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Fri Aug 23, 2019 4:11 pm

I need some help. Yesterday I hit someone while driving my sand rail, and need to try to find a new fiberglass hood. I tried to put the best pictures that gave some different views of it. Any help would be appreciated!

Fri Aug 23, 2019 6:49 pm

Hard to see much of the frame when still covered by the body. For instance beeline uses a distinct upper front beam mount. I can spot another from the next county.

Fri Aug 23, 2019 7:00 pm

Thanks for the input. I’ll try to see if I can take pictures of it with most of the body off.

Fri Aug 23, 2019 8:29 pm

I think it is a Berrian which is now ACME. Their catalog shows a hood that looks like it, so I would try there.

Fri Aug 23, 2019 8:30 pm

I think it is a Berrian which is now ACME. Their catalog shows a hood that looks like it, so I would try there.

acmecarco.com

Fri Aug 23, 2019 10:00 pm

Berrien's hood is similar. But I'm CERTAIN that the yellow fiberglass is Chenowth. You might do a search for who has the Chenowth molds now. Check the frame for a welded on serial number tag. I think the frame is also Chenowth.

Fri Aug 23, 2019 10:16 pm

dustymojave wrote: Berrien's hood is similar. But I'm CERTAIN that the yellow fiberglass is Chenowth. You might do a search for who has the Chenowth molds now. Check the frame for a welded on serial number tag. I think the frame is also Chenowth.

I think you’re right! Did a quick google search and found a Chenoweth with an identical hood! Now I just need to find out where to find one. Thank you!

Sun Aug 25, 2019 7:02 pm

Lynn Chenowth sold out to his son years ago. Rory started building long travel cars and sold off that business to Mike Handcock who closed it down. A spin off of their business was Chenowth racing who built the military buggies for awhile but all of those guys closed down many years ago. That is a Chenowth body for sure as I have had several of them. Might get lucky and find some one who has an old mold or vintage body laying around?

Sun Aug 25, 2019 7:22 pm

Metal Twister wrote: Lynn Chenowth sold out to his son years ago. Rory started building long travel cars and sold off that business to Mike Handcock who closed it down. A spin off of their business was Chenowth racing who built the military buggies for awhile but all of those guys closed down many years ago. That is a Chenowth body for sure as I have had several of them. Might get lucky and find some one who has an old mold or vintage body laying around?

Thanks for the info. Been doing some digging and possibly have a few leads on who I can contact. Someone sent me some catalog scans and I think I found the part number for it. I’m also going to talk to the local Beetle club owner and see if he can help. He saved my skin a few times before on identifying what year the parts were from.

Sun Aug 25, 2019 7:58 pm

How bad is it damaged... Fiberglass can be repaired....

Dale

Sun Aug 25, 2019 8:18 pm

The passenger side is pretty bad. The body shop it’s at right now said it would be tough to repair properly.

Sun Aug 25, 2019 8:35 pm

That doesn't really look that bad. The trick to fixing fiberglass, is to remove the stress that's holding it in the bashed up position as quick as possible. If it's in that position to long, it likes to stay in that position. Use strapping tape and super glue...yeah you read that right...to get it back to it's original shape and then add new fiberglass to the backside to make it permanent. I cracked a few boats in my younger years!! If you want to have somebody else fix it, find a body shop that specializes in Corvettes. A regular body shop works with plastic or metal but Corvettes are Fiberglass.

Mon Aug 26, 2019 7:36 am

Agree with Wulfthang .... I have repaired worse....

Get it off chassis and up onto some saw horses and get it setting straight.... Fiberglass is easy to work with just messy to layup and sand and get prepped for paint.... Any wood working tools (saws/files/screws/sandpaper) will work fiber glass I use all sorts of wood blocking and such to put back into shape, plastic wrap Styrofoam blocks and such to reinforce "shape" where glass is missing and once resin/cloth is applied and cured the blocking is removed...

Body shop did not what you job, because it was not a $20,000 corvette repair job....

We can talk you through it if necessary... Lots of really good information about fiber glass work on i-net...

Dale

Mon Aug 26, 2019 7:52 am

I went this morning and visited the shop. They won’t touch until insurance calls me back on what they will do. After talking with the body shop manager a bit, he had thought the passenger corner was missing a large chunk, and not just torn up a bit. He said after realizing that that the hood should be repairable. It just stinks waiting on insurance to even call me back about it all.

Mon Aug 26, 2019 8:06 am

Anybody that does fiberglass work can get that back into shape fairly easy if they wanted to do it? Busted up a lot of fiberglass parts over the years... that looks a lot worse than it is. All flat with a few tight radius. Take the insurance money and fix it yourself.

Mon Aug 26, 2019 10:18 am

Roachman9791 wrote: I went this morning and visited the shop. They won’t touch until insurance calls me back on what they will do. After talking with the body shop manager a bit, he had thought the passenger corner was missing a large chunk, and not just torn up a bit. He said after realizing that that the hood should be repairable. It just stinks waiting on insurance to even call me back about it all.

Don't be too surprised if insurance bails on you....

Dale

Mon Aug 26, 2019 10:55 am

We’ll see what happens. Just as long as they don’t seem it totaled.

Fri Aug 30, 2019 10:59 am

If they want to total it, walk away or let them total it and buy it back then repair it. I agree that the damage is not bad.

Someone tried to steal a rear wheel off my Baja a few years ago and apparently got scared off when the lugs were loose, but not off. When I got in the car and drove off, the wheel wobbled then fell off. The car's weight fell with the fender on top of the tire and tore the top of the fender all the way across. For a temporary repair until I had enough time to do a better repair to my daily driver, I used zip ties to stitch the fender together.

It cost me about $35 to do the 'glass repair. Not counting paint.

That hand with a brush is a young man who was living with us and I was teaching him how to repair fiberglass. He soon after that repaired the fiberglass front of his friend's Mitsubishi. He had learned pretty well.

Back in the 1980s, someone backed into my right rear fender at a gas station. In that situation, a chunk was broken off the bottom about 3" high and 10" long. To repair that, I sheet metal screwed a piece cut out of a plastic laundry detergent bottle to the outside of the fender so it gave the shape of the missing piece. Then I 'glassed from the inside. 3 layers. Once that was hard, I took out the screws and removed the plastic. It peeled right off the fiberglass. Then I 'glassed the outside 2 layers. Sanded, spot putty and prime. Nobody knows about that repair and it's without any problem. No cracking or anything 30 years later. I have no photos of that repair unfortunately, other than "after":

I've repaired a friend's 1-piece Baja front end that was WAY worse than your buggy hood. Missing several chunks, as big as 3" x 1'. Similar methods to the jobs described above. After (it's the navy blue one in the center):