I was wondering if there was anyone in the Central Florida area near to Clermont or thereabouts. I need some help installing and properly fitting my fiberglass hood onto my car, trimming it properly and what such. If anyone is able to help or has any suggestions, please let me know.

Can advise you from here. Tapethe top of your fenders & nose with blue or green masking tape to start for protection. Your stock hood springs need to be pulled off& possibly replaced with lighter springs. What mfg of hood & true bolt on or pin on? Start by attaching 4 hinge bolts lightly snugged. should have room in slots to go side toside & forwards & backwards.Lightly close hood to see where you,re at. I,d probablylook atside toside gap at rear of hood first. lightly tap hinges over in needed direction a little at a time to center. Then look at side to sideon front of hood. whichever side is tight, move that side forwards or other side rearwards. When that is closer. move both sides evenly forwards or backwards as needed. Depending how bad it looks when you start, you may need to first jump ahead in the order of adjusting I suggested..Sometimes fenders may need to be adjusted also. These are basic starting instructions.

Thanks for the input, Joe. However, I've more or less done what you advised already to the best of my abilities. Could use a little adjustment I suppose, and I'll give it a shot again to try and get as close to perfect as I can. I've got the springs and pins for it as well. In the instructions included with the hood, however, it states that the hoods are made with excess on the sides and need to be trimmed to achieve a proper fit. This is what I was hoping to get some help with, as I'm nervous about taking too much off and screwing myself altogether :poke:

Hey Punkrican,

Once the hood is trimmed enough to actually close and it is square in the opening (fully adjusted) mark the desired edge line with masking tape or mark it with a sharpie and a long straight edge. Make the line 3/16" to 1/4" from the inner fender edge and sand to the line as evenly as possible.

I have found that either a long board with heavy grit (60 grit or so) or a hand-held belt sander (usually used in woodworking) takes the edges down evenly. The belt sander will take the edge down fast, so you have to move back and forth quickly.

Most important thing is to take your time and only take a little off, test close and then take some more off. If you go too far, the edges or low-spots can be filled with corvette body panel bonding glue - it mixes like Bondo but dries much harder and will not chip off as easily as Bondo.

after you have the hood lined up, i would pay attention to the front end gap going on and the rear ( being as how it already states that you have to trim the sides to fit) then tape out the side edges, (try to use one piece of tape so you keep a straight edge,) then just sand of a lil bit at a time, if you were to "trim" it with some kind of cutter it could get outta control really fast. just take your time, sand a lil, test fit, sand, fit,... etc when i did my dash kit i had to "trim" the glovebox door to make it fit i must have gone back and forth between work bench and car at least 8 times to make it fit, but it turned out really good and looks completely stock. good luck! :yell:

Thanks for the tips guys, I'll get at it this weekend, as I have to go do some research tomorrow rather than being useless as per my usual routine.

I think you might know more than you think you do, it,s part of being critical. If you need to fine tune your adjustment, put a strip of masking tape on the side & front of your hinges to hood. Press in tightly, index mark, & slit tape. Now you can better see the amount you're moving it. If you don,t already have the needed sandpaper, buy a 3 by 24 belt sander belt, 80 grit for your block sanding. A stiff STRAIGHT piece of hardwood approx 18" long is a good size for your project, should find oak or maple at a homestore of you don,t have something already. `Lucky me , I build & install doors & millwork for a living. Most fiberglass hoods tend to taper out downwards from the top for mold release purposes. This can cause the flange bottom to scuff fenders under motion while having a gap up top. Sand flanges straight or even slightly tapered inwards. I,m sure you,ll be running hood unpainted for a while, This lovely weather is actually good for letting the hood cure before paint. I think you,ll do ok, remember fiberglass is very fixeable. Mine came apart onI-95 the beginning of last year, look at it now> http://i1094.photobucket.com/albums/i450/jlcustomz1/DSC00417.jpg