbutton trunk lock and flat decklid, and third style is the
>   common one with a raised rib in the center).
>   Cullen--as long as the hood in question hasn't been unduly abused, it
>   should fit reasonably well.  (Other's comments about hand-finishing
>   with lead etc. are valid, I think, and there may be some minor tweaking
>   necessary along those lines).
>   Mike
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