Thread: fiberglass frontend

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well, I'm building a 1974 nova for drag racing and I was wanting to know what's involved in mounting a one piece fiberglass front end?

Just bolt the fenders and hood on in place of the originals...Unless you're going to a one piece, then you have to decide whether it's going to be a lift off or a tilt. There are some kits available to mount the one piece fronts, but it's not real difficult to fab up your own hinges and reinforcement....Which kind are you getting??

On a one piece front end most guys use dzus (never did know how to pronounce that word Kinda like the term au jus ) fasteners, also called quarter turn fasteners..........or sometimes hood pins. You mount a few spread around the one piece assembly so that when you pull the pins or turn the fastener they release. If you want it to flip up, like Dave said you either make hinges or buy a kit and adapt it.

Don

sorry it took so long to reply. I was going to get a one piece from VFNFIBERGLASS. I don't need it to tilt, I was wondering if the piece is stong enough to span from the firewall to the core support or do I need to reinfoce it? and can you mount it like you would normal fenders. just use the same holes in the core support and car?

If the piece isn't strong enough to span that length I wouldn't buy it, so no you shouldn't have to reinforce it , if your a fan of over kill x3 then ya, by all means slap some straps in it and slather them over . but most of the ones I've delt with have been plenty thick but i've never delt w/this company .

and yes you can just bolt it to the same holes "if that's what your asking ? " there should be a few that will lay where you can get to them . but do you want to crawl under there every time to pull it off ? or is the whole point to make it look stock w/no showing pins ?

your not bolting it up are you ? that would suck to take all of them out when you need in there ?

hope that helps
T L

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

On a one piece front end most guys use dzus (never did know how to pronounce that word Kinda like the term au jus ) fasteners, also called quarter turn fasteners..........or sometimes hood pins. You mount a few spread around the one piece assembly so that when you pull the pins or turn the fastener they release. If you want it to flip up, like Dave said you either make hinges or buy a kit and adapt it.

Don

Don,

Not that this has much to do with the actual topic, and I am by no means trying to tell anybody how to pronounce the word, it is really just more of a realization on my part that I, and a lot of my colleagues, very well may have been pronouncing that word wrong for a long, long time now.

I'm not sure that it is the end all be all, true and correct pronunciation of the word; but, in the aviation world, we've always pronounced dzus as "zeus" (like the Greek God). I'm curious as to how you guys pronounce it.

Sorry not trying to Hijack the thread or anything, it's just one of those things that you never really think about it, and then when someone brings it up, you have to really think to yourself, "yeah, you know what, he's right, how is it actually pronounced?"

Cheers,
Dutch

Firechicken---Up here in the great white north, its promounced "Zoose"--rymes with "Bruce"---

I don't know how I'm going to mount it. I don't care about a stock look, so how else would you mount it? pictures would help if anyone has some.

I don't have any pix for ya so I had to go look around.
http://www.autofab.com/hoodpins.htm if you look at the last two pix you should get the idea, might be able to build your own , I don't know if your a kit guy or not, so good luck.
I've seen some that look like there is a giant dead spider laying under the engine w/ all 8 legs sticking straight up and out 4 should be plenty but some have more.

just SeaRch for hood pins , because no one else knows what to call them either .

Only thing I can tell you is the easier it is to get to the pull pins now the more you'll like it later & make sure they are spring loaded for stress to the one piece (and the spring will keep the slip pin tight ) and ease of removal later. maybe some one else has better pix handy .
Or a fancier way i haven't seen ?

Have seen where some of the guys rig small funnels on the underside to make install much quicker , you know bigger hole less time trying to get it in, then you get it close and she slips right on.




T L

http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/store...46061_-1_11969

http://www.miata.net/products/pmisc/...hood_pins.html

T L