SpeedRacer71

I have an aftermarket hood on my 1971 LS-5. I just picked up a hood supposedly an original from a 1969 Big Block Vette. My question is: How can I tell if this is an original hood? The underneath of my aftermarket is rough fiberglass. The underneath of the one I just picked up is smooth. Any advice? My second question is are the 1969 hoods the same as the 1971 hood? Thanks.

wombvette

Well original ones were smooth, but beyond that I would have to see it.

The arrangement of the latches are different from 69 to 71. They should work assuming you have the correct RH latch and the cable, but that latch is a little hard to get.

Easy Mike

There might be a GM part number on the underside of the hood. Since they were press molded, original hoods are smooth on both sides.

SpeedRacer71

I will look for any type of number stamped on the bottom. I have my latches from my 71, but it sounds like they may not match up. Thank you.

gbvette62

68-69 latches are different from 70-76 hood latches, both the female parts on the hood and the male latches on the firewall. Not only are the latches different, but the location of the mounting holes for both pieces, are different. You can't easily mount your 71 latches to the 69 hood, or mount 69 latches to your firewall. You would need to change the nut plate installed in the hood, or relocate the mounting studs in the firewall.

I don't recall ever seeing a part number in a hood. Many original pieces of fiberglass did have a part number molded in, but many just had labels either glued on, or sometimes sealed under the fiberglass.

Besides being press molded (smooth on both sides), the other way to usually identify an original hood, is by the rivets that were used to attach the nut plates. Original hoods have rivets that are solid, while the rivets found in most repro hoods have a hole in the center. This is true through sometime in the late 70s, but by 1980, GM hoods were using rivets with a hole in them, also.

68/70Vette

The original hoods will have studs up front (bottom) at attach the insulation strip that went over the radiator frame. I suppose a repro hood could have them also, so the presence of studs, by themselves, will no be determinative.

SpeedRacer71

Wow, and here I thought I was looking at a simple swap...

Faster Rat

My original hood has the number 48262 as well as a date code and some other groups of numbers. They appear to be raised from the fiberglass, not stamped into it, and are located 3-4" from the windshield end of the hood, more to the driver's side. They read upside down when the hood is open.