dplotkin

Being new to Corvettes I'm freaked out by these two small cracks in the paint on either side of the blister vents on my L78 hood that I discovered while polishing this morning. What can I do to keep them from spreading? Should I pull the hood and have it redone?



Dan

DucatiDon

Welcome to the fine joy of owning (and driving) a fiberglass car.

dplotkin

I kinda expected that response. How do you keep it from bothering you? Stay in the car and drive or medication?

DucatiDon

Knowing that after I spend $1000s to fix it, they will come right back.

Or I could just never drive the car...but then whats the point?

Downdraft

Can the crack be seen (or felt) on the underside? Do you have any rubbing issues with the air cleaner or such? When I did my repaint I wanted to make sure that cracks would not return around my headlight slots (cracks had formed in the corners and around the side vents). First I drilled a small hole at the end of the crack and a few around it, then laid a thin aluminum 90 degree corner underneath and covered it with fiberglass, sanded down the top about 35% of the fiberglass in the crack area then laid fresh fiberglass, primer, etc. Over 10,000 miles since and no problems. Did the same thing around the side vents in front of the door. I have your same hood and no issues there.

dplotkin

The underside? Its metal. This car was restored two years ago. I've had it since january and didn't notice these cracks until today. Pretty sure they appeared recently. Air filter clearance looks ok. I never slam hood. Upsetting but from what i hear cracks are a fact of life with these. I'm a metal car guy, guess I'll have to get used to it.

Downdraft

[QUOTE=dplotkin;1580501160]The underside? Its metal.

mine is fiberglass on both sides - I know for sure, I sanded it about 1 month ago in order to re-do the black

Mike Geary

The metal you see are rain gutters, separate pieces not part of the hood panel.

My guess is the bodyman slapped a little filler on the inside corner to even out the radius and that's what cracked.

You might just check the screws holding on the chrome vents. Could be they were over tightened.

dplotkin

Well if thats it I'd be afraid to back out the screws and make it worse. Maybe when its so bad i can't take it i should buy a new hood?

gbvette62

The underside of your hood should not be metal. The only metal in that hood is the rain shields behind the hood grills, and the 4 nut plates riveted in the corners of the reinforcement, for the hinges and male latches to bolt too. The rest of your hood, the skin and underside reinforcement, are fiberglass.

Cracks in the fiberglass, are pretty common in old Corvettes, but I'm not sure the cracks in your hood, are actually in the fiberglass. They could just be in the paint.

It's possible that the paint was put on a little thick there, and with age it's shrinking and cracking. This isn't too common with today's modern acrylics, but it happened regularly with older lacquers. It may be that when the hood grills were installed, they were over tightened, causing the cracks in the paint, or maybe even causing stress cracks in the fiberglass.

65GGvert

Or a new car.

Mike Mytro

I agree with a build up of material. This is usually where extra material settles. I guess you can call this area a valley. You might be surprised when you get ready to refinish the hood that the crack sands out.

dplotkin

Ok. Sympathy I'm not going to get, don't deserve, and won't help anyway. it is probably the paint, as you say as the cracks are very fine. They were not there until recently, and recently I've been driving the car, and loving every minute of it. I'm used to perfection and I guess I should forget about that. I did a three step polish, glaze & sealent today and she looks beautiful, but those cracks are hair growing on my otherwise nearly perfect vette.

Guess I'll refinish the hood some day and deal with it then. Better the hood than somewhere else!!

Happy Easter/Passover!

Dan

DansYellow66

My hood had those and I repaired them with resin and fiberglass (not body filler) and gel coat when I painted the car (Dupont lacquer) in the 90s. They started to reappear after a number of years and pretty much look like a duplicate of yours again. It probably took about 10 years however before I noticed them much - so much for the vast superiority of urethane over crummy lacquer. I never drop my hood and always close it gently. I think it's just a high stress area and inevitable like the ocassional drop of oil on the ground. Interesting point about the crack just being in the paint. I ground most of the stress cracks in my panels out before I stripped the paint so I would not lose them. If that was the case I guess I wasted my time on those. I know it pains you but it is a part of owning these old cars and over time you will come to accept it.

dplotkin

I drop my hood only from a height necessary for it to catch, maybe 6-7 inches. I thought it was less stress than shoving down the corners. Looking it over, I guess that hood has some flexing to do given the area it spans. Hell the chassis is not exactly BMW stiff, so I guess cracking is to be expected.

Where else do they crack and why? Anyone have any tips for avoiding or postponing the eventual crack encounter?


Dan

isac

DansYellow66 nailed it , It's just one of those things we have to live with on our cars, boats, gliders or whatever...It's fiberglass. I have very small clearcoat/paint cracks on my hood at the same places too, but since I don't drive the car in the rain that much anyway I removed the rain shields on the inside of the hood to reduce some weight and that seems to work so far and my cracks hasn't grown since then , but small cracks and flaws will show up eventually and that's the way it is when you driving the car and having fun , and I think the only way to stop or avoiding cracks is to have a garage/trailer queen.. how fun Is that ... I'll deal with the cracks in the future if/when more cracks shows up or it really starts to look like ****.

You have a nice looking car btw.

Peter

dplotkin

Thanks everybody, I'm learning to accept it. It's was just that the car is so otherwise nice and that I happen to be neurotic about my cars. Guess I better put the neurosis in the tool chest & live with imperfections.

Dan

Rich Yanulis

The paint on my car is now 49 years old.
I have very small cracks at some of the high stress areas. Most noticable at the corner of the headlight openings.
They have not changed since I bought the car.......and will be there the day I sell it.
I concider them to be part of the CHARACTER of owning a true classic that I drive and not a trailer queen.