Fulton 1

Hi All,
Just picked up a nice, low-mileage 2011 one-owner ZR1 about a month ago. The car came with a small amount of clear bra on the front, forward portion of the hood, and fenders. There were a couple of flaws in the film and I wanted to add some additional coverage. Unfortunately, when my installer pulled off the old film we found where the original installer had cut the paint while cutting the film. So we have a nice cut line in the paint running right across the hood. It’s too deep to just buff out and it’s visible enough that I don’t want to leave it.

So, with that said, we’ve opted to just re-paint the hood. Or at least that was the plan before we realized that the polycarbonate window is actually bonded in. I’m using a highly-recommended local body shop, but they have not re-painted a ZR1 hood. The owner does not feel comfortable painting the hood without first removing the window. He feels paint will pool in those areas and look bad when the tape is removed if the window is left in and just taped off, which makes sense to me.

I’ve read the procedure for “cutting out” the center window from the hood as detailed in the Helm’s manual, but am still nervous about the process. The procedure indicates that the window seal will need to be replaced, but doesn't mention whether the window itself must be or whether it can be salvaged.

Has anybody had their ZR1 hood re-painted that could offer some advice or lessons-learned? Is removal of the window a big deal if done by a competent shop? Any advice or experience would be greatly appreciated. I'm not 100% sure what we're getting into here and the last thing we want to do is risk damaging this hood.

pcguy2u

At least a couple of threads on this and as I recall, the windows were salvaged. One owner replaced his window with a vent.

jeolesen

I replaced my window with a hood vent.

Here is the how-to remove the window:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...dow-out-8.html