I am in the last fitment stage on my panel. Thought I worked the hood out pretty good. Installed the flip hood option and it showed my hood has a flat spot in the top. Going to work on that and see what I can do before I go another route. Not to sure about the used hood route but it is an option.
So the reason for my post is on seeing what others have found on the new repop hoods offered by Mid-fifties and others. Who seems to sell the better, are there fitment issues and overall quality?

 

I'm pretty sure all of the new metal hoods are made in the same Taiwanese factory. So, you might as well shop for price and availability of a local pick-up to save on shipping and having to fight the shipper over the damaged hood when they drop it at your door-step. The problem with old hoods is that virtually all of them will have severe rust going across the front edge.

 

I had terrible luck with an aftermarket hood. It was a Blue Oval, which is the same hood everyone sells. The hinge bracket was off by a quarter inch on one side and had an flat spot on edge closest to the cowl. I also had fender to hood gap issues. It was almost like the hood had too much bow.

I fought it for a month and finally gave up.

I was very fortunate to find a near perfect 56 hood at the Carlisle All Truck Nationals.
It wasn't cheap but fit nearly perfect.





Others have had no issues. Maybe I just got a bad one but comparing it to original steel really showed the difference in quality.