'69 Camaro cowl hood GM vs Goodmark

[tom406]

Can anyone tell me the obvious signs of telling an original from the latest reproduction? How hard are originals to come by these days? I recently bought a regular '69 Camaro updated with SS parts and what looks to be an orignal over-the-counter GM cowl hood. It would involve buying a new hood and some paint work, but I could keep it if its worth all the trouble. If everyone is accepting the latest Goodmarks as good enough, I won't bother. Thanks for the input.

[Rat_Pack]

Tom, unless you have to have a GM hood buy the new release from Goodmark. They have done a major retool of this part in the past year or so and it looks great. It even weighs the same as an original GM hood. There was only one difference and that was at the front of the hood lip where the outer skin is attached to the innner structure. You will have to trim an 1/8" of excess metal about 4" long at the bottom of the lip at the center of the hood. It is no big deal and they may have already fixed this recently. This is the excess material used to hold the outer skin in the tooling until the inner structure is welded in place. Sometimes they forget to trim this off and it usually doesn't get noticed until it reaches the consumer.

Make sure whomever you buy the hood from sells you the new hood or go straight to Goodmark and order their part number 4020-200-691. Make sure the last digit is 1 as if you leave it off then it will be the old hood. They now have a decklid for the 67-69's that fits like a dream. It has the inner structure of the 68 - early 69 which does not contain the four extra holes that were used for the Trans Am spoiler in 69. There are some differences in the old piece of scrap metal they used to sell and the easiest way to tell is that new design will come with the striker already bolted in place. The old lid did not include the striker and was also lighter in weight. The new part number is 4020-700-671, again make sure the last digit is 1.....................RatPack...........

[tom406]

Exactly the info I needed RatPack, thanks much.

[Jeff H]

How about the inner fenders for a 69, are they close to the original GM inners? My driver's side is fine, but the passenger side suffered from battery acid and it would be easier to replace. It's not real bad, but on a top notch car I want it done right.

[Rat_Pack]

Jeff, I haven't had a chance to use the inner fenders but from what I have been told by a friend that just used a pair, they fit just fine and look almost identicle to the GM's, just that some of the small dimples are not a defined as the originals. I have a set of the 67-68 inner fenders here and they look good. The only thing I see that has to be done for this car is to drill the holes for the bellcrank rod to run through as this car is an RS. You have to do that on the GM inner fenders also for both 68 and the 69's if you find them as they only serviced that part for base models...............RatPack...............