Hood repair - freon damaged area

[Kent K.]

Arrangements were established, so I thought, long ago to purchase an original early '69 BB hood after the present owner had fit his car with a reproduction piece. He had problems getting the male catches to fit. Now, he's decided to keep his original hood, cut out the freon damaged area and replace it with new fiberglass so paint will not bubble in that spot. Before he cuts it and if he reverts to sell it, he'll keep me in mind.

In the meantime, if the only original hood I can find has the freon splatter problem, is there some method to dry it out? Could it ever be refinished so the bubbles would not reappear?

Still looking for an early '69 hood.

Kent #6201

[Dick W.]

Re: Hood repair - freon damaged area

Kent, I do not know of any way to get the oil out of the fiberglass, but hoods should be available at major swap meets. Use your free ad in the NCRS DRIVELINE to find one.

[Len Rayca]

Re: Hood repair - freon damaged area

Dick: Would applications of laquer thinner to the freon spot possibly remove the oil residue?

[Dick W.]

Re: Hood repair - freon damaged area

I would have to think that the compressor oil would have penetrated the glass fibers. I do not believe that there would be any way to remove all the oil residue.

[Chuck S.]

Re: Hood repair - freon damaged area

Kent, one of the examples in Eckler's fiberglass repair book is to replace a 13"-14" round hole some maroon cut in a 67 big block hood for air cleaner clearance. If they can do that and make it look right, surely this oil problem can be fixed in a similar fashion. The only difference is you don't presently have a hole cut in your hood, and I wouldn't start this repair by cutting one.

Assuming the oil trace is long and relatively narrow, I believe I would try taper grinding the fiber glass nearly through in the oil-soaked area on the underside, and rebuild it with mat and resin. Then after letting it cure, grind the top surface down into the new fiberglass (important to insure bonding), and repeat the process. Build each surface above contour, and then carefully block sand it back down to contour using a long board or hard rubber block as much as possible; you may be able to get by without filler if you work slowly and patiently. I would try repair before I bought another hood, but that's just me.

Success with lacquer thinner washing will depend on the oil not being too deep; I think it will be successful when the oil is right on the surface, but when it penetrates all the way through from the other side, that kind of eliminates "not being too deep" as a possibility. As for trying gelcoat, epoxy primers, etc. to seal the oil...my gut feel is that it won't work long term; if the oil penetrated 0.100" of FRP, 3-5 mils of coating isn't going to stop it either.

[Kent K.]

Re: Hood repair - freon damaged area

Chuck,

Thanks for your suggestions. The problem is there is a hole cut in my original '69 427/435 one (previous) owner hood and an L-88 bulge was added to clear an L-88 intake and carburetor set-up. The car was raced in it's hey day and the 4 bbl carb gave it more instant response than the 3 deuces. I was simply asking about the A/C oil removal or cover-up because some 427 hoods are from A/C cars and have the paint blister/bubble problem.

My '67 is an original, undamaged, A/C car. During it's restoration, we left the body in euro primer for a solid year of curing prior to painting with lacquer thus avoiding typical paint problems resulting from silicone waxes, armorall and freon oils.

I was hoping that when I find an original early '69 427 hood as a suitable replacement, there would be a method to avoid potential paint problems.

Thanks, Kent #6201

[Chuck S.]

Re: Hood repair - freon damaged area

Hmmmm...Now, I'm confused.

If "...we left the body in euro primer for a solid year of curing prior to painting with lacquer thus avoiding typical paint problems resulting from silicone waxes, armorall and freon oils." is the answer, then what is the question? Are you seeking a way to reduce the one-year cure time?

I have no experience with freon oil problems (yet); if there is a quick way to seal the freon oil into the fiberglass with paint, I frankly haven't heard about it. Logic tells me to be skeptical about success using any kind of paint, but you said the euro primer works...perhaps you can shorten the cure time. Maybe some of the painters will contribute here.

But, I'm a hammer kind of guy...guaranteed success will derive from simply grinding such a problem out and replacing it with new fiberglass, rather than fooling around hoping you won't have to repaint the hood. I plan to do nothing special to my AC small block hood; there was no evidence of excessive leakage from the compressor seal, or any visible problems with the old paint.

[Chuck S.]

P.S.

Kent, I have another idea...strip the blackout off the bottom of that hood and ship it down to me. I'll leave that sucker lay out in my back yard in the desert sun for a couple of months. I'm pretty sure that will do the trick.

This is the only place I have ever lived where oil stains can not survive in my driveway. Make a little booboo changing the oil...no problema, just swipe it with a little mineral spirits. In a week or so, no stain...like it never happened. I suppose the sun cooks the oil, and the low humidity just sucks the moisture (oil) right out of the concrete.