I need to replace the front end on my 69. It was damaged before I bought the car and bubba did a good job of trapping air in the repair and using a lot of bondo.

I was looking to see who bought a new front clip from what manufacturer and if they were happy with it or not. I am not looking for one with the seams. Just a good quality hand laid up part. I was told to buy one with the lower valance bonded in.

Thanks,

 

I have purchased front end in both sytles of fiberglass. The factory press molded designed fiberglass and aslo the hand laid fiberglass. The press molded is the best way to go because of the process in manufacturing is much better than hand laid. But I have for many years installed hand laid front ends and rear clips. I have used Ecklers,American Custom Industries, Vanacors, American sports car design and so on. To me they are all about the same. I prefer American Custom Industries parts. But be aware that it all depends on who is manufacturing the part and if their quality control is on the ball. Excessive gelcoat and air pockets in tight angles of the part are something that you will have to deal with. It comes with having a handlaid part. No saying all handlaid fiberglass have these problems. It is like I wrote, "it all depends on who is manufacturing the part". And by that I mean the employee who is the hands on person. Some times I even hand lay more fiberglass to stregthen it up even more because the manufacturers are seeming to cost costs by reducing the amount of fiberglass layers used, or the gelcoat is very thin. Also remember that the car that they pulled their master mold off of is probably the only one truely like it. Due to the multiple pieces of fiberglass, and the inconsistancies during factory assembly, the front end you buy may fit fine. Or may require much modifying on the firewall area to get it to fit correctly. The amount of money you save by buying a complete front end, you will more than likely trade off in your TIME to get it to fit correctly. Pay very careful attention to installing your front inner skirts. They set teh position of your hood for proper fit. Ther are so many tricks to doing this, if you want to. Call Me. (704) 394-5150 EST GMC "DUB"

 

Thank you for all the good advise,. I have dealt with several fiberglass shops in the past but on racing parts. I know that when it comes to quality, there will always be that one off bad part from time to time. In my experience, if you find a good supplier, you have a better chance of not seeing that bad part. I only wish my racing part supplier made corvette replacement parts.

 

American Custom Industries 'ACI' is pretty good when it comes to their hand laid glass parts.

 

That is all we use when it comes to hand laid glass.

IMHO, overall the better choice for consistantly good parts.

 

How bad is the existing front end? If its not totaly trashed, it may
be less to fix the one you have. Fiberglass is realy all not that hard to fix if your doing it yourself.

 

beat me to it.

 

The area is above both front wheels and is from hood to bonding strip about 2 feet front to rear. It would require the entire area to be ground out and re-glassed. I could always put on a surround, but with the amount time to do that it might make more sense to replace the whole front. I already have the old front off the car.

 

I really wanted to fix (and keep) the front end on my 68 L36 Roadster. It had been repaired many times in the past, all done wrong. I knew a replacement 1 piece front end would de-value the car. But the cost to repair the original front end was prohibitive, so I did an ACI. It is a great piece, but requires modification to fit each car. I spent $8K to have the car painted including the ACI door-to-door front end. How much do you ultimately want to spend will determine the route you choose.

 

I am not that concerned about de-valuing my car. It was a basket case (did not have original engine or trans.) when I bought it and i did a body off restoration with the addition of a T-56. I plan on keeping this car until I die.

This is were I am today:
Ecklers front end with lower valance: $1,147.50 today only price + Shipping to Mich. $110.00
ACI front with no lower valance: $1,380 after tax. plus 3 hour round trip in gas

I would be picking up the ACI part so I will see what it looks like at time of purchase. But it does not come with the lower valance and costs more. I do have the lower valance from my original that I can remove.

 

Thank you for the support!

If you order our part you will definitely be satisfied with the quality.

 

If its cracks, fix the one you have. Ecklers has a good fiberglass repair book thats very usefull. I repaired my 71 having never done it before, and it came out good.