68 Paint Question

[Banzainj]

Is there a way to tell if a 68 fiberglass hood was painted at the factory?
I am trying to make an educated guess if the hood on my car is factory original or an early replacement (would have been replaced before 1973)
Many Thanks in advance for any input

[Coralsnake]

Well there probably is... a little more information might be helpful. What car number is it and do you have any photos?

I think you have a KR so the bottom side would be most important

Do you have the blackout decals facing the windshield?

What does the area around the hood pin plates look like? Are they riveted down?

[Banzainj]

I have attached the only picture of the hood that I currently have access to.
I was just curious if there is any way from looking at the paint job to tell if it was done at the factory.
I assume that an OEM hood (Pre 1973) would have come primed only.

Any thoughts on if this is a factory painted hood would be greatly appreciated.

[Coralsnake]

There is no way to tell from that picture. A replacement hood would have been grey primer on the top surfaces.

As stated earlier, you may be able to identify who and when the hood was painted, but its going to take better pictures.

Pictures of the ram air chamber would be a good start. The hood appears to be a different shade from the headlight bucket, but that doesn't mean anything.

I guess I am not understanding why this important if it was changed out before 1973
With a factory replacement?

If you tell us the Shelby number of the car, there could be warranty work that was done showing a new hood.

[Banzainj]

I am just trying to make some "educated" guesses about the history of my car from around 1971 to 1973.
If there is no way to tell just by looking at the paint then the origin of the hood will remain a part that I can not figure out (along with several other parts). Note:  I am pretty sure it is not the factory hood, but I did not want to influence any answers with "too much" information.

So - Any guesses why someone would change the hood out to drag race it?
I think it was drag raced based on the following:
Power steering completely removed.
Tow bar Brackets on frame
Under Hood A/C completely removed
Gears changed to 3:91
Heads ported and polished

[Coralsnake]

Sure maybe they wanted a big honking hood scoop or cut a hole in the original. In 1973, the car wasnt worth a whole lot. A lot of the cars have drag racing and road racing histories.

[shelbydoug]

I got my car in '72. It got stripped down for paint in '73.

What I found on my car was that all of the fiberglass had been painted with straight enamel paint, directly to the fiberglass with no primer used at all.

The car was low mileage at the time and had originally been a Hertz NY, NY car.

It had the "decals" on the hood in the indents.


There had been some touching up on the hood in the "nostrils" and on the lower nose with enamel but that is all that showed on the car. There had been no repairs showing other then that and there was no reason to suspect there ever had been and that the paint was original.

Whether or not that is consistent with other '68s, I can not verify. I have only stripped the paint off of one. Mine. -01107.


Opinions being what they are, just opinions, right or wrong, I would expect all original '68s to have been painted this way without primer on the fiberglass. The original fiberglass looks pink bare with just a hard epoxy like finish to it.

I do not know how service parts were delivered but it should be noted that Ford Service Parts often vary considerably cosmetically from production line originals.


You should consider that IO Smith was THE innovator in automotive fiberglass production at the time and that this was likely one of their innovations, i.e., no need for a primer?


How important is all this to you in that it is even unlikely that anyone is going to attempt to use the original paint procedure on "restoring" the car now?

Lots of cars have "interesting histories". Many having been heavily raced with little documentation and many have been back from the dead. Some are bigger challenges then others but that's part of their stories and "color". 

[Coralsnake]

Here are pictures of an original hood with some paint stripped off, you can see the gray primer.

The NOS parts are also gray primer

http://www.thecoralsnake.com/FRP

[Banzainj]

Not that important - more of a curiosity thing.  I just figured if an easy answer existed ( I should know better with a Shelby) that would be one more thing that I knew about the car.  By the way - The hood does have primer under the blue paint (just like all the other fiberglass parts on the car).

[shelbydoug]

I, me, would question the originality of a car, a '68, that showed primer under ALL of the fiberglass.

It is one thing to have had an original genuine '68 Shelby completely rebuilt during it's previously unknown history, but I...me, would look further into whether it is a some type of a clone.

Only the Service fiberglass in 68 was primed. So what would be the reason the car could have all replacement fiberglass on it?


It is a past discussion about where certain, "stolen and never recovered" cars disappeared to BUT for a long time "State Police" would visit drag strips looking for cars.

So many "newbee's" visit here looking for thoughts on how to spot a "counterfeit". Granted these are "straws" being grasped at, but I'd consider a straw like this if a car came up.

Again, just me. Others here will disagree. Easy for them. It isn't their money at risk. 

[Banzainj]

I assume that you know that the cars where not worth much between 1971 and 1973, and that making a full fledged clone at that time (matching numbers and all) would have cost a LOT more than the car would be worth for many more years.

[shelbydoug]

I assume that you know that the cars where not worth much between 1971 and 1973, and that making a full fledged clone at that time (matching numbers and all) would have cost a LOT more than the car would be worth for many more years.

You assume correctly about low values but you are presuming that it was done back then and not of more recent times?

I saw several 68 cars "restored" at Jack Jahoda's American Auto Body in Spring Valley. It was common to spend about $3,500 for soup to nuts.

That was the early '70s. SOA days before SAAC existed and certainly before the thought of a SAAC Registry existed and what these funny looking tags pop-riveted to the cars meant.

[Banzainj]

I am not assuming - I have had the car since 1979 and know the history of the car back to 1973.

[shelbydoug]

I am not assuming - I have had the car since 1979 and know the history of the car back to 1973.

Congratulations. I own mine since 1972 and was the first SAAC 68 Registrar.

[Banzainj]

If we are just going to toss random information out there - I also have the original build sheet and a Marti report