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Pictures of new hood and spoiler
The new hood is a steel cowl induction hood made by Goodmark Industries. This is an excellent piece that is well made. It bolted right on in place of the stock hood with no problem whatsoever. I ordered it from MuscleCar Express in Jupiter, Fl., I paid $360 for it. Original price was $390 but the guy gave me $30 for my stock hood when I went to pick it up. I had it painted at Ravenswood Paint & Body in Dania Beach. Since I didn't know what type of paint was on the car already, they color matched it to the front fenders. Then the hood was painted with a urethane base coat and they feathered it onto the fenders and header panel. Then they laid down the clear and painted everything from the doors forward. Whadda paint job! Looks fantastic! Almost passed out when I got the bill. $1000 for painting a hood such as you see below. However, the quality of the work is second to none and the looks and comments it has produced has made up for my initial sticker shock.
The rear spoiler on the other hand was not as easy. Whadda pain! When I bought the car, there was a three piece spoiler in the trunk that the guy I bought it from had gotten at a swap meet up at Moroso Motorsports Park. Unfortunately, it was for a 74 - 81 camaro. The end pieces are different. Thus began my search. You just can't find these pieces anymore. Called every junkyard in Broward county. Finally found two in the last one I called. The guy says, "They're a little rough. You better come take a look at them". So dad and I hop in the car and away we go. No kidding, they were rough. But, I bought them ($50) anyway and took them along with the center section I already had down to Ravenswood. The guy there took one look at them and said they were not repairable. Sh*t! Keep looking. E-mailed the guy (Madmike @ North Georgia Classic Camaro) whose 2nd gen. camaro website I frequent to see if he knew where I could score these pieces. Lo and behold, he's got some originals off one of his cars or he can get some reproduction pieces from a company he deals with. Great! Not wanting to take his originals, I ask how much for the repros. $135 including shipping, whew, not too bad. OK, I need em, sign me up. Received them quickly (thanks Madmike) and back to Ravenswood I go. Ok says Chris, we can work with these. I get a call a week later from Ravenswood, "We got a problem, you need to come down here." Sh*t! Now what?! Well.......two things are wrong. First, the original GM center section doesn't match the repro end pieces. The center section is about 1/4 " shorter. More money down the tubes. Order a center section from the same people who made the ends and pray its the same height. Second, it turns out that the rear quarter panels had been replaced when the car was restored several years ago by a previous owner. Since the car never had a spoiler before and he didn't put one on it then, they just lined up the 1/4's so everything looked good and voila, they're done. Unfortunately, they didn't line up the left rear 1/4 and the tailpan good enough. The spoiler end piece has a big gap on the back side where it's supposed to fit tight against the back of the car. Oh well, do the best you can I say. Another week goes by and I get another call, "We got a problem, you need to come down here." Sh*t! Again??!! It seems that the new center section is a little on the wavy side. It can be fixed but they already spent alot of labor and material on the old center section that we aren't going to use anymore. What do you need, I innocently ask. More $$$$$$ down the drain. The rear spoiler<s> and all of the associated crap that has gone with it has now cost me almost as much as the hood did. Oh well, what's a guy to do. Thats the price of having a nice looking ride. By the way, the spoiler looks great. Same perfect paint job like they put on the hood.
So, now I have $1400 invested from the doors forward and $1100 from the rear wheels back. Fun Fun Fun!!!!
Last update: 4/12/00
You can e-mail me at: dh3@prodigy.net