New hood

[RubberChicken]

Does anyone know about what a new hood costs for a 2011 1LT? I've got hail damage to mine and the vinyl stripe needs to be replaced. I'm wondering if getting a whole new hood would just be better than having the vinyl stripes replaced since there's hail damage to the hood anyway.

[Irace16]

You can find used hoods for 2-500 , probably some in the classified area

[RubberChicken]

Originally Posted by Irace16

You can find used hoods for 2-500 , probably some in the classified area

I'll look. Thanks for that!

[RubberChicken]

Originally Posted by Irace16

You can find used hoods for 2-500 , probably some in the classified area

I found some generic, primed hoods. I want to replace the hood I have now for two reasons: 1. Hail damage; 2. The white vinyl stripe has "crackled", meaning it's got this crackled effect going on all over it. The vinyl stripe needs to be removed and replaced. But the company that applied the stripe will charge $25 an hour to remove the stripe and with the crackled effect going on, I'm afraid it's going to take a week or longer to remove, meaning well over $1000 just for stripe removal.

For that much I'm wondering if I can just get a new hood and have a body shop paint it and then apply a painted stripe that won't crackle.

[Reaper85]

To get the decals removed should take no more than an hr. Do it yourself if your worried about it taking a while. Heat gun and fingers will get them off. It also doesn't take much heat.

[RubberChicken]

Originally Posted by Reaper85

To get the decals removed should take no more than an hr. Do it yourself if your worried about it taking a while. Heat gun and fingers will get them off. It also doesn't take much heat.

Thanks for that response. This was my other option - buying a heat gun and doing the job myself. But I was worried that I would apply too much heat and mess up the paint. But if it doesn't take that much heat, then I might just give that a go!

[Reaper85]

If the decal turns brown to much heat lol. Also when over heated it'll break apart as you pull.

[InFiD3ViL]

Originally Posted by RubberChicken

I found some generic, primed hoods. I want to replace the hood I have now for two reasons: 1. Hail damage; 2. The white vinyl stripe has "crackled", meaning it's got this crackled effect going on all over it. The vinyl stripe needs to be removed and replaced. But the company that applied the stripe will charge $25 an hour to remove the stripe and with the crackled effect going on, I'm afraid it's going to take a week or longer to remove, meaning well over $1000 just for stripe removal.

For that much I'm wondering if I can just get a new hood and have a body shop paint it and then apply a painted stripe that won't crackle.

I removed my own stripes.

American Car Craft was VERY reluctant to remove them for me, even at $25 ish an hour. I think they were afraid of damage and didn't want the responsibility.

I purchased a 3M eraser wheel (used with standard household power drill) and took my time. After removal, I clay barred and compounded. Came out great.

Only downside is very similar to what you posted. I had major cracking of my original stripes. It even transferred to the paint. To make sense of that, what had happened is that I had purchased my car used. It had stripes that were very dry and badly cracked. The old stripes blocked out the UV rays from the sun for so long that they caused severe paint shadowing (Darker original paint under stripes). The cracks in the stripes actually transferred into the paint as well. There were no actual cracks in the paint. But the pattern of the cracks would show in the shadowing. At that point of damage, it has to be either re-striped or resprayed.

After removal, I brought it back to ACC and had them install brand new stripes to cover the shadowing and cracking.

Hopefully you don't have the bad shadowing that I had. You can't even tell now, due to my new stripes, but the downside is that I can never take my stripes fully off unless I want a respray.